Headphones need to be set to speakers

[AnthonyL]

Running (K)Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on HP Elitebook 8440p dual boot with Win10. PulseAudio, everything installed via Discover.

Play audio with nothing connected - sound through internal speakers - ok

Plug headphone in, all software shows the headphones are now connected - no sound at all

Change output from Headphone to Speaker and I get sound in the headphones as desired.

Unplug or reboot and have to repeat process.

This is a consistent anomaly that after 12+ months of working ok has just manifested itself in the past few weeks and first notices on a Zoom session when I couldn't hear anybody. The last Zoom session was fine once I forced headphone=speaker.

There has to be a configuration system file that has a stuck/corrupt setting and help would be much appreciated.

Please refer to the thread at

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...48#post6133848

which contains extensive details and outputs of tests carried out, unfortunately with no resolution but the suggestion to post here.

Thank you.

[GreyGeek]

Is your machine an HP?

If so, you might try this:
https://digitizor.com/fix-headphone-...-laptop-linux/


Someone in reddit made this comment:

leonardodag
3 years ago
I did that once with acpid. I'm not sure if every notebook does that, but mine sent an ACPI event whenever I plugged or unplugged my headphones. So when I got the unplug one, I ran amixer set Master mute (IIRC) on acpid's script, and amixer set Master unmute on the unplug one.

[AnthonyL]

Yes, HP as stated. It is not one of the models stated and the problem is somewhat different and has only recently arisen so it used to work.

I don't get any sound at all when I plug the headphones in. I go into Audio settings or click on the Speaker icon and change the Output device/Port from the newly detected Headphone back to Speaker. The sound then comes out of the headphone. This is quite easy to do it is just plain wrong that it needs to be done.

[jlittle]

... it is just plain wrong that it needs to be done.

Making it plain I agree...

I expect there's a pulse audio command using pa_ctl that would change the setting. You could add a menu item for the command, then add it to the panel, or assign a shortcut.

[AnthonyL]

I have just inserted my 1Tb drive that I was using before upgrading to 2Tb. The sound booted up with that drive, approximately March 2020, works perfectly and as expected.

How now to proceed to diagnose? Can I just copy a bunch of files over?

[AnthonyL]

Is there a better place to post this topic?

I have shown that an earlier 18.04 works. Last night I tried an update to 20.04 which after many hours and not sure whether it had completed or not gave me a half and half - ie new desktop, new sound controls which took away the ability to switch speaker output to headphone.

How do I get this feedback to the appropriate people? Or am I back to Windows?