no sound through headphones

English Hardware
1

This is about Machine # 1 [signature] with an Xonar Essence STX sound card installed. [No pulse Audio]

I get sound through my speakers, but no sound through my head phones. Have tried the conection through the sound card and through the front panel.

In searching to find a solution I found this post:
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/506533-No-sound-from-speakers-or-headphone-port
and ran this:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

and the results are here:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=25be6dcf41b382b2949fe7444bdcd54807e34c47

I read also, that the headphones must be turned on, but because I cannot install the Asus software for the sound card tried unsuccessfully through WINE], I don’t know how else to do it.
Does anyone else have any experiences, with these isssues, that can help me?

Is there some additional setup to be done that I can do?
Thanks.

2

Why not Pulse audio it allows you to redirect the streams to the output of your choice.

3

I have Pulse uninstalled, as it has given me problems in the past. However, I have not tried it in 13.2.
Should I just reinstall it? Is there a guide to set Pulse up?
I am sorry, but how would I redirect the streams?
I’ll do some googling, but any info you can share would be welcome.
Thanks

4

pavolcontrol is used to fine control things.

Did you uninstall pulse??

In the Yast audio section you can tell to run pules or not

5

Installing pulse audio will not likely help you here as that script clearly shows that your headphones are not selected at aIsa driver level.

You need to select them.

You can likely do this with a custom amixer command.

I am currently on vacation replying with a tablet and not able to give you such a command. Possibly in 4 or 5 days time when I am back home I can do such.

6

ty both for replying.

gogalthorp - “Did you uninstall pulse??”

  Yes I did.  At the time of install.  And then I found I could disable it through YAST.

So last night I installed Pulse Audio, but maybe not knowing much about using it, I really messed it up and lost the sound completely. I mucked aboutjust tried to install/uninstall the Virtuoso in YAST] trying to get sound back and the only way I could get sound was to physically uninstall the card and reinstitute the onboard sound. The onboard sound kicked in no problem, so then I reinstalled the Xonar and the sound was OK, but still no headphone sound. I went into “Configure Desktop>Multimedia>Audio” to look at the list of audio cards, but when I clicked on one and clicked on the test button I lost the sound again. I checked in YAST >Sound and it was still configured, but testing it there produced no sound either. Went through the process of uninstall/reinstall again and rebooted and checked YAST >Sound and there are now 2 Virtuoso’s listed, one configured and one not configured, but the sound is working. Anyway it does seem that things are rather unstable in the sound department. I have disabled Pulse again. Any suggestions as to what I could do to stabilize the sound?

oldcpu -You need to select them. [headphones] You can likely do this with a custom amixer command

I googled amixer and found the man page for it at die.net, so in the next little while I will try to see what I can do with that. When you do get back, I would appreciate the information if you can.

7

Did you try pavolcontrol. you do have to install it. It allows you to change the sources and outputs

I have found that sometimes the order of the cards in Yast can make a difference change the default card sometime works

Also you may have an HDMI connection which is generally provided by the video card.

Is the quualty of the sound that much better with the Xonar card?? I have found that the sound from the chip on my mother board is very adequate.

8

I will install it and check it out.

Since I have deleted the onboard card from YAST, there is only one card listed, but I did set it as Primary. Also when I try to change the order of the cards in START>CONFIGURE DESKTOP>MULTIMEDIA, I cannot get a test sound and this is where , if I click on a sound card, it messes up the sound. It never worked like that before and this is what I mean when I call it unstable.

The Front Panel has a HD or an AC97 connector that is connected to the card and I believe HD is selected in the UEFI bios. Is that what you mean?

It is my husband who is the music man and although the on board sound is certainly adequate, there is a LARGE noticeable difference when listening to sound through the Xonar. Even to my untrained ears the sound is clear, precise, cleaner and more full sounding. When going back to listen to the onboard, it sounds muted/muffled. Having said that, it works both ways, as in, if you have a bad recording it emphasizes that as well, where the onboard, somehow dampens a bad recording a bit. But the other part of course is having a good output system. [YAWN] I could go on, but it is not really my field.

9

Previous, this link was provided:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=25be6dcf41b382b2949fe7444bdcd54807e34c47

which had this inside:


Simple mixer control 'Analog Output',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Speakers' 'Headphones' 'FP Headphones'
  Item0: 'Speakers'

Where clearly the Speakers are selected and neither ‘Headphones’ nor ‘FP Headphones’ are selected. I do not have your hardware so I can not say what the difference is between ‘Headphones’ and ‘FP Headphones’, but since you have the hardware, I assume you can explain that difference.

I am also assuming that your messing about with the computer to fix this (while waiting for me to reply) did not change the configuration. If it did, then what I am about to give may be completely wrong, and you may need to run that diagnostic script once again to provide UP-TO-DATE (and not stale) information as to your PC’s audio configuration.

Anyway … assuming nothing has changed …

To switch from Speakers to ‘Headphones’ try the following command in a konsole/xterm:


amixer -c0 sset 'Analog Output' Headphones

Note I may have the syntax wrong (as I am guessing here). So please advise EXACTLY what error (if any) you get when sending that command.

If instead you use the ‘FP Headphones’ then try this command:


amixer -c0 sset 'Analog Output' 'FP Headphones'

and again I am guessing as to the syntax and may have it wrong, in which case please advise as to EXACTLY what error you get if any.

Finally, if the switch to the headphones worked, to switch back to speakers send this command:


amixer -c0 sset 'Analog Output' Speakers

Good luck and let me know what sort of alsa errors you get when you try the amixer commands

10

“FP” means Front Panel.

Thank You oldcpu, I will try this and let you know how it worked.

I find sometimes when I look at a file [such as the results of]:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

, I am overwhelmed by the “complicated” look of the information. I now see it is only simple info re: sound and while I may not know what all of it means, I now understand some.
For instance: I see this:

Playback channels: Mono
through out the file. Does it mean I am only putting out sound in MONOTONE? Would I change that to Stereo, using amixer commands? Or should I leave ‘well enough’ alone?

11

I do not have your hardware.

My laptop PC only has that for IEC958 which I do not use. My analog does not have that. I do not know what it means/does on your PC. All I see is an ON/OFF option for your PC, so that should give you some clue as to what it means, if you play with it a bit.