Headphone jack not working?

Question

I have a Dell Studio XPS 1647 and headphones do not work (though , internal speakers work like a charm) , I have dual boot Windows 7 and headphones work perfectly fine ...

I also tried -adding in options snd-hda-intel model=eapd probe_mask=1 position_fix=1.

I've experienced this with Oneric Ocelot and the latest Precise Pangolin (LTS).

// , Please add output for the following command: $ lspci | grep Audio. This will show your audio chipset, among other things, e.g. 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04) — Nathan Basanese, Sep 13 '16 at 05:42

score 254 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 30 '16 at 06:10

254

I've tried all these responses. Here is the ONLY way that worked for me (and it was remarkably quick... after spending hours on all the other suggestions!). Go into Terminal, and simply key this in:

$ alsactl restore

And that's that! :)

answered Sep 30 '16 at 06:10

Pepe Lebuntu

3,282

Did you reboot after running this? – mwangi Dec 02 '16 at 14:08
No, but I do need to close and restart all the programs using audio - or in the case of a tab in a browser (ie, a youtube clip or something), reload the tab. – Pepe Lebuntu Dec 04 '16 at 23:09
11

Ok. I had to do a full shutdown and not a restart. Only then did it work for me. I'm using an ASUS K56--30 – mwangi Dec 06 '16 at 09:24
1

Just this worked for me on an ASUS F555U. Thank you. – mechanical_meat Jan 09 '17 at 03:23
1

worked for me on dell xps 16.04 (after upgrade from 14.04) – oliv Mar 02 '17 at 19:37
18

This worked on my XPS 13 9360 (Ubuntu 16.04.2). Headphones started working immediately after that. My unit looses the headphone irregularly. – sola Mar 22 '17 at 00:28
1

That worked with me (HP Probook i7-6500) – Apr 29 '17 at 18:49
2

Also worked instantly on a Dell Latitude 3580. – MikaelF Jan 15 '18 at 04:42
4

Work for me on acer swift 3. Funny that I did not need to restart or anything, sound was instantly turn on as soon as I hit enter. – Tg. Apr 20 '18 at 01:45
1

I cannot confirm that this is the only fix that works, but it did work for me, and is definitely a very simple fix. Although it fixed the sound of a midi keyboard through qsynth to the headphones, the ubuntu build-in audio test still does not work. – Roland Apr 26 '18 at 22:03
7

This didn't work for me on Ubuntu 18.04 with an hp spectre 360. I got an error when running the command: alsactl: state_lock:125: file /var/lib/alsa/asound.state lock error: File exists alsactl: load_state:1683: Cannot open /var/lib/alsa/asound.state for reading: File exists – Marses Sep 07 '18 at 21:24
@Limok Palantaemon Use sudo alsactl restore and it should work. – abc Nov 04 '18 at 00:34
2

@MosheRabaev I tried it. The command no longer gives the "Cannot open" error, however unfortunately it doesn't fix the problem :P. Thanks for the help though. I've been reading up on my issue, and basically it seems like it's something specific to my line of laptops (HP x360). Several people much more knowledgeable than me have been trying to fix it for years, apparently it's something very "close the hardware" and way too technical for me. To others who have the same problem, check out this thread (but leave your hopes at the door ): https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=189331 – Marses Nov 05 '18 at 11:00
In my case (Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS on Dell Latitude E5440) the problem was skypeforlinux. The headphones stopped working after having a videocall. After removing skypeforlinux, they worked again. – rbarriuso Dec 06 '18 at 08:47
1

It worked for me! – Eduardo Santana Mar 03 '19 at 01:47
1

This worked for me too! – Leo Jul 17 '19 at 15:33
2

Just upgraded to 5.0 via the 18.04.3 HWE opt-in --- broke my headphones, and this saved the day~! Thank you very much!! – rm-vanda Aug 12 '19 at 20:43
1

I had only one ear working.. used this command and it worked like a charm (not sure why), but it worked. – Bhikkhu Subhuti Oct 12 '19 at 23:59
1

@PepeLebuntu Worked for me in Linux Mint-Tina. Thanks – YourPalNurav Oct 23 '19 at 15:43
1

Works without reboot. This shold be the accepted answer. – zeljko_a Dec 21 '19 at 10:51
2

Year 2020, still works :) – Entea May 03 '20 at 16:52
1

What should be the expected output of this command? – David Kariuki May 07 '20 at 16:12
1

It works better after a complete shutdown. – David Kariuki May 07 '20 at 16:22
Works once in hp spectre x360 nvidia but not anymore – David Kariuki May 11 '20 at 12:22
2

ubuntu studio 20.04 just installed in a dell XPS 15, and found this problem. You're my hero! – joseLuís May 16 '20 at 18:52
This worked like a charm. My headphone stopped working after attending one meeting over Microsoft Teams. I had to join the other meeting using my phone. This fix worked like a charm. Thanks for sharing.!! – Arjun Panicker Sep 09 '21 at 10:57
1

sudo alsactl restore @ArjunPanicker – Sanaullah Ahmad Oct 11 '21 at 08:04
It worked for me, could someone explain what it exactly does behind the scenes ? Shouldn't it work out of the box then ? – Sharthak Ghosh Jan 22 '22 at 16:17
ubuntu 20 select the sound output to headphones then run this command alsactl restore thanks – Jehad Nasser Apr 12 '22 at 19:55
On Ubuntu 22, alsactl restore fixed the audio jack issue, but sound was also coming out of the speaker. Had to unplug and plug in again the jack for sound to be correctly emitted via headphones only – George Aristy Aug 17 '23 at 14:24

Michael Cornelius · Answer 2 · 2012-12-14T20:27:03.630

81

I had the same problem. Following these instructions got my headphones working.

Open the terminal and enter the following commands:

cd /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/
sudo cp analog-output-headphones.conf analog-output-headphones.bak
sudo nano analog-output-headphones.conf

Look for the section called [Element Speaker] and change it so that it looks like this:

[Element Speaker]
switch = on
volume = ignore

Save the changes and exit nano.

Create a backup of the corrected analog-output-headphones.conf:

sudo cp analog-output-headphones.conf analog-output-headphones.fixed

Now you can restore the fix if a future installation or update overwrites it.

Reboot.

After rebooting, you may need to remove and reinsert the headphone plug to get it to work. After it's working, though, you will be able to remove and insert the plug, and behavior will be as expected.

edited Dec 14 '12 at 20:27

answered Jun 07 '12 at 04:00

Michael Cornelius

919

1

Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. – Oyibo Nov 19 '12 at 13:13
1

...like a charm. – nietaki Jan 14 '13 at 10:56
3

On LUbuntu 12.04 this doesn't work for me. Also you can reload the sound system, by first killing pulseaudio pulseaudio -k and restarting alsa: sudo alsa force-reload. No reboot needed. – Calmarius Oct 05 '13 at 13:22
Just a note. I set pulseaudio not to auto respawn as I was trying various fixes to this problem. When I rebooted my system, the problem seemed to persist (speakers good, headphones not). When I realized that pulseaudio isn't even working, I reset it to auto respawn and rebooted. And yay! I have my headphones back! – skytreader Jun 14 '14 at 10:01
Except this gets overwritten every time your system updates pulseaudio. – hololeap Oct 04 '15 at 03:59
15

This did not work on a 2013 Dell XPS 13 running Ubuntu 16.04. – Mark Stosberg May 19 '16 at 14:31
Worked like a charm on my Alienware m14x running Ubuntu 16.04 – FROSIT Jul 26 '16 at 18:51
worked for me too, Ubuntu 16.04 on Dell 6410. – doctorate Aug 23 '16 at 09:03
Not for me, Ubuntu Mate 16.04, Asus x202e. – Pepe Lebuntu Sep 30 '16 at 04:12
Worked like a charm on Linux Mint 18 (ubuntu 16.04) and dell inspiron 1510. No need to reboot either. Worked right away. – marquito Nov 28 '16 at 22:54
@MarkStosberg did find anything for dell xps 13 eventually? – Nick Dec 04 '16 at 18:40
1

@OmidHezaveh No. I still use alsamixer to manager my volumes now instead of the usual system volume management. – Mark Stosberg Dec 05 '16 at 15:29
@MarkStosberg I wish I could do the same. In my case even alsamixer doesn't help. Sound comes through both head phones and the speakers, no matter what I do in alsamixer. – Nick Dec 06 '16 at 19:28
This was bugging me a lot. Thanks for fixing it. This is godsend. – user568109 Dec 14 '16 at 21:52
Worked like a charm for Debian 9 in Toshiba Satellite. Thanks a bunch! – radiopassive Jul 12 '17 at 15:43
This worked for me on a Dell XPS 13 (9350). Rebooting pulseaudio as suggested by Calmarius wasn't enough for me, I had to reboot my laptop entirely for it to work. – Rien Heuver Mar 29 '18 at 07:22
On my HP spectre 360 and Ubuntu 18.04 this didn't work yet (previously on 14.04 my headphones were working, though I also had to fix it). – Marses Sep 07 '18 at 21:22
Worked for me, Toshiba Chromebook 2 (Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS). – Arturo don Juan Sep 22 '18 at 23:20
Worked, but for some reason my laptop speakers do not get muted when plugging the headphone in. Any directions on where to configure this? – stimulate Aug 25 '19 at 12:48
Worked! Thanks. KUbuntu 19.10 + Dell Vostro 7590 – dimas Jan 19 '20 at 11:58
Note to future self: This worked but you need to SHUT DOWN instead of restart!! – BassMHL May 26 '20 at 02:58
Thank you. It worked! – Selim Emre Toy May 29 '22 at 10:02

score 41 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 26 '22 at 05:49

41

I finally got my headphones to work. Run the following command in the terminal:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Scroll down and add these lines to the end of the file:

# Keep snd-pcsp from being loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6-amic

Then save, reboot and test the sound using the headphones and speakers.

edited Sep 26 '22 at 05:49

karel

114,770

answered Jan 08 '13 at 13:21

lexical lemon

2,018

12

This is always the comment that I end up finding that fixes my sound after I reinstall my laptop. So thanks, and hi future me :-) – tsimon Aug 08 '14 at 22:34
4

I didn't have to reboot. Instead run sudo alsa force-reload and then unplug and insert the headphone. – buzypi Oct 26 '14 at 07:34
2

didn't work my dell xps 13, 9360 running ubuntu 16.04 sound comes from both speakers and headphones – Nick Dec 04 '16 at 18:31
Worked like a charm on my ThinkPad P50 with Ubuntu 16.10 – rafaelcpalmeida Mar 07 '17 at 14:29
In my case, this only detects the headset when it is plugged while rebooting. Before the last update, ubuntu detected the plugin action and asked you whether this where headphones, mic or headset. How can I get that behaviour?. – Daniel Cerecedo Mar 21 '17 at 11:27
Worked for Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu 16.04. Thank you! – userManyNumbers May 04 '17 at 15:41
I don't have file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf on Linux Mint (Ubuntu), Dell XPS – mc.dev Jun 30 '17 at 19:05
Didn't work on my hp spectre 360, running Ubuntu 18.04 – Marses Sep 07 '18 at 21:29
Can I use this for my iMac? – CottonTheButton Nov 15 '18 at 15:20
I agree with @tsimon . This comment is still relevant and worked on both my laptops, Lenovo 330s and MSI P63. – Gursharan Singh Feb 05 '20 at 12:17

habibun · Answer 4 · 2016-08-15T06:47:30.167

30

i had same issue after installing 16.06 ubuntu gnome in my dell xps. then i solve this issue by .......

sudo apt-get install pavucontrol

after install pavucontrol. open it by simply typing terminal pavucontrol.

then go to -> Output Devices tab -> change port

in my case seleted port was Headphones(plugged in) by default after plug headphone

change port Headphones(plugged in) to speakers (unavailable).

this is a temporary fix.after rebooting your pc you have to do this again.

edited Aug 15 '16 at 06:47

answered Aug 15 '16 at 05:58

habibun

631

headphones not showing up in KDE with this tool or in KMIX. – sjatkins Jul 27 '20 at 21:34

score 13 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 07 '17 at 20:16

13

The solution in a comment above by buzypy worked for me, without any of the other stuff:

sudo alsa force-reload

then reopen pavucontrol and change to the option Headphones (unplugged) and restart the program that was playing the sound.

It's problems like this that make people not want to use Ubuntu!

answered Jun 07 '17 at 20:16

mjp

449

1

Yeeee-haw. After mod probing and alsa installing and muting and unmuting etc etc etc... <3 – Lotus Aug 19 '17 at 22:20
1

All I had to do was run "sudo also force-reload" and it started working right away. (Ubuntu 19.10) – denshigomi Jan 04 '20 at 18:04
2

Doesn't work for me. 20.04 – mathtick May 12 '20 at 13:46
But why is it not detecting I have plugged in my headphones? – Daniel Cheung Aug 29 '20 at 06:08

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 03 '17 at 19:46

4

I had to do the following:

Exit out of google chrome (I'm trying to get music to play in a tab)
in a terminal, run killall chrome -- will probably say "none found" or whatever
kill pulseaudio with pulseaudio -k at a terminal. (it should restart silently in the background, but if not, try pulseaudio -d)
now run sudo alsa force-reload (Thanks @mjp!!)

answered Aug 03 '17 at 19:46

Lotus

161

Just pulseaudio -k did the trick for me – Harm Mar 24 '24 at 14:50

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered May 14 '20 at 10:32

I just recently upgraded to Ubuntu 20.04(KDE) and faced the same issue. None of the answers gave a permanent fix. The closest fix was by Pepe Lebuntu.

alsactl restore

However I had to do this everytime I replugged my headphones which became annoying. So I made an acpi event which triggers this command when headphones are plugged.

To do so create a file in the directory /etc/acpi/events

cd /etc/acpi/events
sudo nano headphone-fix

And add the following lines in the file

event=jack/headphone HEADPHONE plug
action=alsactl restore

Save and exit then restart the acpi service using

sudo service acpid restart

Replug your headphones and it should now be working everytime you plug it back

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

2

I had the same issue. I did as below

Go to Settings
Click on Sound settings under hardware section
Click output tab (automatically selected by system)
On the bottom side: set the output volume to 100%

Thanks to https://superuser.com/questions/357623/headset-is-not-working-with-ubuntu-11-10

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

Community

1

answered May 06 '12 at 18:29

Venkat Kotra

439

i already have tried that . not working – lexical lemon May 18 '12 at 06:24
3

Not a solution because only headphones jack isn't working. – Pavel Vlasov Aug 11 '12 at 12:15
Helped for me. My headphones were muted for some reason. – Serge Vinogradoff Jun 14 '14 at 21:27
For Ubuntu 18.04 Under Output Tab Selecting 'Line Out Built-in Audio' helped restore sound. – SMJ Sep 10 '19 at 05:51

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited Nov 24 '12 at 00:25

2

On my laptop, a Lenovo G465, the sound was working well: each time I plugged the headphones, it would be detected and sound was piped through the headphones and muting the speakers. Suddenly it stopped working. Something weird happened without any changes or installation or whatsoever. I read that someone had to use alsamixer to activate it: lo and behold: I tinkered with the volumes and mutings and suddenly it started working again as before!!! I have no explanation, honestly.

edited Nov 24 '12 at 00:25

fabricator4

8,375

answered Nov 19 '12 at 13:07

Max

21

Experiencing the same thing with my Lenovo laptop this morning :) Playing with sound settings though nothing seem to help - I hope it starts working again like in your case :) – Yuriy Nakonechnyy Feb 14 '13 at 08:15
Rebooting helped :) – Yuriy Nakonechnyy Feb 14 '13 at 08:30

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 01 '16 at 16:02

1

In my case, for a Dell E5450, it was resolved after runnning:

sudo modprobe snd-hda-codec-idt

answered Dec 01 '16 at 16:02

k0pernikus

6,115

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Mar 11 '17 at 06:25

To day I got it in easy way:

How to using headphone in Ubuntu:

Install update for Ubuntu.
Install GNOME alsa mixer.
Plug in both of back speakers and front headphone.
In ALSA: mute your front column, unmute in Headphone.
Go to Sound setting: unmute your sound that was made by ALSA.
Click the Test Sound button to go to Test Sound in Sound settings, check left and right ==> ONLY HEADPHONE has sound, Speaker will be silent.

score 0 · Answer 12 · edited Jun 17 '18 at 18:28

0

None of the previous answers posted fixed my issue on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS nor on 16.04 LTS. My computer uses a Clevo motherboard and luckily a developer known as Unrud created an easy fix called "init-headphone", which for the Ubuntu distro it is called "init-headphone-ubuntu". Basically, you just install the ".deb" package for Ubuntu and that's it, with no restart required (at least this was true for me).

To be clear, at this time, Unrud did not specifically create an 18.04 package, so I used Unrud's 16.04 (Xenial) package on 18.04 and it worked like a charm!

edited Jun 17 '18 at 18:28

Zoe is on strike

72

answered Jun 17 '18 at 18:17

junktext

23

5

Please don't add signatures under your posts. See meta – Zoe is on strike Jun 17 '18 at 18:20
I have a Clevo P67SE motherboard, I installed your same package and even rebooted but unfortunately headphones still aren't detected while using the jack – Stefano Aug 04 '18 at 18:10

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 03 '21 at 14:50

0

During boot, I was passing the parameter acpi=off (see Booting Ubuntu with "acpi=off" grub parameter).

After removing acpi=off, the headphones worked again.

answered Feb 03 '21 at 14:50

toliveira

349

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 26 '21 at 00:53

Out of the box, sound was available via the headphone jack, into which I plugged either headphones or computer speakers.

Then I ran

$ pulseaudio

That disable audio to the headphone jack and enabled sound coming through the monitor (connected via HDMI).

$ pactl exit

turned off pulseaudio, disabling the monitor sound and re-enabling the jack.

(I wish things like this were clear from the man pages or whatever.)

Headphone jack not working?

14 Answers14

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