Framework 16 AI 300 Series -> Ubuntu 24.04 Speakers Work but not Headphones

[Ethan_Fitzsimons]

As the title states, got a Framework 16 quite recently, set up Ubuntu 24.04 desktop on it and I’ve been finding no matter what I tweak I can’t get my wired headphones to work. They worked on the laptop when it was Windows so it’s not a hardware compatibility issue, and the speakers on the laptop itself work fine.

Bios version is 03.04, running fwupdmgr update for example, everything up to date.

Using it in bluetooth mode zero problem, works. No change whether or not I have a usb microphone plugged in or privacy sliders on for reference. I think something to do with device detection as yeti microphone draws zero power whether in a hub or directly plugged in.

I ran the diagnostic tool recommended by Framework itself for audio and all I got was “latency” as a warning rather than something all that specific.

I then tried messing with settings, trying different suggestions and now things are worse than where I started. I am getting increasingly frustrated and it just seems bizarre they sell audio ports but it’s this amount of clunk to get anything to work.

Most recent diagnostic is now pipewire-pulse[3052]: mod.protocol-pulse: client 0x5573 etc

So pulsewire logs are now acting up when they weren’t before.

Went back to unmask pulseaudio service still returned the same result + checking status systemctl is-enabled pulseaudioservice.service just returns “not found” as the original idea was maybe it’s conflicting with something.

New to linux and this is bluntly, very confusing. Like do I reinstall all my audio stuff? The problem was occurring from a fresh install so seems like nothing would change, LTS desktop.

I have Pauvu Audio set-up and it detects I have a headphone port, audio tests show movement and all that jazz but nothing comes out.

Frankly I’m asking what the next things to even try are as it’s becoming convoluted without any positive progress. Is there a way to wipe even masked daemon instances to then reinstall everything fresh and see if that helps?

In earlier attempts I found pipewiresession specifically wasn’t showing up saying there wasn’t a package for it, like too many things are just off enough I can’t narrow it down.

I’m seeing some solutions online essentially saying check the kernal then make specific hardware edits but I think given fresh install I’d ask if anyone has a good tool to make sure device detection and the like can be refreshed in an ubuntu system.

Short version, plugged in headphones and/or microphone do not work, no power going to them. Audio works fine with nothing plugged in, bluetooth works.

Pulseaudio service says not found, pipewiresession the same.

Please share any suggestions.

Follow-up, it’s now not detecting a controller for example but still detects mouse via on the right side, fails on the left. I’m genuinely wondering if this is an audio port issue or something, all very very odd.

Next next set of tests, swapped audio port to right side, zero change. So it’s not a motherboard or side issue. That did swap the controller/hub issue for usb though so I’ll be solving that in the meantime.

[pkunk]

Welcome to the community @Ethan_Fitzsimons.

Try creating an Ubuntu LTS flash drive (or Fedora) and boot to a LIVE environment and see if the same issue occurs. If it does not then it is possibly something with how Ubuntu is currently installed on the device.

It is essentially a USBC to analog audio adapter. Maybe try an old pair of just regular headphones that do not have a microphone or has a separate cable for the mic. Just trying to think of ideas that might help out.

[Ethan_Fitzsimons]

Thank you for the hearty greeting.

For clarity, my headphones are a beat up pair of Bose but still kicking, use an audio cable and no mic built in.

I have since fixed my controller/hub issue where pairing a usb-c hub rather than a usb-a hub seemed to make it happy on the left side next to the headphone & HDMI port. Nothing plugged into the HDMI so unsure if that’s relevant.

Testing said hubs and ports, microphone works on the same usb-a port that hated the hub and still worked for the mouse so… maybe power supply? As even plugging controller directly didn’t change much.

I’d love to say my headphone problem is fixed as it does currently work but short answer we’ll see on a fresh boot? Tried the following in terminal.

$ alsactl init 

Then I swapped through every audio option, got to a 5th digital output and bango it worked. The irony being I was trying to make sure audio was playing through the VM to test as you suggested and by the time I got that working I stumbled into that solution.

From where I found it via forum discussions it’s a temporary fix so if that gives more info to help please ask away.

Overall, my audio is going through my headphones, mic works in testing via usb, I’ll likely keep that terminal code locked and loaded for future.

Rebooting maintains the same scenario, so while clunky to have to manually change to bottom-most device whenever headphones plugged in, technically a fix so I guess we say resolved? Win is a win after all.