[Solved] Sound Only Comes Out Of Left Speaker

[Jack Sparrow]

I have a set of Logitech z533 speakers. Whenever I plug them in, I only get sound coming out of the left speaker. And yes, I already checked the Balance in the audio settings. It's set to the center of both left and right.

[arussell]

Have you plugged into a different computer?

[Jack Sparrow]

Have you plugged into a different computer?

Heh, better yet, they were plugged into this very same computer when it had Windows 11 pre-installed on it, and they worked perfectly fine. The very same day that I had first installed Debian to this computer (about a week ago), I noticed the speaker issue. But I had other more important issues to troubleshoot prior to starting this forum topic. But just for the sake of troubleshooting, I plugged the speaker output wire into my Insignia portable CD player, and they worked perfectly fine. This implies that there's something wrong with the way Debian does audio output with my specific motherboard which is an ASUS B760M plus WIFI II. I'm not sure what to do from here.

[arzgi]

I strongly disagree. Most likely you had solved the problem by connecting again, now you connected to other device. The plug might be worn, works in some position. Stereo sound was invented quite a long time ago. I used Linux only more then three decades, sometimes have had broken cable. But othrewise always stereo, worked well with oss, then came alsa, and pulseaudio, newest is pipewire.

[NorthEast]

Assuming all the hardware is good, like cables properly connected, then the following may be a start to look at the issue.

To check whether alsa can actually play through the speakers, one can run the command:

Code: Select all

speaker-test -c 0

Or:

Code: Select all

speaker-test -t wav -c 2

If alsa can play through the speakers, a white noise should be heard through one and then the other speaker. To stop the test before it runs it's full course in case it's not needed, use cnrl+c.

If sound can be heard at the level of alsa in the sound stack, then the problem of one speaker not having sound may be higher up in sound server or the media server like pulseaudio or pipewire. That would involve checking the configs for those apps, especially for anything that is muted. If muted, unmuting will resolve the issue.

[FreewheelinFrank]

Have you plugged into a different computer?

Heh, better yet, they were plugged into this very same computer when it had Windows 11 pre-installed on it, and they worked perfectly fine. .... This implies that there's something wrong with the way Debian does audio output with my specific motherboard which is an ASUS B760M plus WIFI II. I'm not sure what to do from here.

You can't actually rule out the possibility that the jack has gunked up in between. Is it a headphone jack, combination jack or separate left/right jacks?

Manufacturers are notorious for fixing things in Windows rather than in the BIOS (or EFI or whatever). It is possible the BIOS is misinforming the OS (ie Debian) about which pin on the sound card the right channel output is connected to. I think this would only make sense with separate left/right jacks. Install alsa-tools-gui package then use hda-jack-retask to check your pin configurations and post a screenshot.

[Jack Sparrow]

Assuming all the hardware is good, like cables properly connected, then the following may be a start to look at the issue........

You can't actually rule out the possibility that the jack has gunked up in between. Is it a headphone jack, combination jack or separate left/right jacks?

Thanks for the suggestions, but I think I figured it out. I was doing more research, and discovered someone on the Linux Mint forum, who had the exact same speaker setup as me, was having the exact same issue. So what did he do? He plugged the wire into the Line Out port on the back, and everything worked just fine. So I did the same, and lo and behold, everything started working perfectly. Curious, I grabbed a pair of normal headphones, and plugged them into the front audio jack; and to my surprise, I had perfect Stereo audio. So I plugged my speakers back into the front port, and still ended up with only the left speaker. That's when I noticed that the Settings Menu was claiming that the speakers were "headphones", but this wasn't the case. That's when I realized that it may have been an audio channel issue all along. See, these speakers aren't just left and right. The z533 kit also contains a subwoofer. But this is all channeled out through a single 3.5mm wire. Now, when I plugged the speakers into the Line Out jack on the back, I noticed the Settings Menu in Linux had various different options for various different audio configurations, such as 3.0, 4.0, and 5.1. But when I plugged the speakers into the front jack, the ONLY option was just "headphones".

That made me realize that the driver that was included with Debian isn't set up to allow for anything other than channel 2.0 (regular stereo audio) from the front audio jack. But the driver that was included with Windows allowed for all available audio channels from all available audio jacks. This is why I didn't have this same issue when the computer had Windows 11 installed on it, but the issued presented itself when Linux was installed. With that being said, I think I'm going to mark this forum as "solved", and continue to just use the rear Line Out audio port on the back of the computer. Again, thank you guys for all of your replies.

[FreewheelinFrank]

Assuming all the hardware is good, like cables properly connected, then the following may be a start to look at the issue........

You can't actually rule out the possibility that the jack has gunked up in between. Is it a headphone jack, combination jack or separate left/right jacks?

Thanks for the suggestions, but I think I figured it out. I was doing more research, and discovered someone on the Linux Mint forum, who had the exact same speaker setup as me, was having the exact same issue. So what did he do? He plugged the wire into the Line Out port on the back, and everything worked just fine. So I did the same, and lo and behold, everything started working perfectly. Curious, I grabbed a pair of normal headphones, and plugged them into the front audio jack; and to my surprise, I had perfect Stereo audio. So I plugged my speakers back into the front port, and still ended up with only the left speaker. That's when I noticed that the Settings Menu was claiming that the speakers were "headphones", but this wasn't the case. That's when I realized that it may have been an audio channel issue all along. See, these speakers aren't just left and right. The z533 kit also contains a subwoofer. But this is all channeled out through a single 3.5mm wire. Now, when I plugged the speakers into the Line Out jack on the back, I noticed the Settings Menu in Linux had various different options for various different audio configurations, such as 3.0, 4.0, and 5.1. But when I plugged the speakers into the front jack, the ONLY option was just "headphones".

That made me realize that the driver that was included with Debian isn't set up to allow for anything other than channel 2.0 (regular stereo audio) from the front audio jack. But the driver that was included with Windows allowed for all available audio channels from all available audio jacks. This is why I didn't have this same issue when the computer had Windows 11 installed on it, but the issued presented itself when Linux was installed. With that being said, I think I'm going to mark this forum as "solved", and continue to just use the rear Line Out audio port on the back of the computer. Again, thank you guys for all of your replies.

Your speakers are only two channel - bass splitting is done in the speakers with a filter. They have a 3-pole 3.5mm plug (left, right and ground).

I suspect that the front jack is actually a combination jack, with three channels - left, right and microphone - and that the headphones that you plugged in had a microphone, so the bands on the plug aligned correctly. To confirm, check if it has a 4-pole 3.55mm plug (left, right, microphone, ground).

When you plug in your two channel speakers, the right channel is connecting to the microphone input - so no sound.

If your motherboard is like this one, it has the facility to detect if a 2-channel device is plugged into the front jack and send the right output to the correct connection.

Audio
Realtek 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio CODEC*
- Supports: Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking

https://www.asus.com/uk/motherboards-co ... /techspec/

Support for this feature would be built into the Windows driver, but Linux will just see a combination jack.

If you want to use the front jack for the speakers, you will need a splitter - a 4-pole plug 3.5mm to 2x3-pole 3.5mm sockets, one for speakers, one for microphone.

[Jack Sparrow]

Assuming all the hardware is good, like cables properly connected, then the following may be a start to look at the issue........

You can't actually rule out the possibility that the jack has gunked up in between. Is it a headphone jack, combination jack or separate left/right jacks?

Thanks for the suggestions, but I think I figured it out. I was doing more research, and discovered someone on the Linux Mint forum, who had the exact same speaker setup as me, was having the exact same issue. So what did he do? He plugged the wire into the Line Out port on the back, and everything worked just fine. So I did the same, and lo and behold, everything started working perfectly. Curious, I grabbed a pair of normal headphones, and plugged them into the front audio jack; and to my surprise, I had perfect Stereo audio. So I plugged my speakers back into the front port, and still ended up with only the left speaker. That's when I noticed that the Settings Menu was claiming that the speakers were "headphones", but this wasn't the case. That's when I realized that it may have been an audio channel issue all along. See, these speakers aren't just left and right. The z533 kit also contains a subwoofer. But this is all channeled out through a single 3.5mm wire. Now, when I plugged the speakers into the Line Out jack on the back, I noticed the Settings Menu in Linux had various different options for various different audio configurations, such as 3.0, 4.0, and 5.1. But when I plugged the speakers into the front jack, the ONLY option was just "headphones".

That made me realize that the driver that was included with Debian isn't set up to allow for anything other than channel 2.0 (regular stereo audio) from the front audio jack. But the driver that was included with Windows allowed for all available audio channels from all available audio jacks. This is why I didn't have this same issue when the computer had Windows 11 installed on it, but the issued presented itself when Linux was installed. With that being said, I think I'm going to mark this forum as "solved", and continue to just use the rear Line Out audio port on the back of the computer. Again, thank you guys for all of your replies.

Your speakers are only two channel - bass splitting is done in the speakers with a filter. They have a 3-pole 3.5mm plug (left, right and ground).

I suspect that the front jack is actually a combination jack, with three channels - left, right and microphone - and that the headphones that you plugged in had a microphone, so the bands on the plug aligned correctly. To confirm, check if it has a 4-pole 3.55mm plug (left, right, microphone, ground).

When you plug in your two channel speakers, the right channel is connecting to the microphone input - so no sound.

If your motherboard is like this one, it has the facility to detect if a 2-channel device is plugged into the front jack and send the right output to the correct connection.

Audio
Realtek 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio CODEC*
- Supports: Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking

https://www.asus.com/uk/motherboards-co ... /techspec/

Support for this feature would be built into the Windows driver, but Linux will just see a combination jack.

If you want to use the front jack for the speakers, you will need a splitter - a 4-pole plug 3.5mm to 2x3-pole 3.5mm sockets, one for speakers, one for microphone.

Ah, I see. This makes sense. Thanks for this information.