[PLASMA 5] Audio Headphone profile is faulty

[abury]

cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
               HDA Intel PCH at 0xd1228000 irq 136
1 [C525           ]: USB-Audio - HD Webcam C525
               HD Webcam C525 at usb-0000:00:14.0-2, high speed

Following an upgrade to 20.04, when headphones are used, either on the laptop or the HDMI device...
only snap-n-pop sounds are produced!
seems that there is a headphone device problem on the Analog Stereo audio profile

The audio speaker profiles for HDMI (without headphones of course) and the laptop [Dell Inspiron 15-3567] speakers all work as expected
I worked thru a few "solutions" but they did not resolve this particular case
also noted the same audio problem on Xubuntu and Lubuntu (20.04)
however, a fresh install of Ubuntu 20.04 worked as expected and then some!
(When the headphone is plugged, a nice options dialog pops up
the KDE devs should review the Gnome way of doing this particular action)

Which leads me conclude, that this might not be a kernel problem, as some have posted
rather Gnome has got something working whereas other flavors have created a problem somewhere
So, my simple solution on Kubuntu--until this is ever fixed--is to use my headphones via bluetooth...
and that works as expected!

[kyonides]

Sometimes headphones are faulty and by inserting them completely, the jack doesn't recognize it. If you slightly plug it off, just an insignificant bit, they start working. Probably that'd be caused by some hardware issue in the jack itself or the metal portion of your headphones plug if they got partially demagnetized. Does it happen with ANY headphones as well?

I know, you might tell me now that another OS or install recognized it, but who knows? XD

Those strange sounds you mentioned seemed to be the indicator that electricity is running through the headphones but not audio. Have you also checked your headphones aren't muted?
Usually on a newly installed Kubuntu you got a speaker icon telling you if audio is enabled or not. Can you even see any indicator telling you it's either enabled or disabled? By clicking on that speaker you should be able to open a small panel. Does it show any audio related stuff at all?

[abury]

I know, you might tell me now that another OS or install recognized it, but who knows? XD

Exactly!

And that was implied by saying that on the same laptop--on separate partitions--various flavors work while others don't
On the same device, only with Kubuntu 19.10 and Ubuntu 20.04 do the headphones work as expected
On Kubuntu 20.04 (as well as Xubuntu and Lubuntu)...
- put headphone in, the speaker icon shows as enabled but it only makes static noise (and no they're not muted)
- pull headphone out, speaker dialog automatically goes to laptop speaker... and that works as expected

[kyonides]

Well, it's curious because it does work on a desktop with K20. Just a few moments ago I was watching some anime series. XD
Uninstalling and reinstalling stuff like pulseaudio helps you even a little bit? :S There's also a possibility its an issue that only takes place if you're using a laptop...
I hope your install isn't setting the device profile of its Built in Audio to off by default... (The one you may find in the advanced tab of the Configure Audio Volume window.)

[abury]

Thanks @kyonides

If most K20 installations are working... then it seems to be this release specific to this laptop
BTW redoing a fresh pulseaudio installation didn't change the status
and no... the profile doesn't go to Off by default (ie. there's no dummy output)
but when I select that... the static noise totally stops

Again, it is just weird that headphones work as they should in K19

For a few days now I've been using that bluetooth solution but I think after this post, I'm going to to revert to my K19 install and then keep this K20 partition and periodically update it to see if the headphones ever work again...

[abury]

Mmm... so as I said before, with default Ubuntu (Gnome) the headphone jack works as expected
I wanted to see how KDE would affect that desktop so I installed--on the Ubuntu partition...
kde-plasma-desktop and kde-full and rebooted into the plasma session
As expected, headphones did not work... that same pop--n-snap static
However, the gnome session now inherited whatever faulty headphone stuff the kde session installed
and--in the gnome session--the headphone plays that static noise
Uninstalling the kde stuff did not resolve the gnome session...
but after a fresh install of Ubuntu (ie. no kde-plasma) headphone works as expected

PS.
And no... I'm not resorting to using the gnome session; as much as that all works nicely enough... I just don't like that desktop; yes I played around with great extensions and the end result looks really good... but it just ain't KDE! Plasma styling and desktop behavior are so much of a nicer look-n-feel.
So. I'm okay with Kubuntu 19.10 and backports... for now

[abury]

Solved... yay!
No more have to use Bluetooth to enable audio via headphone
The latest update finally fixed whatever the audio driver problem was!

EDIT Aug 15
Turns out that somewhere during our lockdown (crisis), that while the above seemed to be the case, I discovered that the headphones were working in mono mode, i.e. no stereo. I first thought I may have shorted the hardware but a Windows 10 boot-up demonstrated that the input jack works. Created another partition and installed Manjaro and hey... headphones work as expected! I'll periodically check in with Kubuntu to see if this ever gets resolved (properly for all audio hardware).