usb logitech headset only works with VLC

[Member stevesr0]

Hi all,

I am running Antix on two laptops. One runs 17 and the other 19.

I bought a logitech H390 usb headset to use in zoom conferences.

On both machines, I can only hear through the headset when using VLC.

I went into alsamixer and adjusted the setup for the USB logitech, and still doesn’t work.

I added xinput and followed the directions to select the usb Logitech as enabled. (xinput set-prop “Device Enabled” 12 0). Did nothing.

Looked online, haven’t seen a clear solution.

Appreciate advice, suggestions, comments, reference.

Thanks.

stevesdr0

[Member sybok]

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Hi, did you try pulseaudio+pavucontrol?
In some cases, it managed to redirect the audio stream more properly for me.

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi sybok,

I have avoided that, installing apulse instead.

But I haven’t played with that a lot and looking on line just now didn’t see a guide to using it with usb devices.

Thanks for the suggestion.

stevesr0

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Having played with DRM Bluetooth external speakers myself.

Commands that help me learn

lsusb -v

cat /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf

I had to install pulse-audio from antix package installer for my external bluetooth speaker to work properly.

dmesg | grep firmware

Plus other dmesg grep commands with name of unit in question will show errors if any also.

Forgot to mention. Running xmms or whatever like aplay man aplay from command line may mention why nothing is heard also.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by rokytnji.

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[Member stevesr0]

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thanks rokytnji,

but it is a usb headset, not bluetooth.

stevesr0

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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stevesr0 wrote:

thanks rokytnji,

but it is a usb headset, not bluetooth.

stevesr0

The lsusb suggestions apply to USB.
Aplay should work for USB devices.
See if either of them help.

Also look at

inxi -Fxz
Send the output of the command and perhaps someone will spot something else that may help.

--
Brian Masinick

[Moderator caprea]

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What you could try is to rewrite the ~/.asoundrc file to set your headset as the default device.
You should try that first , but if you want the right device to be used with just a few clicks I think this is much more complicated and pulseaudio is a possibility you must unfortunately consider.
Besides lsusb could you post the content of ~/.asoundrc
and
aplay -l
lsmod | grep snd_usb_audio
from terminal

[Member stevesr0]

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UPDATE: file rejected??

Thanks for comments folks.

I am attaching a text file with the output from aplay, lsusb and lsmod as Caprea requested.

I am including the audio section from inxi -Fxz.

Thanks in advance.

stevesr0

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by stevesr0.

[Member Xecure]

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Try uploading the file with a .txt extension (like filename.txt),
or copy the content, paste it in pastebin.com and share the link,
or upload temporarily online (filebin.net) and share the link to download it.
or try again to upload it but inside a compressed .zip file.

The forum software is a bit particular on the files you can upload.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member stevesr0]

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In the interim, I found a mention on the MX forum to antix’s control centre selection of audio card. If I choose the USB Logitech headset choice, it does work with YouTube.

However, today still DID not work with ZOOM?!!

I will try it with my other laptop running antix (19) and see if using the control centre gets it working with everything.

otherwise, it is apparently a linux zoom issue with this headset.

thanks for comments.

stevesr0

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi all,

a bit of followup.

Today, I tried this on my 3rd laptop which runs a modest version of Sid. The headset works automagically in ZOOM and YouTube. In Alsamixer, the computer is selected as the sound card, although the USB connected Logitech headset is listed as another choice (Sound Card #2, with HDA Intel as #0 and Blue Eyeball 2.0 as #1).

Earlier, when trying to get it working on the gaming laptop running na full version of 19, after plugging in and plugging out an external headphone and then a microphone into a 3.5 connection, alsamixer refused to launch, even after reboot without either of these attached. From the terminal, get a message “cannot open mixer: no such device”.

So, obviously the H390 Logitech headset works in (some) Antix linux setups.

An obvious difference is that the gaming laptop has two GPUs, but I don’t see why that would mess up the audio controller.

Interestingly, this computer has no .asoundrc file at all, although the libasound2 library is installed. The gaming computer has a .asoundrc file, but it is blank. Both have identical /etc/asound.conf files.

So, I have an opportunity to learn something…

stevesr0

[Member stevesr0]

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Uh, today, attended a jitsi video meeting and neither the logitech headset or a “plug in” pair of microphone and headphone worked. It only showed “default audio source” as the only choice.

Thoroughly discouraged.

Don’t see that alsamixer actually sets the default sound card for applications. I may install the control centre on this system in order to use it to select the sound card. (I am curious how it does “set” it since alsamixer doesn’t really seem to.)

If that doesn’t work, I will start studying how to set up an alsa config file to set the headset as the default.

stevesr0

[Member stevesr0]

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(I know the title should be updated to “Problem getting USB headset working with Firefox without pulseaudio or Pipewire”, but I can’t do it.)

Hello all,

Serendipity happened to me today of a sorts.

I thought I had a problem with my headset working with the gaming computer running antiX-17.

It was a bit of a comedy of errors, but it might be useful for others to hear about it AND I still have an unanswered small problem.

I tried to attend a jitsi meeting via the Firefox browser online and couldn’t get any sound either from either the internal computer speakers or a headset – except that when joining there was a message that the session was recorded. VLC worked fine and the sound card chooser could deliver test sounds to both sets of speakers.

I tried changing things in alsamixer and saving using alsactl store, but that didn’t change anything. (I also got an error message about a file already existing)

I realized that I had an existing ~/.asoundrc file

defaults.pcm.!card PCH
defaults.ctl.!card PCH

But I decided to edit the /etc/asound.conf file.

After editing that to use the headset card (card 2) as the default, I rebooted. Still no change. I then opened the ~/.asoundrc file, noting that its contents had changed to

defaults.pcm.Headset 
defaults.ctl.Headset

(might be a space before the word Headset – this is IIRC.)

Since that wasn’t working, I changed the Headset to 2 (with a space preceeding the 2) and rebooted.

Now Youtube played to the headset. I disconnected the headset and things went funky with the fan revving and dthe CPU going to 100% on htop. Frightened I rebooted.

No change, Firefox was delivering to the headset.

Then, it dawned upon me that I had not started firefox with apulse. So I tried opening a second instance of firefox from the terminal with apulse firefox. Interestingly, this delivers the sound from You tube to the internal speakers! So without apulse, alsa rules with firefox thru .asoundrc, and with apulse, Firefox ignores (?) the .asoundrc file.

So, this is an opportunity for me to learn how to get asoundrc or asound.conf scripted so alsa will switch between a headset when it is plugged in and the internal speakers when it is disconnected (and how not to blow up the computer in the process).

Parenthetically, my problem with jitsi stemmed from the fact that I was using it via the Firefox browser. Belatedly, I started the jitsi app and realized it offered me a broad selection of sound choices – similar to VLC.

Lesson learned (if I remember it <g>).

stevesr0

P.S. I know that this would probably not be an issue if I installed pulseaudio or pipewire, but I will probably install antiX 22 or 23 on this computer in the relatively near term.

• This reply was modified 2 months ago by stevesr0.
• This reply was modified 2 months ago by stevesr0.
• This reply was modified 2 months ago by stevesr0.

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