Comment 0 for bug 1824259

My machine is a LattePanda board, which uses a "chtrt5645" device as a sound card. It has a single headphone output jack, which I think is a TRRS jack, with a mic input, such as is normally used on phones.

When I don't have headphones plugged in, the system thinks headphones *are* plugged in. Gnome Control Center shows my audio device as being headphones. If I insert a headphone connector partway into the jack, I can even get sound in the headphones.

But if I plug the headphones all the way in, the system decided that I have *un*plugged the headphones, and switches output over to "Speaker". The system doesn't actually have a speaker, only a headphone jack. And when the system switches over to "Speaker", I get no sound out of the headphones, even if I open "pavucontrol" and swap over to "Headphones (unplugged)" on the "Output Devices" tab.

This is what "pacmd"'s "list-cards" command says with my headphones *unplugged*:

2 card(s) available.
    index: 0
 name: <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_02.0-platform-hdmi-lpe-audio>
 driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
 owner module: 7
 properties:
  alsa.card = "1"
  alsa.card_name = "Intel HDMI/DP LPE Audio"
  alsa.long_card_name = "Intel HDMI/DP LPE Audio"
  alsa.driver_name = "snd_hdmi_lpe_audio"
  device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:02.0-platform-hdmi-lpe-audio"
  sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/hdmi-lpe-audio/sound/card1"
  device.bus = "pci"
  device.vendor.id = "8086"
  device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
  device.product.id = "22b0"
  device.product.name = "Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series PCI Configuration Registers"
  device.string = "1"
  device.description = "Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series PCI Configuration Registers"
  module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
  device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
 profiles:
  output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (priority 5900, available: no)
  output:hdmi-surround: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) Output (priority 800, available: no)
  output:hdmi-surround71: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) Output (priority 800, available: no)
  output:hdmi-stereo-extra1: Digital Stereo (HDMI 2) Output (priority 5700, available: no)
  output:hdmi-surround-extra1: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 2) Output (priority 600, available: no)
  output:hdmi-surround71-extra1: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 2) Output (priority 600, available: no)
  output:hdmi-stereo-extra2: Digital Stereo (HDMI 3) Output (priority 5700, available: no)
  output:hdmi-surround-extra2: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 3) Output (priority 600, available: no)
  output:hdmi-surround71-extra2: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 3) Output (priority 600, available: no)
  off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
 active profile: <off>
 ports:
  hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority 5900, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:
    device.icon_name = "video-display"
  hdmi-output-1: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (priority 5800, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:
    device.icon_name = "video-display"
  hdmi-output-2: HDMI / DisplayPort 3 (priority 5700, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:
    device.icon_name = "video-display"
    index: 1
 name: <alsa_card.platform-cht-bsw-rt5645>
 driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
 owner module: 8
 properties:
  alsa.card = "0"
  alsa.card_name = "chtrt5645"
  alsa.long_card_name = "AMICorporation-Defaultstring-Defaultstring-CherryTrailCR"
  alsa.driver_name = "snd_soc_sst_cht_bsw_rt5645"
  device.bus_path = "platform-cht-bsw-rt5645"
  sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/808622A8:00/cht-bsw-rt5645/sound/card0"
  device.form_factor = "internal"
  device.string = "0"
  device.description = "Built-in Audio"
  module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
  device.icon_name = "audio-card"
 profiles:
  HiFi: Default (priority 8000, available: unknown)
  off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
 active profile: <HiFi>
 sinks:
  alsa_output.platform-cht-bsw-rt5645.HiFi__hw_chtrt5645__sink/#0: Built-in Audio Headphones + Speaker
 sources:
  alsa_output.platform-cht-bsw-rt5645.HiFi__hw_chtrt5645__sink.monitor/#0: Monitor of Built-in Audio Headphones + Speaker
  alsa_input.platform-cht-bsw-rt5645.HiFi__hw_chtrt5645__source/#1: Built-in Audio Headset Microphone + Internal Analog Microphone
 ports:
  [Out] Headphones: Headphones (priority 100, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
   properties:

  [Out] Speaker: Speaker (priority 100, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:

  [In] HSMic: Headset Microphone (priority 100, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
   properties:

  [In] Mic: Internal Analog Microphone (priority 150, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:

When I plug in the headphones, the entry for card 1 changes to:

    index: 1
 name: <alsa_card.platform-cht-bsw-rt5645>
 driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
 owner module: 8
 properties:
  alsa.card = "0"
  alsa.card_name = "chtrt5645"
  alsa.long_card_name = "AMICorporation-Defaultstring-Defaultstring-CherryTrailCR"
  alsa.driver_name = "snd_soc_sst_cht_bsw_rt5645"
  device.bus_path = "platform-cht-bsw-rt5645"
  sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/808622A8:00/cht-bsw-rt5645/sound/card0"
  device.form_factor = "internal"
  device.string = "0"
  device.description = "Built-in Audio"
  module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
  device.icon_name = "audio-card"
 profiles:
  HiFi: Default (priority 8000, available: unknown)
  off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
 active profile: <HiFi>
 sinks:
  alsa_output.platform-cht-bsw-rt5645.HiFi__hw_chtrt5645__sink/#0: Built-in Audio Headphones + Speaker
 sources:
  alsa_output.platform-cht-bsw-rt5645.HiFi__hw_chtrt5645__sink.monitor/#0: Monitor of Built-in Audio Headphones + Speaker
  alsa_input.platform-cht-bsw-rt5645.HiFi__hw_chtrt5645__source/#1: Built-in Audio Headset Microphone + Internal Analog Microphone
 ports:
  [Out] Headphones: Headphones (priority 100, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:

  [Out] Speaker: Speaker (priority 100, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
   properties:

  [In] HSMic: Headset Microphone (priority 100, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:

  [In] Mic: Internal Analog Microphone (priority 150, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
   properties:

Note that the "Headphones" port is now "available: no".

PulseAudio is getting all these ports from Alsa's UCM (Use Case Manager) system, which has a bunch of config files that live in /usr/share/alsa/ucm. I tried editing /usr/share/alsa/ucm/chtrt5645/HiFi.conf to swap the enable and disable procedures for the headphones and the speakers, in hopes of convincing it to route audio out the headphone jack, but that didn't work.

This problem has affected me since at least Ubuntu 18.04. I've upgraded through 18.10 and to 19.04 today. All three releases have the same problem.

1. How is the PulseAudio/ALSA system determining whether headphones are plugged in or not?

2. How do I invert the sense of that test?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
Package: libasound2 1.1.8-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-8.9-generic 5.0.1
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu26
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Wed Apr 10 19:21:09 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-12-08 (123 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alsa-lib
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-04-11 (0 days ago)