MPOW USB Headphones Not Working (SOLVED)

[Alan Page]

I am running a fully up-date-date 64bit Peppermint 11 on an out-of-support Apple iMAC, and having a problem with a set of MPOW USB headphones, which are completely silent. Pulseaudio seems to be working normally on the internal speakers. If I try to switch the output to the USB headphones, pulseaudio does not list them - it appears unable to see them. Is there a particular driver package that I need?

Some hardware information below:

1. Output of dmesg when the headphones are plugged in:

[  524.884007] usb 3-1.3: new full-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
[  524.997721] usb 3-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0d8c, idProduct=0014, bcdDevice= 1.00
[  524.997726] usb 3-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  524.997728] usb 3-1.3: Product: Mpow-158
[  524.997730] usb 3-1.3: Manufacturer: C-Media Electronics Inc.
[  524.997731] usb 3-1.3: SerialNumber: 20171218
[  525.015186] input: C-Media Electronics Inc. Mpow-158 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb3/3-1/3-1.3/3-1.3:1.3/0003:0D8C:0014.0006/input/input17
[  525.072332] hid-generic 0003:0D8C:0014.0006: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.00 Device [C-Media Electronics Inc. Mpow-158] on usb-0000:00:1d.7-1.3/input3

1. Output of inxi -b (headphones were connected at boot time):

alan@alan-imac121:~$ inxi -b
System:
  Host: alan-imac121 Kernel: 5.10.0-16-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 
  Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Apple product: iMac12,1 v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> 
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-942B5BF58194151B serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Apple 
  v: 87.0.0.0.0 date: 06/14/2019 
CPU:
  Info: Quad Core Intel Core i5-2400S [MCP] speed: 1600 MHz min/max: 1600/3300 MHz 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics 
  driver: i915 v: kernel 
  Device-2: AMD Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M] driver: radeon 
  v: kernel 
  Device-3: Apple FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in) type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: ati,modesetting,radeon 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD TURKS (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.10.0-16-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1) 
  v: 3.3 Mesa 20.3.5 
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR93xx Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 12.1 GiB (2.6%) 
Info:
  Processes: 200 Uptime: 1h 10m Memory: 7.75 GiB used: 1.51 GiB (19.5%) Shell: Bash 
  inxi: 3.3.01 

Is any other information required?

Many thanks in anticipation
Alan

[KsWoodsMan]

Your audio devices(s) aren't listed .

Can you post the output from inxi -Fxz instead ?

[Alan Page]

Your audio devices(s) aren't listed .

Can you post the output from inxi -Fxz instead ?

Thanks KsWoodsMan
here it is (with USB headphones attached):

alan@alan-imac121:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.10.0-16-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 
  Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Apple product: iMac12,1 v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-942B5BF58194151B serial: <filter> UEFI: Apple v: 87.0.0.0.0 
  date: 06/14/2019 
CPU:
  Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-2400S bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Sandy Bridge 
  rev: 7 L2 cache: 6 MiB 
  flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20000 
  Speed: 1600 MHz min/max: 1600/3300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1600 2: 1600 3: 1600 
  4: 1600 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics 
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  Device-2: AMD Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M] vendor: Apple 
  driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 
  Device-3: Apple FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in) type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  bus ID: 1-2:3 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: ati,modesetting,radeon 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD TURKS (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.10.0-16-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1) 
  v: 3.3 Mesa 20.3.5 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  Device-2: AMD Turks HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500/6600 / 6700M Series] vendor: Apple 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
  Device-3: C-Media Audio Adapter (Unitek Y-247A) type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus ID: 3-1.3:5 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.0-16-amd64 
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 v: kernel 
  port: 2000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
  IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR93xx Wireless Network Adapter 
  vendor: Apple AirPort Extreme driver: ath9k v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
  IF: wlp3s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Apple Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR HCI type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 
  bus ID: 1-1.1.1:6 
  Message: Required tool hciconfig not installed. Check --recommends 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 12.1 GiB (2.6%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3500418AS size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 448.43 GiB used: 12.1 GiB (2.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 3.4 MiB (1.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/sda3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 55.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 1197 
Info:
  Processes: 210 Uptime: 5h 31m Memory: 7.75 GiB used: 2.04 GiB (26.3%) Init: systemd 
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 Packages: 2011 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 inxi: 3.3.01 
alan@alan-imac121:~$ 

[Anonymous]

Hi Alan,

I'm not familiar with Apple in general, your iMac12, it appears to be a 21.5" AOL type of unit according to: https://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/mac_model_id/iMac12,1 nor the USB plugin media device 3 list with Audio devices: C-Media Audio Adapter (Unitek Y-247A) type: USB with drivers maybe found here: https://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:0d8c-0014

I did not see a Debian entry for this adaptor, you may be lucky using a driver intended for Ubuntu if you find a .deb file and the essential dependencies can be found by the Gdebi installer. This being the safest method to install 3rd party software.

If you are not using the Unitek device to utilise your headphone and speaker device, could you disable (unplug) the Unitek device and plug your headphone green 3.5 jack into the Apple green sound socket. To see what results you get.

Your Audio sound playback I would have assumed is controlled by your HMDI sound card built into the Radeon graphic card. On my Dell, I have a Dell sound bar with a separate headphone socket, every now and then I I have to play around with PulseAudio to get playback to function. These are the current settings, see screenie below. They change every hiccup that occasionally occurs.

Team Peppermint.

[KsWoodsMan]

Alan , A quick search turned up this his similar thread
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/usb-headset-not-recognized-if-replugged-or-plugged-in-after-boot/27205/13 , where the original poster was expecting the headphones to listed as a new option added to the rest of the choices connected to the internal soundcard.

This is a seperate device or an additional sound card.
The output given shows there is a driver loaded for it you might have to search around in the available devices to enable it to connect to the audio stream so it can have something to send to the headphones connected to the new sound card.

You might read the thread in the link I provided and see if any of the suggestions get this to work for you.

[Alan Page]

Many thanks cavy & KsWoodsMan - my access to the machine in question is a bit limited at the moment - I hope to follow up on both posts in the next couple of days, and will post my progress back here.

[Alan Page]

[SOLVED]

Hello All

Problem solved!
Following up from cavy's post, I took another look at the pulseaudio settings. It had recognised an HDMI profile - listed 'off'. It had also listed two other profiles set, by default to:

1. Profile: Built-in Audio - set to Analog Stereo Output

2. Audio Adapter (Unitek Y-247A)
   set by default to: Analog Stereo Output + Mono Input

Both 1 & 2, above, offered quite a few alternative settings, so I tried a few combinations, and found one that worked, as follows:

1. Built in Audio:
   Profile: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output

2. Audio Adapter (Unitek Y-247A)
   Profile: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output + Mono Input

3. and new the headphones work nicely.

Many thanks again to the posters above for the helpful input.
Alan