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I just started running Ubuntu 20.04, MATE 1.24.0 on my desktop. my case has a front i/o with audio out and microphone in, and I typically use these for my razer headset with a headset/microphone splitter.

On the rear i/o panel audio out I have a set of (stereo) speakers plugged in. Now, on Windows I haven't had any issues switching these outputs, but in Ubuntu it seems like the headphone out is taking over any time it's plugged in, regardless of what output I have selected from the drop down in sound settings.

Now I don't really mind unplugging the headphones to get the speakers to work, but it would be nice if there were a solution that could resolve the issue.

So to clarify and simplify: speakers in the rear i/o work fine when the headphones in the front panel i/o are unplugged, but the output defaults to headphones when they're plugged in, regardless of settings.

Anybody out there know where I'm going wrong here? Thanks in advance!

  • motherboard chipset: Intel® Z490
  • motherboard audio: Realtek® ALC887 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
Zanna
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ringusdingus
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  • Have you checked your sound card settings? – Zeiss Ikon Aug 31 '21 at 18:20
  • @ZeissIkon i don't have a sound card installed, so as far as i know i don't have any sound card settings, unless i'm missing something here. – ringusdingus Aug 31 '21 at 18:37
  • If you have sound output, you have a "sound card" though in desktop and laptop computers these are often integrated in the motherboard chipset. You'll still have sound settings in that case (this is what I have, and the settings are much like they were when I had a discrete sound card many years ago, because it's the same hardware). – Zeiss Ikon Aug 31 '21 at 18:55
  • @ZeissIkon gotcha. that makes sense. are you just referring to the sound preferences menu, or is there somewhere else i should be looking? – ringusdingus Aug 31 '21 at 19:05
  • For some sound hardware (drivers) there is an additional settings area for hardware settings, like how you want to handle front and rear speakers, and most importantly, what to do with the rear speakers when something's plugged into the front jack. – Zeiss Ikon Aug 31 '21 at 19:08
  • @ZeissIkon yeah, see i'm not finding anything like that. is that driver something i can or should locate and install or would that already be taken care of during the initial operating system install? – ringusdingus Aug 31 '21 at 19:12
  • If you have sound, you have the driver -- but it's possible some drivers don't have this hardware control panel. You might try to find out exactly what sound chip(set) you have in your desktop machine and edit it into your question; it'll help people answer. – Zeiss Ikon Aug 31 '21 at 19:14
  • @ZeissIkon yeah, that's what i assumed. appreciate the help. – ringusdingus Aug 31 '21 at 19:18
  • I found this in the forum. https://askubuntu.com/questions/1240632/5-1-sound-on-ubuntu-20-04-lts-with-3-3-5mm-jacks-allows-stereo-onlly It seems related to your issue –  Aug 31 '21 at 19:27
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    Does this answer your question? Alsamixer: howto disable auto-mute mode – user68186 Sep 01 '21 at 22:02
  • @user68186 i had actually just found this solution a few minutes ago! real facepalm moment, because basically i just didn't scroll over enough in alsamixer to see and test all of the settings. – ringusdingus Sep 01 '21 at 22:03
  • @user68186 well the answer is already out there anyway, so i don't think it particularly matters if this post stays up or not ¯_(ツ)_/¯ – ringusdingus Sep 01 '21 at 22:12

1 Answers1

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SOLVED (mostly)

Turning off automute in alsamixer sends the audio signal to both ports simultaneously and you can then use the mixer to mute one or the other.

Zanna
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ringusdingus
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