Yes, the kernel detects both codecs and loads separate modules, but sound redirection does not work (neither do you have a tickable option in alsamixer like on some cards). Went back to the Xonar DX. The integrated codec is rather noisy if you use the pack panel anyway.
You’re correct, while using windows during testing there’s a good amount of static. And I’ve also thought about going to a sound card. It just seem bad to be using a sound card, because Linux can not separate. I do hope there’s a kernel patch soon for this because more motherboards are going this route.
Dual sound codecs? I think only GB is doing it right now. Most higher end boards I have seen just use one single condec and a separate amp for the front panel. On AMD boards at least, don’t know on the Intel side of things. Still, silly that Linux can’t use them both. Dual integrated NICs are not a problem, so why would dual sound codecs be? I mean, you can already have multiple sound devices in your computer and Linux has no problem. It should eventually get sorted out I guess.
I believe MSI is using dual codecs also. There’s actually a patch within Linux for dual codecs. It’s just not working on the AMD boards. https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/sound/pci/hda/patch_realtek.c?h=v4.13&id=fa16b69f1299004b60b625f181143500a246e5cb
Maybe you could try to install a newer kernel with Ukuu.
Maybe that might fix the dual audio codecs not being detected sepperatelly.
I know I’ve tried a secondary kernel and edit the patch. But no luck.
Still not working with the 4.15 kernel. Oh well. Thankfully DP audio works properly (ish) now with amdgpu and Polaris chips, so I can have both my speakers and headphones plugged in at the same time.
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So coming back to this. I came upon this little write-up detailing a fix:
https://frdmtoplay.com/gigabyte-front-panel-audio-with-linux/
Don’t have time to try it out until the weekend. From what I can tell it seems to be a Pulseaudio issue.
Holy crap guys, it works! Seems to be a PA issue where it does not recognize the sink corresponding to the front panel. All devices are listed with aplay -l, but like in the write-up, PA only sees the rear output in regards to the integrated sound chip. Loading the missing sink with the given PA command makes the correct number of sinks appear (rear and front). Then it was as easy as loading up Kubuntu’s PA Volume Control GUI, play some sound file, and move the audio stream to the new device and done. Don’t worry, all sound streams get directed to the new output after that. I did note that the front output shows up as a separate sound device in Kubuntu’s sound configuration.
Unfortunately I have to do this every time I log in or reboot. I have not tried the mic port yet.
Edit: Front MIC also works. You just have to load the proper module into PA.
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Thanks Melcar,
I haven’t tried it yet. I’ll see if I can get it up and running tonight. I’ll let you know my results also.
I cant believe something so simple was the cause. Both headphones and mic working. Thanks again, you saved me a trip to Microcenter for a sound card.
Glad it worked.
Question for you. How is the integrated sound on your board? I get some weird feedback noise under certain conditions, like some GPU operations (moving/resizing windows, with some games) and sometimes with heavy LAN traffic. Happens on both rear and front outputs. My Xonar DX is dead silent in comparison. Using the Xonar again due to this.
I tested the suggested commands, but the microphone didn’t work. What do you mean by “the proper module”?
By using this command I’m now able to use the front panel output from “pavucontrol”
pacmd load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:1,4
But I’m still not able to use the rear microphone, nor the front microphone. They show up. They also show correctly when I plug and unplug them, but they are muted (not literally, the mute button is not pushed. but they don’t pic any sound and there is no activity in the graphical bar at all. they act as muted, but they are not).
Could you point me in the right direction? How did you make them work?
Thank you
To load the mic, you need the command
pacmd load-module-alsa-source device=hw#,#
Replace “#” with whatever your device id is. For inputs use the “arecord -l” command.
Now, if even your rear input is not working, then the problem may be something else. Have you checked alsamixer to see if nothing is muted? Also, keep in mind that this board has separate audio-in and mic rear ports. This had me off guard for a bit. Make sure your mic is plugged into the correct one.
Hi, I’m having the exact same problem and I’ve done a lot of debugging–disabling all the automatic module loaders so that I could load in sources and sinks myself, especially. I followed your instructions and ran pacmd load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:#,# where #,# was my device id, and when I did so (after disabling everything else) the microphone showed up in my sound settings, as it has before. But still, the microphone was “ghost muted”. This happens with all microphones I plug into any mic jack.
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Thanks. I did exactly that, but it looks there is some other problem. I now see there is another user that found the bug, which at least comforts me a little bit. At least I’m not the only one.
Just out of curiosity, can you describe your setup?
I’m using kernel 4.15.13 + Ubuntu 17.10 x64. And it doesn’t work for me. Maybe you have something different?
Hi, I was having the same problem then I found this, which said that there is a dobble mute in alsamixer, if there are line underneath the volume bar it is still muted(comment 10 if you are wondering). You can mute/unmute by selecting it and clicking spacebar. @whizzball1, maybe this is also your problem
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Yes, this was also my problem. I happened to upgrade to kernel 4.17rc3, and enabled this card for testing again. To my surprise they were muted in alsamixer, but not in Pulseaudio, so I just used alsamixer, unmuted the mic, and now everything is working again.
THANK YOU.
Here’s what’s going on, the fixup renames it HDAudio-Gigabyte-ALC1220DualCodecs so it will load the ucm file through Pulseaudio from package alsa-lib in /usr/share/alsa/ucm/HDAudio-Gigabyte-ALC1220DualCodecs/
Problem is HiFi.conf is refering to cdev “hw:PCH” <- that’s Intel shenanigans
if you find all occurrences of PCH and replace it with Genereric, eg: cdev “hw:Generic” then before the device Nr like this: cdev “hw:Generic,4” | cdev “hw:Generic,0”
Front ports and Line will work again, but you will most likely have to create more profiles in the HDAudio-Gigabyte-ALC1220DualCodecs.conf if you need Digital profiles etc. This needs a if Intel/PCH else AMD/Generic fix to stick tho’ 
Is this a new issue from an update? I did notice PCM acting up recently.