Audio in Arch Linux

Question

I have already some time a problem with audio in Arch Linux. Here it goes:

When I plug my headphones in at boot Arch will play all audio through my headphones, when I plug them out there is just no sound. Arch will only play audio through my headphones. When I do not plug them in at boot Arch will only play sound through my speakers.

Doeas anybody know how I can fix this so I don't have to reboot for changing my audio output device?

Thanks in advance and below some information about my Arch Linux on a Macbook Pro 7,1:

aplay -l:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: CS4206 Analog [CS4206 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: CS4206 Digital [CS4206 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 HOST Bridge (rev a1)
00:00.1 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d6d (rev a1)
00:01.1 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d6e (rev a1)
00:01.2 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d6f (rev a1)
00:01.3 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d70 (rev a1)
00:02.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d71 (rev a1)
00:02.1 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d72 (rev a1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:03.1 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:03.2 SMBus: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 SMBus (rev a1)
00:03.3 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:03.4 Co-processor: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 Co-Processor (rev a1)
00:04.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:06.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:06.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:08.0 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:0a.0 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:0b.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d75 (rev a1)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d9a (rev a1)
00:15.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d9b (rev a1)
00:16.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0d9b (rev a1)
00:17.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
01:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): LSI Corporation FW643 [TrueFire] PCIe 1394b Controller     (rev 08)
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 08a0 (rev a2)

cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf :

options snd-hda-intel model=mbp55
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# RE4e._ECyo4j5hZB:nVidia Corporation
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

EDIT:

I forgot to say: I have Xfce4 as a desktop environment.

Answer 1

First of all, check if you have a sound system installed. Open your favorite terminal and type :

$ pacman -Qs | grep "alsa"

It should be the default installed.

If the commmand output is blank, it means that you have no sound system. You can then install the one you want.

Pulseaudio :

# pacman -Syu && pacman -S pulseaudio pavucontrol

use

$ pavucontrol

To change all the audio ouput and input. You can even redirect ouput stream into a microphone and some other cool stuff based on the principle of client/server.

Alsa :

# pacman -Syu && pacman -S alsa-utils alsa-plugins

Alsa is very simple (but lack some features) and is really easy to use. Its modules are directly included in the kernel which means it can perform out of the box on about every sound hardware. You can changes audio ouput by issuing the following command :

$ alsamixer

Which will prompt a nice terminal-based interface. From there, I'll suggest you to boost all the flux to 100% (to the very top of each one).

The xfce4 sound applet should work just fine. If not, you can download a simple volume control :

# pacman -Syu && pacman -S volumeicon

You may will have to do some changes to your Xstartup file to add the volumeicon applet.

Let me know if you run into any troubles.

Answer 2

I dont know what kind of Desktop environments which you use. But you can do that:

1. Try not to plug your headphones when boot
2. if you use gnome, you can open Setting-> Sound-> Output -> Choose a device for sound output, then choose the right device.

Answer 3

Have you installed the correct xfce-mixer (32 or 64 bit?) Check this one you may have to manually compile the gstreamer0.10-good-plugins