Debian User Forums

arussell wrote: 2025-02-17 17:05 Have you plugged into a different computer?

Jack Sparrow wrote: 2025-02-17 19:42

arussell wrote: 2025-02-17 17:05 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.

NorthEast wrote: 2025-02-18 04:42 Assuming all the hardware is good, like cables properly connected, then the following may be a start to look at the issue........

FreewheelinFrank wrote: 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?

Jack Sparrow wrote: 2025-02-18 23:22

NorthEast wrote: 2025-02-18 04:42 Assuming all the hardware is good, like cables properly connected, then the following may be a start to look at the issue........

FreewheelinFrank wrote: 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.

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

FreewheelinFrank wrote: 2025-02-19 04:42

Jack Sparrow wrote: 2025-02-18 23:22

NorthEast wrote: 2025-02-18 04:42 Assuming all the hardware is good, like cables properly connected, then the following may be a start to look at the issue........

FreewheelinFrank wrote: 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.