Headphones in Ubuntu 10.04

[Theowb4]

I can't use my headphones on my Dell Laptop in Ubuntu 10.04 :'( . When I plug them in, they are recognized, and the built in speakers mute, but nothing goes through them. This laptop has a JBL - SRS premium soundset. I've went through Alsamixer, and there's nothing. Please help me?

[Theowb4]

PLEASE help me. I posted this multiple days ago, and still nothing! Does ANYBODY have an idea?

[meanmistermustard]

I can't use my headphones on my Dell Laptop in Ubuntu 10.04 :'( . When I plug them in, they are recognized, and the built in speakers mute, but nothing goes through them. This laptop has a JBL - SRS premium soundset. I've went through Alsamixer, and there's nothing. Please help me?

More details please.

Which model Dell do you have?
You didn't specifically say that the speakers actually play sounds.
Did sound work before the 10.4 installation?... with a previous Ubuntu or other distro?
Are you sure there's no problem with the headphones themselves?
Have you confirmed that it's not an issue with the driver?

Go to System>preferences>sound - Devices tab - and check to see that the correct mixer is chosen.
You might also try to click the 'headphone' choice in the box (allows volumne control via the keyboard) below the Device to see if that helps.

[Theowb4]

Dell Studio 1747, and the headphones never worked. I'm sure the headphones work, I've also tried external speakers. The built-in speakers work fine, and I think the problem is the drivers, that's why I posted here.

[lieberb]

I have the same issue, on a Dell Studio 1558 running 10.04. Sound works great, but when I plug in my (known working) headphones, the built in sound stops and nothing comes out of the headphone jack. This model actually has two jacks, neither work.

[tb2332]

So it does not seem to be a DELL specific problem

[Mr_Miyagi]

It could be a sound level problem. I'm sitting on a Dell laptop myself at the moment and my problem is the opposite, the headaphone sound level is on maximum. To check this open up a terminal and run 'alsamixer'. Check so the headphone sound level is not on zero or muted. Don't know how to set the sound level for the headphones from the normal sound level applet, it doesn't seem to affect the headphone sound level. Many people have this problem.

[MultiVAC]

I have exactly the same machine as you - a Dell studio 1747 - with the same sound system, and sadly exactly the same problem
2 headphone jacks, working like a charm in Windows 7, but completely useless in Ubuntu 10.04

made sure I had the most recent version of Alsa and all that, and according to the mixers the volume levels were all allright - yet nothing to be heard...

One thing that I did notice is that, sometimes, when the music is playing through the normal speakers and I jack in my headphone, I hear a very short bit of sound from the music (of much less than a second) distinctly through the headphones before the sound dies...

So I suspect that at some level it is just some volume which is turned off, but after a lot of searching I haven't been able to find anything which helps

Hope this will get a solution sooner or later, it's very annoying not to be able to use headphones when working in ubuntu :-/

[demo360]

Hi guys, I have a working workaround to get sound in the headphone jack.

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

add the following line at the end of the file:

options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6

reboot. Check the sound level of you headphone with alsamixer.

And that's it, you should have sound now. Enjoy

[MultiVAC]

thanks a million, demo360!
works like a charm

but could you also explain what I just did, and why exactly this works?

thanks again!