Headphones Not Working?

[soapy334499]

Are you trying to connect wired or bluetooth?
Do other speakers, (not headphones) work?

I'm only able to connect the Bose ones with wires, since the cord I have doesn't fit the Beats. If I do this, though, only one side (the one with the wire connected) will have audio, and the other does nothing. I'd prefer bluetooth connection, but I just want my headphones to work, honestly. Also- I don't have any other speakers I can connect, so no testing ability.

 

[dos2unix]

I'm only able to connect the Bose ones with wires,

In that case, I would suspect a bluetooth problem, not pipewire or pulseadudio.

It sounds like you have already gone through most of this...

Thread 'Troubleshooting audio problems in Linux.'

Feb 19, 2025

This is a big subject, and this post can't cover all possibilities. But it's a good place to start. I see a lot of "My audio isn't working in Linux" posts. Most of this will be done from the command line. This eliminates layer of complexity.

Here are some things to try, before you ask for more help. Running these commands will help other people help you.
First, what kind of sound hardware do you have?

sudo lspci | grep -i audio

This should return something similar to this. You may have more or less devices, but you need at least one.

2e:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA...

• dos2unix
• Replies: 0
• Forum: Linux Audio / Video

• 

There are some bluetooth things we can do here. Give me a few minutes to test some things.

 

[dos2unix]

You can try the things in this article.

Thread 'Troubleshooting Bluetooth'

Mar 11, 2025

Here are some things to try.

The first one here is obvious, but you never know. Not all computers support bluetooth. Does yours?
NOTE:** Bluetooth usually doesn't work from a VM. **

lsusb | grep -i blue

lspci | grep -i blue

One of those two commands should return some device of some kind. If not, you likely don't support bluetooth.

sudo systemctl status bluetooth

If it isn't running...

sudo systemctl enable bluetooth
sudo systemctl start bluetooth

If it's not installed, you can try to install bluez, it's more or less the standard tool for bluetooth in most...

• dos2unix
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Linux Hardware

• 

 

[soapy334499]

You can try the things in this article.

Thread 'Troubleshooting Bluetooth'

Mar 11, 2025

Here are some things to try.

The first one here is obvious, but you never know. Not all computers support bluetooth. Does yours?
NOTE:** Bluetooth usually doesn't work from a VM. **

lsusb | grep -i blue

lspci | grep -i blue

One of those two commands should return some device of some kind. If not, you likely don't support bluetooth.

sudo systemctl status bluetooth

If it isn't running...

sudo systemctl enable bluetooth
sudo systemctl start bluetooth

If it's not installed, you can try to install bluez, it's more or less the standard tool for bluetooth in most...

• dos2unix
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Linux Hardware

• 

Bluetooth is running and supported by my device, but I did reinstall bluetooth to see if that was the issue. Now my headphones can't stay connected- pretty much just connecting for only a few seconds then disconnecting again, and the cycle repeats. I'm not sure this is meant to be, cause it is quite difficult either way when all I'm trying to do is watch FreeTube. Maybe I should get a pair of wired gaming headphones.

 

[dos2unix]

It's late here, and I have to get up early tomorrow, but I'm not ready to give up, I still have a few more ideas.
You said this was Mint22? I will try connecting to it in the morning, but I'm pretty sure I've done this before.

 

[soapy334499]

Yeah, that's what I have. Thanks for the help- I'll keep trying, but I'm not all that hopeful.

 

[Condobloke]

Just a late thought....have you typed sound into the menu and looked there....anything muted?

 

[soapy334499]

Just a late thought....have you typed sound into the menu and looked there....anything muted?

Speakers are muted, headphones don't show up unless they're plugged in (when they do show up, they aren't muted). When I do plug them in, they do play sound, but only on the left side. I can also switch the balance of the sounds on each side, and the right side has no output at all from my computer.

 

[Condobloke]

how old are the headphones?

 

[MikeWalsh]

I can connect my headphones with bluetooth to the computer

Oh. Huh. BLUETOOTH. Riiight.... Say no more. The "problem" is self-inflicted!

When I was looking around for a new set of full-cup headphones (actually, a headset.....with built-in microphone) a few years ago, I spent ages specifically looking for a wireless set that used a 2.4 GHz dongle. Took forever - 'cos everyone and his dog will INSIST on using Bluetooth - but I did eventually find 'em.

I loathe Bluetooth. Always have done. Personal preference, I know, but.....well, there ya go.

The advantage of this is that, like all USB audio stuff, they have their own sound card built-in to the rather chunky dongle.....which makes using 'em a real doddle. You just select that sound card, then adjust 'em via their own internal controls. Piece of cake, if I'm honest...

Mike.

 

[soapy334499]

how old are the headphones?

Oh, gee... The Bose ones are more than a few years old (I'm inclined to say three to five years, because I remember they're a hand-me-down) but the Beats are a year old, at most. However, I'd expect the newer ones to connect more easily, but they didn't connect at all... Strange. I am trying to connect the Beats right now, but the furthest I've gotten was the bluetooth connection menu- doesn't seem like it even shows up.

 

[soapy334499]

Oh. Huh. BLUETOOTH. Riiight.... Say no more. The "problem" is self-inflicted!

Mike.

Not so! I'd use wired headphones if I had an aux cord that fit them, or if both sides of my headphones worked with a wire. I'm only looking for a way to make them work. If it must work with a wire, then I must find out how to make both sides use audio. If it must work with bluetooth, then I must find a way to make the headphones cycle audio without wire connection. Also, I can't use USB- cause the cord is quite short- and using aux (the circular one I guess) just results in one side working. No dice yet.

 

[dos2unix]

any output from dmesg?

 

[KGIII]

This is a shot in the dark.

This is only worth trying after you aren't having the repeated disconnection issues presented above.

If you have resolved that, you can run pavucontrol in the terminal. You'd then click on the output tab and look to see if there's any entry for the headphones in that menu. You'd select it and then check it for balance settings.

Given the other things you've tried, this may not be a solution. If nothing else, it almost certainly won't make the situation worse.

 

[soapy334499]

This is a shot in the dark.

This is only worth trying after you aren't having the repeated disconnection issues presented above.

If you have resolved that, you can run pavucontrol in the terminal. You'd then click on the output tab and look to see if there's any entry for the headphones in that menu. You'd select it and then check it for balance settings.

Given the other things you've tried, this may not be a solution. If nothing else, it almost certainly won't make the situation worse.

Tried this with the Bose headphones (with wire)- Nothing on the right side. It's really odd, because both sides work with my phone, both with bluetooth and the wire. Beats are still not committing to being connected at all.

 

[soapy334499]

any output from dmesg?

Tried putting this in terminal, and it spat out a lot of stuff. I think this is the audio stuff it told me, but if you need me to put ALL of the results here, then I can.

15
[    6.399203] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
[    6.405090] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: examining hci_ver=0a hci_rev=000c lmp_ver=0a lmp_subver=8822
[    6.408036] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rom_version status=0 version=3
[    6.408051] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8822cu_fw.bin
[    6.409625] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8822cu_config.bin
[    6.410045] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: cfg_sz 6, total sz 35990
[    6.420852] intel_telemetry_core Init
[    6.470107] rtw_8822ce 0000:02:00.0 wlo1: renamed from wlan0
[    6.480003] Invalid pltconfig, ensure IPC1 device is enabled in BIOS
[    6.517849] NET: Registered PF_QIPCRTR protocol family
[    6.587999] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: fw version 0x0cc6d2e3
[    6.607263] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[    6.607291] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[    6.607299] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[    6.657176] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:0e.0: bound 0000:00:02.0 (ops i915_audio_component_bind_ops [i915])
[    6.660043] Bluetooth: hci0: AOSP extensions version v1.00
[    6.660056] Bluetooth: hci0: AOSP quality report is supported
[    6.660355] Bluetooth: MGMT ver 1.22
[    6.688178] NET: Registered PF_ALG protocol family
[    6.762073] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: autoconfig for ALC236: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:speaker
[    6.762088] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    6.762092] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    hp_outs=1 (0x21/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    6.762096] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    mono: mono_out=0x0
[    6.762099] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    inputs:
[    6.762101] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:      Mic=0x19
[    6.762105] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:      Internal Mic=0x12
[    6.830965] input: HDA Intel PCH Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0e.0/sound/card0/input20
[    6.831094] input: HDA Intel PCH Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0e.0/sound/card0/input21
[    6.831186] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0e.0/sound/card0/input22
[    6.831287] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=7 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0e.0/sound/card0/input23
[    6.831373] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=8 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0e.0/sound/card0/input24
[    7.720851] Lockdown: Xorg: raw io port access is restricted; see man kernel_lockdown.7
[    7.911562] audit: type=1400 audit(1741725102.718:138): apparmor="DENIED" operation="capable" class="cap"

After this is code that (I think) pertains to my internet connection and stuff. Here's the code that shows up at the very end of the results when I connect my headphones:

[   97.118446] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[   97.118464] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[   97.118477] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11

Don't really know what any of this means, but I hope y'all can make better sense of it.

 

[dos2unix]

Don't really know what any of this means, but I hope y'all can make better sense of it.

All that looks OK.

What is output of...

sudo btmon

and...

bluetoothctl devices

There may be personal stuff in this output, but do you see the headset?

 

[soapy334499]

All that looks OK.

What is output of...

sudo btmon

and...

bluetoothctl devices

There may be personal stuff in this output, but do you see the headset?

Yeah, I see the Bose headphones. Here's the output for the first command:

Bluetooth monitor ver 5.72
btmon[3925]: = Note: Linux version 6.8.0-51-generic (x86_64)           0.802166
btmon[3925]: = Note: Bluetooth subsystem version 2.22                  0.802170
= New Index: A8:41:F4:DA:33:70 (Primary,USB,hci1)               [hci1] 0.802172
= Open Index: A8:41:F4:DA:33:70                                 [hci1] 0.802173
= Index Info: A8:41:F4:D.. (Realtek Semiconductor Corporation)  [hci1] 0.802189
bluetoothd[729]: @ MGMT Open: bl.. (privileged) version 1.22  {0x0001} 0.802190

 

[KGIII]

I'll take a minute to explain an above comment further...

I haven't needed to play with headphones that have a microphone but still only use the 3.5 mm jack.

But, I believe their jacks are different.

Your standard stereo headset will have three connections. One would be a ground and then you'd have one connection each for the left and right channels.

The 3.5 mm jack can also have four connections. It has the three mentioned and then an additional contact point for the microphone. I've taken the liberty of finding one of them on Amazon to demonstrate this:

https://www.amazon.com/Cyber-Acoustics-Headphones-Cancelling-AC-5002/dp/B074JHQ8M3?th=1

When on said page, look at the male part of the jack. You'll see that it has four points of contact.

What I do not know is how these jacks work - that is those that also support a mic on the same jack. I haven't dug into it at this time as I'm not sure it matters.

But, if this is the case, could the people who designed the 3.5 mm jack (the one that supports the microphone) have not considered compatibility with the existing standard?

Is it possible that those jacks will only play a single channel's worth of audio if they don't have those four points of contact?

Further, would a laptop vendor only include a jack with those limitations/frustrations?

Those are questions that I don't have answers for. I simply see a string that you can pull on if you'd like.

If you have a 'gamer' buddy/neighbor, they probably have one of those headsets with the mic incorporated into it. You can borrow it from them and see if it makes a difference.

We do have some gamers here. Perhaps they can opine.

 

[dos2unix]

bluetoothctl

[bluetooth]# power on

[bluetooth]# discoverable on
[bluetooth]# pairable on

[bluetooth]# scan on

You will probably see your head phones here.
Just replace the XX's. with your MAC address of the device.

[bluetooth]# pair XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
[bluetooth]# trust XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
[bluetooth]# unblock XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

[bluetooth]# connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

If that doesn't do it, I'm about out of ideas.