My computers front jacks are broken. Since forever, I’ve been using the ones on the back. I have a pair of loudspeakers and I sometimes like using headphones, but only one of the rear jacks is actually an output. So I need a way to remap one of the others to work as a headphone output.
Windows
On Windows, with regular onboard sound, there is a way to bring back the Realtek HD Audio Manager which offers options for remapping the connectors.
I took care of it over a year ago on this installation and never touched it again – but from what I remember, I had to revert to an older Realtek driver to make it reappear, which was its own adventure. There seemed to be ways to remap audio ports with certain registry values but that didn’t work for me. It’s an odd solution but well, as long as it works…
Linux
Meanwhile, Linux has hdajackretask which is part of the alsa-tools package on Arch. It’s a seemingly ancient tool that aims to fulfill my exact need.
So ancient that it threw an error when I changed the Blue Line In to “Headphones” and hit “Apply now”. I stressed out for a while and couldn’t find an answer online, but when I selected “Install boot override” and restarted, it actually did its job – the blue line in port was working as headphone jack. (this has to be done as root as far as I understand)
And come to think of it, when I used this tool a couple years ago on a previous installation, it did the exact same thing. Well, at least I don’t have to mess around with a registry or older Realtek drivers.
June's Nerd Ramblings 