Ubuntu 22.04 playing output audio as input audio from front panel

Wiki

8/9/24, 9:40 AM

While I was on a fresh install of Ubuntu 22.04 on my new computer I noticed that audio did not work on the front panel at all. I thought that it might've been an issue with my build but I dual-booted windows and my headset worked perfectly fine (keep in mind, I'm using the front panel audio jack for this). The issue is whenever I try to do a sound check in the settings it never plays audio through my headset. But I do notice whenever the "front right"/"front left" audio plays that my detected input mic flares up with the sound. I'm assuming that my system is playing my output audio as input and I've searched and searched all day for a solution. I'm not exactly a beginner to Ubuntu as I have daily-drived this on my laptop for a couple years now but I just installed it on my new desktop and I run into this issue.

Additionally, I have tried the following methods: using pavucontrol, restarting pulseaudio, check if anything is muted, and now I'm even considering trying to switch to Pipewire as I saw someone in a thread suggest that. But I want to consult this community before doing so.

Not sure if this is of note but my front panel audio doesn't work with my headset when running Ubuntu but whenever I plug my headset into the back audio it displays it as speakers, and doing so it also gives me the options to create a "back left"/"back right" option in the sound check settings. And these two options work actually! I'm able to hear back left and back right, but of course I can't play my microphone through it.

Is there something with my installation or something? Or am I just picking the wrong audio?? I'm really at a dead-end with this issue entirely and this issue is entirely not present on my laptop which is also running 22.04 and using the exactly same headset too. Should I just switch to Pipewire to see if it fixes anything? Please help!

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alsa

raj

8/9/24, 10:04 AM

Since you are talking about "jack" and not "jacks" I assume you have one front jack with 4-pin connection that you use for headset. What comes to my mind as a possibility is OMTP/CTIA (in)compatibility issue. Maybe your front jack is OMTP and your headset is CTIA (or vice versa) and Windows has some drivers that are able to recognize and automatically switch the jack pinout to adapt for the headset, while Ubuntu doesn't have such drivers and handles the jack as it is wired by default. If this is the case, connecting your headset through an OMTP/CTIA adapter may help.

raj

8/9/24, 10:12 AM

Also, if the headset connected to your rear jack works as speakers only, it means that the rear connector is a 3-pin connector intended only for speakers. In that case, there should be another connector for microphone. You can use a splitter that splits a 4-pin headset connection into two 3-pin jacks, one for speakers and one for microphone, and plug them into the appropriate sockets. But these splitters are usually designed for CTIA standard only, as it is much more popular on the market, so if your headset is OMTP, you still need an adapter.

raj

8/9/24, 10:21 AM

It would be also worth checking if standard headphones (without a mic, with 3-pin jack) work correctly if plugged in to your front connector. If not, then it is possible that your front connector will only work correctly with the proper Windows drivers.

Wiki

8/9/24, 4:32 PM

What you say makes perfect sense but how come it's able to work on my laptop that's running the exact same version of Ubuntu?

raj

8/9/24, 6:30 PM

And why not? Your issue is probably hardware related, so it's nothing strange that a different device, with possibly different wiring on the audio output, works correctly. If you connect a CTIA-wired headset to a CTIA-wired socket, it will work correctly. OMTP to OMTP similarly will work correctly. But OMTP to CTIA won't, unless the audio device in the computer has switchable pinout, and a proper driver recognizes the wiring and switches pins if needed. Exact specification of both hardware, if available, could help.

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