On a DELL XPS 15 L502X, I have a misbehaving feature which is sound output selection.
In the sound settings dialog, we have HEADPHONES OUTPUT & ANALOG OUTPUT.
Plugging the external speakers through the headphone plug should normally prompt the user to select which output to use (headphones or Analog), but that's not the case yet (It's only available in Windows 7, a Dell/Realtek driver GUI).
The issue is that when I plug the external speakers or headphones, the output is switched automatically to HEADPHONES OUTPUT and no sound is provided.
To enable sound again, one has to mute and unmute using the keyboard or the sound settings on top panel. Or to open sound settings and select analog output instead of headphones Output.
This is an issue reproducible in all DELL XPS 15 L502X running Ubuntu 11.10.
Does someone has a workaround before I report it as a bug? Thanks in advance.
I think there is already a bug report for that in Launchpad and you can mark it as affecting you and add some useful infos to that; there are also some workarounds you could try to solve your problem.