[Inspiron 5482, Realtek ALC3204, Black Headphone Out, Front] Playback problem

[Nate Eldredge]

I'm unable to play sound through the headphone jack on this laptop. When I try to play a wav with aplay (e.g. aplay /usr/share/sounds/speech-dispatcher/test.wav) the level indicators in pavucontrol fluctuate, but no sound results. Adjusting the volume does not help.

Also, when the headphones are plugged in, I cannot play sound through the internal speakers by selecting the "Speakers" port in pavucontrol Output Devices. With the headphones unplugged, the internal speakers work fine.

I tested the Ubuntu 19.10 live USB and I am able to play sound through the headphones without doing anything special (plug in headphones, select "Headphones" from the popup that appears, and use aplay as above), so the hardware itself is apparently okay. The headphones do not work when booting the Ubuntu 20.04 live USB.

The problem may be intermittent as I seem to recall I have been able to use the headphones since upgrading to 20.04, but I am not sure of my recollection. I also think that in some of my tests, I was able to play sound through the speakers with the headphones plugged in (by selecting Speakers in pavucontrol) but I cannot reproduce this now.

Happy to provide more information, try troubleshooting ideas, etc. Thanks.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-42.46-generic 5.4.44
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.4
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: nate 2549 F.... pulseaudio
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
Date: Sun Jul 26 14:20:31 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-06-03 (419 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo" - Release amd64 (20190416)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:PCH failed
Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_Jack: Black Headphone Out, Front
Symptom_Type: Only some of outputs are working
Title: [Inspiron 5482, Realtek ALC3204, Black Headphone Out, Front] Playback problem
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-06-14 (42 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 07/02/2019
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 2.4.0
dmi.board.name: 0G7VYP
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 31
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvr2.4.0:bd07/02/2019:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron5482:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0G7VYP:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct31:cvr:
dmi.product.family: Inspiron
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 5482
dmi.product.sku: 089E
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Nate Eldredge (nate-thatsmathematics)]

This seemed like it might have been related to bug 1873384. However I have pulseaudio 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.5 in which that bug is supposedly fixed, and changing input sources does not fix the problem for me.

On the other hand the speakers are now working with the headphones plugged in, when "Speakers" is selected in pavucontrol. I don't know what changed.

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

According to the alsainfo.txt, the Capture source is not "Headset mic", so the headphone can't output sound.

 control.6 {
  iface MIXER
  name 'Capture Source'
  value 'Headphone Mic'
  comment {
   access 'read write'
   type ENUMERATED
   count 1
   item.0 'Headset Mic'
   item.1 'Headphone Mic'
   item.2 'Internal Mic'
  }
 }

Could you please remove the pulseaudio setting by running "rm -rf ~/.config/pulse/*", then reboot and check if the Capture Source is Headset Mic now?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ulisses Penna (uspenna)]

I've done instructions on #3, but that did not solve the problem. My computer is a Dell Inspiron 14 3480 with latest Ubuntu 20.04.3
~$ cat /proc/asound/card0/codec* | grep Codec
Codec: Realtek ALC3204
Codec: Intel Kabylake HDMI

[Nate Eldredge (nate-thatsmathematics)]

I am able to fix this, temporarily, by going into pavucontrol, unmuting the microphone under Input Devices, and muting it again. I will have to check later what the exact name of the microphone device in question is. Note this applies even to headphones that do not have a built-in microphone.