Due to failure of my previous laptop, I bought second-hand one and installed Mint 21, which upgraded me to v21.2 Vanessa.

I have an issue with the sound system. The laptop’s small internal speaker works fine, but plugging anything into the speaker jacks on the side – headphones or an external speaker, don’t work at all.

I remember a few years ago I had the same issue, and needed to add/run some other software.
I googled, and was told that I needed to install Pulse Audio and Alsamixer.
Those two names rang a bell, so I used Software Manager to install Pulse Audio.

It installed and I tried to launch it, but nothing happened. I tried again, no success.
Then I found the 'Sound' option in Menu>Preferences had disappeared completely.
I ended up installing Mint again from scratch, as even after a few years I still struggle to understand the nuts and bolts, and had no idea what to do.
At the present in Sound>Output I only have “Speakers Built-in Audio”

Can someone point me in the right direction please, keeping it very straightforward about what I need to do to get external audio jack working? If it’s possible to avoid Terminal altogether it would be better for me.
Thanks in advance.

Run pavucontrol in an X window. Sometimes it allows one to turn things on hard to find otherwise. You can also run alsamixer, choose the right sound card, set the levels; they may be zero.

Thanks very much for your reply.
I am not over-technical, so what is an X window - that Terminal? Also exactly how do I run it, install it if - I don't have it already?
I'm afraid do need a lot of hand-holding in order to understand what perhaps to others is easy.
Thanks.

Pavucontrol is in the Mint repos. You should be able to install it from their GUI software utility or from the command line, like this:

Then it should be visible on the menu and could be started like any other menu application.

Pavucontrol is the "Pulse Audio Mixer." It provides more granular control of audio than simple volume control applications. For example, you can check whether the external speakers are muted.

Thanks so much for the detailed info about what I needed to do. It installed OK. I found PulseAudio in the menu and ran it.
This is what happened:

In Output Devices tab> Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
Then Port: Speakers
The sound goes into the internal speaker OK.

While I had audio playing, I plugged in the headphones, the display changed to 'Port: Headphones (plugged in)' the sounds disappeared from the speaker, but didn't appear in the headphones.
I noticed that by clicking on the drop-down option in 'Port' and selecting 'Speakers (unavailable)', the audio appeared in the headphones. Great!

However, when I removed the headphone plug, the audio went back to the internal speaker. Then plugging in the headphones again, I'm back where I started:
No audio, and need to select Port; Speakers (unavailable) to get the headphones working.

What do I need to do to save this somehow?

This happens automatically for me, no help to you, but why I can't help - sorry.

OK, thanks for your help in getting the sound working so far.

Perhaps someone else might know how to save the PulseAudio settings.

pavucontrol has a configuration menu. One can turn off facilities. I don't think they persist over re-booting. I couldn't find a way to save a configuration, something alsa has. Once you figure it out you can edit default.pa.

OK, so you're suggesting I install Alsamixer?
Can you walk me through installing it, step-by-step please?

I'm still petrified of losing the Sound control in Preferences again. Last time I ended up re-installing Mint after I lost it, which also meant re-copying a lot of data again, that part taking about five hours.

Thanks.

No. Maybe it will work better for you. Maybe you have it installed already. You were getting sound before you installed pulse. Alsa may have managed it.

I don't know for your distribution.

If you can figure out what the differences are you can add them to pulse's default.pa. That may be the best thing to do. What's the difference between what returns in both cases?


Lost it?

I have Mint Cinnamon V21.2 Is that enough to know what I need to do to install Alsamixer?
I did search the start menu>All Applications, but nothing came up when I searched for Alsamixer, so I assume I don't have it?

I don't understand about how to figure out differences? What differences?

Yes, the Sound option just disappeared, after I installed Alsamixer from Software Manager and Launched it. Not understanding most of this, I had no idea what to do, so re-installed Mint again.

For someone who knows that distribution it is. You can ask in that forum

Maybe. Ask in the Mint forum.

The term of art in pulse for where sound goes is 'sink'. returns the available sinks. If you want pulse to use a particular sink you can make it with a setting in its configuration file. The relevant differences are those between what works and what doesn't.

You don't have to re-install every time something goes amiss. You could have removed alsa to return to the way things were. Linux isn't as fragile as Windoze.

Now I'm even more confused. I thought I was in the Linux forum?

Or is there another part of the Linux forum for Cinnamon sound and Alsamixer- have I missed that?

WHOOPS! Excuse me. You are in the Mint forum. I made a mistake. No one from the Mint forum has responded to your question. I wonder why.

OK, no problem.
I was also hoping there might be someone offering some suggestions too.