Headphones Not Working?

[soapy334499]

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.

Hmmm. I could test with some gaming headphones, but I'd have to buy them. It does look like it supports a microphone on the same jack, since I got a super old pair (pretty much only cycle power and have the ability to connect to stuff, no output or input works) and they showed up as headphones and a mic. I should probably get a pair of gaming headphones soon....

 

[soapy334499]

Hmmm... Everything worked except for two things. First, pairing gave me this:

 Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AuthenticationRejected

Then, I trusted and unblocked the headphones just in case. It was fine, until I got to the connect command. It said this:

Failed to connect: org.bluez.Error.Failed br-connection-profile-unavailable

 

[Condobloke]

systemctl --user enable pulseaudio

   systemctl --user start pulseaudio

 

[soapy334499]

Did those commands, and nothing happened. Really weird, but nothing opened or whatever. It didn't even tell me "command didn't exist" in the event I got it wrong, either.

 

[Condobloke]

The commands put pulesaudio in place....nothing more.

Try the headphones again ?

 

[soapy334499]

The commands put pulesaudio in place....nothing more.

Try the headphones again ?

Hmmm... They still have no bluetooth audio, but I have plugged them in to see if there was a balancing issue or something. If I go to lock the channels together in pulseaudio, the both play through the left when I adjust them. If I test the channels in Sound, only the left channel plays and the right is silent. Odd. Still no right channel or bluetooth audio at all.

 

[Condobloke]

is your Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon completely up to date ?

sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

 

[soapy334499]

is your Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon completely up to date ?

sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

It's upgrading. It'll need a minute, but I think this might fix it.
Edit: My hopes were too high, and I come back bearing tales of despair. Didn't work, unfortunately.

 

[KGIII]

Hmmm. I could test with some gaming headphones, but I'd have to buy them. It does look like it supports a microphone on the same jack, since I got a super old pair (pretty much only cycle power and have the ability to connect to stuff, no output or input works) and they showed up as headphones and a mic. I should probably get a pair of gaming headphones soon....

I would stay on the cheaper end, unless you're prepared to deal with returning them, because I can't be completely certain that this will resolve your problem.

I find this odd. I'd assumed that you'd have an updated system, though I probably ought to stop making that assumption.

 

[soapy334499]

I would stay on the cheaper end, unless you're prepared to deal with returning them, because I can't be completely certain that this will resolve your problem.

I find this odd. I'd assumed that you'd have an updated system, though I probably ought to stop making that assumption.

I probably will, or I might be able to get a relative to give me his old ones. I make no guarantees, but I aim to get ones that are comfortable. I find it quite odd as well- and by "updated system", the last I updated was about five minutes ago, and before that, I got the OS from the distro site for Mint. Still working things out lol

 

[Condobloke]

I find it quite odd as well- and by "updated system", the last I updated was about five minutes ago, and before that, I got the OS from the distro site for Mint

You got the distro site for mint?......what does that mean?

Just to put things in some sort of perspective, I update daily......by right clicking on the 'shield' icon in the system tray....and selecting Refresh....by doing that it checks for Updates in the background....you can continue doing whatever you are doing......if there are updates a tiny red dot will appear on the shield icon (bottom right hand side near clock)
You can click on Install updates and then minimise that window, and continue with you are doing.

 

[KGIII]

I probably will, or I might be able to get a relative to give me his old ones. I make no guarantees, but I aim to get ones that are comfortable. I find it quite odd as well- and by "updated system", the last I updated was about five minutes ago, and before that, I got the OS from the distro site for Mint. Still working things out lol

In a way, it's 'good' to know that updating didn't work. We cam also narrow down one more thing.

If you look at the port, is there an icon beside it? If so, does that icon look like a set of headphones with a microphone attached?

 

[soapy334499]

You got the distro site for mint?......what does that mean?

Just to put things in some sort of perspective, I update daily......by right clicking on the 'shield' icon in the system tray....and selecting Refresh....by doing that it checks for Updates in the background....you can continue doing whatever you are doing......if there are updates a tiny red dot will appear on the shield icon (bottom right hand side near clock)
You can click on Install updates and then minimise that window, and continue with you are doing.

Oh- so sorry. I got Mint from the main distro site for it (Here: https://www.linuxmint.com/) and haven't updated since. I'm not all that used to Linux, so I didn't know updates were that frequent.

 

[soapy334499]

In a way, it's 'good' to know that updating didn't work. We cam also narrow down one more thing.

If you look at the port, is there an icon beside it? If so, does that icon look like a set of headphones with a microphone attached?

Yeah, that's the one.

 

[KGIII]

Yeah, that's the one.

Then I'm definitely leaning toward my shot in the dark.

I did some further looking and came up with these search terms: 'headphones audio out of just one side because of mic'

That led me down a rabbit hole for a few minutes.

If the jack has the microphone icon next to it, it means it's a special 3.5 mm jack that supports both audio out and audio in on the same jack (headphones and a microphone attached to the headsight).

From what I picked up in my brief rabbit hole, not all headphones support this format. It's a different plug with different configurations.

I'm leaning toward this being the problem. I kind of thought so, which is why I brought it up.

 

[soapy334499]

Then I'm definitely leaning toward my shot in the dark.

I did some further looking and came up with these search terms: 'headphones audio out of just one side because of mic'

That led me down a rabbit hole for a few minutes.

If the jack has the microphone icon next to it, it means it's a special 3.5 mm jack that supports both audio out and audio in on the same jack (headphones and a microphone attached to the headsight).

From what I picked up in my brief rabbit hole, not all headphones support this format. It's a different plug with different configurations.

I'm leaning toward this being the problem. I kind of thought so, which is why I brought it up.

Hm. Looks like the problem is solved, for now, until I can test it out with a spare pair of headphones. I can probably use my relative's gamer headphones for a bit, and make sure it's true. Thanks for the help, and I'll update once I can test it out!

 

[Condobloke]

if the headphones of your relative work on your pc with your cord......then the problem is the headphones

If the relatives headphones do not work using your cord on your pc, then the problem is the cord

 

[soapy334499]

if the headphones of your relative work on your pc with your cord......then the problem is the headphones

If the relatives headphones do not work using your cord on your pc, then the problem is the cord

That's true. I think he only has corded ones, though, so I'll see if the headphone+mic combo works.

 

[soapy334499]

Update: Got a cheap little pair of headphones from the store, and.... THEY WORK!!!! Right now I'm just happy that they work, and I don't really need to figure out compact gaming headphones for transporting them to my uni and stuff. Thanks everyone! All the help was greatly appreciated

 

[KGIII]

Update: Got a cheap little pair of headphones from the store, and.... THEY WORK!!!!

That confirms that there are some that work with that funky headphone/microphone jack and some that don't.

That's a nice confirmation. It may make replacing your nice Bose with something similar a bit difficult. You'll need to know that they work with that type of jack. Maybe they mention it somewhere? I'd like to hope so but I found scant information from the people selling headphones.