No audio output through 3.5mm jack but OK through HDMI

Question

I'm having trouble with audio playing through 3.5mm jack. Audio is playing fine through HDMI, but when 3.5mm jack is selected using all 3 options (i.e. - terminal command, configuration tool or by right clicking the volume icon) the following happens. 1. no sound at headphones. 2. green tick next to analog is displayed when right clicking the volume icon. 3. volume control drops to 0% 4. when volume control is increased the audio again plays only through HDMI.

My project is setting up my rpi 3B + as a Bluetooth audio receiver and forwarding this audio to RCAs through HiFi Berry DAC+ Pro.

As there is tonnes of articles on how to do this, most of them are outdated and extremely complex, I'm having to really study each step. If I do everything at once nothing works.

So far I managed to successfully configure the Bluetooth to connect to my phone and I'm able to stream audio from any application on my phone (iPhone) to the rpi, but sound is only available through HDMI.

I got to where I am by following the following steps:

#sudo apt-get update.
#sudo apt-get upgrade.
#sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth bluez-tools.
#sudo init 6.

#sudo gpasswd -a pi pulse
#sudo gpasswd -a pi lp
#sudo gpasswd -a pulse lp
#sudo gpasswd -a pi audio
#sudo gpasswd -a pulse audio

#sudo sh -c "echo 'extra-arguments = --exit-idle-time=-1 --log-target=syslog' >> /etc/pulse/client.conf"
#sudo hciconfig hci0 up
#sudo hciconfig hci0 class 0x200420
#sudo init 6

#sudo bluetoothctl

#agent KeyboardOnly
#default-agent

#scan on
#pair xx:xx:xx:...
#trust xx:xx:xx:...
#exit

I have now even disconnected the HiFi berry DAC as I would like to get the no sound at 3.5mm jack resolved first.

Any help in the right direction is highly appreciated.

Thanks Mike.

Answer 1

I did it....I fu*%ing did it. LOL, I'm sure for some of you navigating through the rpi OS and writing code is now easy, but go back to the time you made your first project work using rpi, that's how I felt yesterday. I have always been a Microsoft and iOS person and coding is brand new to me. My hardware arrived 4 days ago and for the last 3 I have been programing my rpi 3B +. As you all know, there is tones of information available when it comes to rpi, but the biggest problem I faced is that most of the info is outdated and no longer applies to new versions of hardware & software.

Anyways enough blablabla: After configuring my sound card and pulseaudio as the pi’s sound server, I finally got sound out the RCAs. I suspect that Joan was on the right track with the GPIOs comment, I had the DAC installed during initial OS installation and its quiet possible that those pins were allocated to the DAC, so before configuring the DAC the audio would still not be available at RCAs and it certainly wouldn't be available at the 3.5mm jack after removing the DAC. Now looking back the entire configuration process is very simple compared to what I found online.

I will once again repeat the configuration process and post each step for others that are looking at a similar project.

Answer 2

And if you select each output, does the output move from HDMI to the 3.5mm jack? If so, there's a way to make the change permanent

Answer 3

Be sure to remove any overlays in /boot.congig.txt related to the hifi-berry or anything else that might be claiming gpio ports. Look at the output of dmesg after boot for clues to what's being loaded. The output of lsmob is useful too, to see which audio drivers are loaded.