I tried almost everything I could find that made sense, and in the end it seems like RadarNyan's workaround is what I was looking for.
The headphones sometimes did work and sometimes didn't but I couldn't find any corelation with anything I was doing. It must have been this... -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to alsa-driver in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1087428 Title: [K55VD, Realtek ALC270, Black Headphone Out, Right] No sound at all Status in “alsa-driver” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: My headphone jack does not play any audio, but my laptop speakers do. The Laptop speakers mute when I plug in headphones, but then no audio plays. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04 Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-34.53-generic-pae 3.2.33 Uname: Linux 3.2.0-34-generic-pae i686 AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24. ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu15 Architecture: i386 ArecordDevices: **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices **** card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC270 Analog [ALC270 Analog] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC0: jay 1788 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: jay 1788 F...m pulseaudio Card0.Amixer.info: Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7a10000 irq 46' Mixer name : 'Intel PantherPoint HDMI' Components : 'HDA:10ec0270,10431457,00100100 HDA:80862806,80860101,00100000' Controls : 24 Simple ctrls : 11 Date: Thu Dec 6 13:47:45 2012 InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423) MarkForUpload: True PackageArchitecture: all ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: alsa-driver Symptom: audio Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:PCH failed Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH Symptom_DevicesInUse: 1788 1788 jay F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: jay F...m pulseaudio Symptom_Jack: Black Headphone Out, Right Symptom_Type: No sound at all Title: [K55VD, Realtek ALC270, Black Headphone Out, Right] No sound at all UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) dmi.bios.date: 05/24/2012 dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc. dmi.bios.version: K55VD.304 dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567 dmi.board.name: K55VD dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. dmi.board.version: 1.0 dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag dmi.chassis.type: 10 dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. dmi.chassis.version: 1.0 dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrK55VD.304:bd05/24/2012:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnK55VD:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnK55VD:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0: dmi.product.name: K55VD dmi.product.version: 1.0 dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1087428/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp