Audio not working due to output muting working incorrectly

iyonn · March 1, 2025, 3:48pm

So my audio stopped working suddenly after using headphones and after hours of troubleshooting i see in alsamixer that when i plug headphones speakers get automatically muted, but when i unplug them they don’t get unmuted, only headphones get muted. When i plug them again, they don’t unmute.
So system seems to have problem with unmuting speakers/headphones upon plug in or plug out and it keeps only muting stuff.
In alsamixer i have automute disabled. Strange is, when i enable it, it disables automatically when i plug in headphones.
Rebooting didn’t help, also reinstalling kernel, downgrading wireplumber pipewire and alsa, going to lts kernel also didn’t help.
I would be very thankful for any help here

anon93652015 · March 1, 2025, 4:08pm

Try this then reboot:

Internal microphone suddenly disappeared on thinkpad x1

mv .local/state/wireplumber .local/state/wireplumber-bkp
It just renames your Wireplumber settings folder. When you reboot, the folder is recreated automatically with any new default settings from a Wireplumber/Pipewire update.

This usually fixes random audio issues. Let us know if it works.

iyonn · March 1, 2025, 7:12pm

It didn’t work

anon93652015 · March 1, 2025, 7:27pm

Are you using an external display?

And what’s the output of: inxi -Fxxc0z

iyonn · March 1, 2025, 7:58pm

No external display and:

System:
Kernel: 6.13.5-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.2 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Detachable System: Micro (HK) Tech product: V3 v: N/A
serial:
Mobo: Shenzhen Meigao Equipment model: HPPAC serial:
UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.05 date: 04/10/2024
Battery:
ID-1: BATT charge: 21.8 Wh (43.6%) condition: 50.0/51.0 Wh (97.9%)
volts: 11.2 min: 11.6 model: Standard SR Real Battery serial:
status: discharging
Device-1: hid-0018:222A:550D.0004-battery model: PNP0C50:00 222A:550D
serial: N/A charge: N/A status: N/A
Device-2: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech MX Ergo Multi-Device Trackball
serial: charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: discharging
CPU:
Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 8840U w/ Radeon 780M Graphics bits: 64
type: MT MCP arch: Zen 4 rev: 2 cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 8 MiB L3: 16 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1099 min/max: 400/3301 boost: disabled cores: 1: 1099
2: 1099 3: 1099 4: 1099 5: 1099 6: 1099 7: 1099 8: 1099 9: 1099 10: 1099
11: 1099 12: 1099 13: 1099 14: 1099 15: 1099 16: 1099 bogomips: 105410
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Phoenix3 driver: amdgpu v: kernel
arch: RDNA-3 pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,
DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, DP-5, DP-6, DP-7, DP-8, Writeback-1 bus-ID: c4:00.0
chip-ID: 1002:1900 temp: 31.0 C
Device-2: Sunplus Innovation Hy-Usb2.0-1 MIC driver: uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-1:2 chip-ID: 1bcf:2ce4
Device-3: Kingcome USB2.0 FHD UVC WebCam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 2b7e:c705
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x0b7b res: 2560x1600 hz: 165 dpi: 215
diag: 356mm (14")
API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1 drv: swrast
gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi wayland: drv: radeonsi x11:
drv: radeonsi
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.3.4-arch1.1
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi
gfx1103_r1 LLVM 19.1.7 DRM 3.61 6.13.5-arch1-1) device-ID: 1002:1900
display-ID: :1.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.304 surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 0
type: integrated-gpu driver: N/A device-ID: 1002:1900
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Rembrandt Radeon High Definition
Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: c4:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor
driver: snd_pci_ps v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: c4:00.5
chip-ID: 1022:15e2
Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: c4:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
Device-4: Sunplus Innovation Hy-Usb2.0-1 MIC driver: uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-1:2 chip-ID: 1bcf:2ce4
API: ALSA v: k6.13.5-arch1-1 status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.2.7 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210/AX1675 2x2 [Typhoon Peak] driver: iwlwifi
v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2725
IF: wlan0 state: up mac:
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-5:5 chip-ID: 8087:0032
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: bt-v: 5.3
lmp-v: 12
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 55.09 GiB (5.8%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Kingston model: OM8PGP41024Q-A0
size: 953.87 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: temp: 22.9 C
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 465.25 GiB used: 54.9 GiB (11.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7
Swap:
Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 33.1 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 31.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Memory: total: 32 GiB note: est. available: 29.16 GiB used: 2.92 GiB (10.0%)
Processes: 396 Power: uptime: 1m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 257
default: graphical
Packages: 1259 pm: pacman pkgs: 1235 pm: flatpak pkgs: 24 Compilers:
clang: 19.1.7 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: konsole
inxi: 3.3.37

anon93652015 · March 1, 2025, 8:09pm

Okay, let’s try the LTS kernel. If you already have it installed, just reboot and select it.
If you don’t, you can install it like this: sudo pacman -Syu linux-lts linux-lts-headers.

If you have GRUB, then run sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
If you have Systemd-boot, then run sudo reinstall-kernels.

Then reboot and select the LTS kernel.

Also, please check if there is a BIOS update available for your system by going to the manufacturer’s website and searching for drivers.

iyonn · March 1, 2025, 10:10pm

Thank you for your fast answer!
So indeed bios update was availible. I did update it and it didn’t help.
I also bootet LTS like you instructed, which also didn’t help.
I don’t knof if its relevant, but i dual boot with windows and on windows everything works fine.

anon93652015 · March 1, 2025, 11:22pm

Hmm. Try running this, but after redoing my first suggestion and rebooting:

systemctl --user restart wireplumber pipewire pipewire-pulse

Or you can do it before just to test it. But if it doesn’t work, redo the first thing, test if things are working, and if not, run the above command.

iyonn · March 2, 2025, 8:04am

Did as you said and it’s still not working

iyonn · March 2, 2025, 1:04pm

Fixed it. As usual it was something i’ve broken myself.
I ended switching to different distro, but the issue persisted, but there i noticed it only came up after i applied the fix for volume control for my pc. The issue and solution is described in this thread for anyone interested:

github.com/mudkipme/awesome-minisforum-v3

Quest to get fully functional Audio

opened 01:23PM - 17 Oct 24 UTC

makito89

Hello everyone, I'm currently using HoloISO (Arch based distribution that att…empts to create Steam Deck experience as close as possible). The patch "[Workaround for global volume control with the speaker](https://github.com/mudkipme/awesome-minisforum-v3#workaround-for-global-volume-control-with-the-speaker)" works but creates other issues like unusable headphone jack (no sound in headphones and once headphones jack is inserted-removed there is no longer sound from speakers). So I started to investigate alternative options and I found that the issue seems to be with the alsa card profile initialization. Here are the steps I've done so far : 1. Removed the "Workaround for global volume control with the speaker" patch 2. Edited ```/usr/share/alsa-card-profile/mixer/paths/analog-output.conf.common``` and added before ```[Element PCM]```: ``` [Element Master] switch = mute volume = ignore ``` 3. Rebooted 4. Sound still has 2 modes mute-max volume (in reality is 3 modes : mute when volume is 0 .. push volume up once volume is 50% .. push volume up and the volume is at max till the volume bar is filled) 5. Jumped from Steam Gamemode to Desktop (KDE Plasma using X11 window manager) and audio is almost (see below the second behavior for reason) 100% working as it should over speakers and also when using headphone jack 6. Jumped back to Gamemode and the audio still works as it should 7. Reboot and I'm back to a step 4 behavior and need to repeat step 5 to get back the working audio While playing with this I've noticed 2 different behaviors in alsamixer. First behavior is when I reboot the system and get into Gamemode or Desktop (previous step 4 - the one where the sound has only 3 modes mute-50%-100%) - I've opened a ssh session and launched ```alsamixer -c 1``` and while playing with the volume buttons I've noticed that only the Speaker bar is changing - the PCM is "stuck" at 100% while Master is at 50% (as expected due to changes made at previous step 2) Second behavior is only when I've switched from Gamemode to Desktop (previous step 5 - with almost 100% working audio) - with ```alsamixer -c 1``` still opened the volume buttons now change the PCM bar and when the PCM bar is at 0% the Speaker bar drops from 100 to 68 and then to 30 and to 0/mute. When I increase the volume the first 4 pushes of volume up button there is no sound output as the Speaker bar goes from mute to 30 then to 68 and finaly to 100 (this is the reason I said that audio is almost 100% working) before PCM bar start to move and the sound is present in speakers or headphones. Now I'm trying to figure out what happens, what gets initialized and how when switching from Gamemode to Desktop that makes the audio to work. Any ideas and hints on where to dig further are welcome.

Thank you ddnn for trying to help me!