[ale] headphone / speaker problems

[Ron Frazier]

Hi all,

I had a couple of interesting experiences with my Ubuntu 11.04 (as of a 
few days ago) pc.  I thought I'd share it in case other people have the 
same issue.

The first thing is, when I plug in the headphones, the external speakers 
still continue running.  I haven't found a solution to that, but have 
found a workaround.  I have the MSI 790FX-GD70 MB and I think it has a 
Realtek audio chip set.  If I'm running Windows, when I plug the 
headphone in, it pops up a dialog and asks me what I plugged in.  It 
defaults to headphone.  I acknowledge the dialog and the speakers mute.

When I go to the audio preferences in Ubuntu, I have the settings for 
the sound set to 5.1 audio.  The headphones do work, as does the mic, 
but the speakers just keep running.

I got around the problem by plugging in a USB audio adapter that I got 
with some headphones a couple of years ago.  Back then, I hadn't seen 
anything like this.  However, a search for USB sound card on NewEgg 
reveals about 200 options.  Once I set the audio output to the USB audio 
adapter, then the sound comes out the headphones and the speakers mute.

At first, the USB adapter wouldn't work properly.  I found this article 
which said how to reset pulseaudio.

http://www.ossramblings.com/using-usb-headset-adapter-ubuntu-lucid

pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio --check

I have no idea what that did, but it worked.

Sincerely,

Ron

-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com