Pulse Audio seems to be the problem
by Skaperen from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6QJA6)
i powered-off my bluetooth headphones and rebooted my laptop.
Xubuntu 20.04 LTS
pulseaudio 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.13
pavucontrol 4.0-1build1
in pavucontrol i am looking at "Output Devices" and Port: "Speakers" is selected but the volume slider is at 0% (before i got headphones it would be at 100%) and grayed-out (i can't change it). selecting Port: "Headphones (unplugged)" does not change the slider (still at 0% and grayed-out). there is no sound.
before getting these headphones and trying to set them up, pavucontrol would show 100% and let me move it from 0% to 153%, and i would hear sound from the speaker if set high enough. i should be able to get sound from the speakers if i want that.
the ideal alternate software (assuming hardware can do this) is send audio to every output device concurrently and allow each to have an independent volume level setting. a plus would allow saving default startup settings (a button "save this as default startup" would be good). even better would be to also have controls i can use at command line and shell script level (a command to set a level for each possible setting, and a command to output a level for each).
can someone suggest an alternative to the whole Pulse Audio suite? i'd like to get away from this poorly design user interface.
given the current situation, can someone tell me what to do to get speaker sound while leaving the bluetooth headphones off?
Xubuntu 20.04 LTS
pulseaudio 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.13
pavucontrol 4.0-1build1
in pavucontrol i am looking at "Output Devices" and Port: "Speakers" is selected but the volume slider is at 0% (before i got headphones it would be at 100%) and grayed-out (i can't change it). selecting Port: "Headphones (unplugged)" does not change the slider (still at 0% and grayed-out). there is no sound.
before getting these headphones and trying to set them up, pavucontrol would show 100% and let me move it from 0% to 153%, and i would hear sound from the speaker if set high enough. i should be able to get sound from the speakers if i want that.
the ideal alternate software (assuming hardware can do this) is send audio to every output device concurrently and allow each to have an independent volume level setting. a plus would allow saving default startup settings (a button "save this as default startup" would be good). even better would be to also have controls i can use at command line and shell script level (a command to set a level for each possible setting, and a command to output a level for each).
can someone suggest an alternative to the whole Pulse Audio suite? i'd like to get away from this poorly design user interface.
given the current situation, can someone tell me what to do to get speaker sound while leaving the bluetooth headphones off?