I think I have the same problem described in this bug. If it is indeed
the same problem, I think I've figured out what is happening and how to
"fix" it very easily (at least, this worked for me). It is unclear to me
if this is a bug exactly, or just an unexpected behavior. However, it
seems to fit with the comment that other people have given.

For those who just want the solution that worked for me see the next
comment.

To diagnose what was happening I used two programs, which remained open
the whole time: gnome-volume-control (g-v-c) and alsamixer

The volume control slider and mute/unmute checkbox in "gnome-volume-
control" control a bunch of channels (as they show up in alsamixer), but
what channels are controlled depends on the "Connector" setting on the
"Output" tab.

With "Analog Output" selected:

Mute/unmute in g-v-c mutes/unmutes the following: "Master Front", "Headphone", 
"Front", "Surround", "Center", "LFE", and "Side"
Volume in g-v-c controls "Master Front" then "Front" then all together "PCM", 
"Surround", "Center", "LFE", and "Side".

Plugging in headphones causes "Front" to be muted. However, when "Front" is 
muted, it triggers g-v-c to mute, which then mutes "Master Front", "Headphone", 
"Front", "Surround", "Center", "LFE", and "Side", stopping all sound from both 
headphones and speakers.
Unplugging headphones causes "Front" to be unmuted. However, everything else 
remains muted.

In alsamixer, muting any of the "Master Front", "Front", "Surround",
"Center", "LFE", or "Side" channels also causes g-v-c to mute, which
subsequently causes the remaining channels (including "Headphones") to
be muted. However, unmuting any of these channels only unmutes that
single channel, and even if you manually unmute all the channels, no
sound is produced until you unmute in g-v-c. Also in alsamixer, there is
a "Headphones" channel, but it is grayed out so you can only see it's
status and not change it.

"Front" mutes/unmutes both the speakers and the headphones, and the
volume controls both speakers and headphones.

With "Analog Headphones" selected:

Mute/unmute in g-v-c mutes/unmutes both "Master Front" and "Headphone".
Volume in g-v-c controls "Master Front", "Headphone", and "PCM" (in that order)

Plugging in headphones causes "Front" to be muted, which shuts off the 
speakers, but the headphones still work.
Unplugging headphones causes "Front" to be unmuted, which turns on the speakers.

Within alsamixer, muting "Master Front" causes g-v-c to mute, which
subsequently mutes the "Headphones" channels. However, the "Front",
"Surround", "Center", "LFE", and "Side" channels are no lounger coupled
to g-v-c mute. Unmuting "Master Front" has no effect on g-v-c or the
"Headphone" channel, so after muting "Master Front" to restore sound you
have to unmute in g-v-c.

"Front" mutes/unmutes speakers, but does not effect headphones (headphones stay 
on in both cases).
However, the "Front" volume slider still controls both speakers and headphone 
volume.

There doesn't seem to be any way to directly control the "Headphone"
slider or mute/unmute.

Switching from "Analog Output" to "Analog Headphones" causes the
following to be muted and the *volumes to be turned completely down*:
"Front", "Surround", "Center", "LFE", and "Side".

Switching from "Analog Headphones" to "Analog Output" causes the same
controls to be unmuted and the volumes turns all the way to full.

Therefore, it seems like the solution is to enable "Analog Headphones"
mode then turn the "Front" volume to full.

Other details:

This is all tested with an ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo motherboard, Intel HDA
sound chipset, and VIA VT1708S codec. My headphones are plugged into the
headphone jack on the front of my case, and my speakers are plugged in
the jack on the back of my case labeled "Front".

When I start up gnome-alsamixer, I get the errors reported by Ivailo
Partchev (comment #32).

When I installed the package David provided in comment #19, I see the following 
message when I plug-in or unplug the headphones:
"ALSA-HDA hda_codec.c:477: Unsol event from codec: tag = 5, response = 0"
Otherwise, that package doesn't seem to have any effect on the situation.

In summary, once "Analog Headphones" is selected and you've restored the
volume on the "Front" channel, plugging in the headphones mutes
speakers, and unplugging the headphones unmutes the speakers properly
for me. However, there seems to be three things that are causing some
confusing behavior:

1) There doesn't seem to be any way to independently control the "Headphone" 
volume, or mute/unmute the headphones. This channel shows up in alsamixer, but 
is grayed out and uncontrollable (see attached picture). The channel doesn't 
show up in the gnome-alsamixer. However, pulseaudio seems to be able to control 
this channel.
2) The "Front" channel volume slider controls both the headphone volume and the 
front speaker volume, rather than just the front speaker volume, and when you 
switch from "Analog Output" to "Analog Headphones" mode in g-v-c, it turns the 
volume completely down on the "Front" channel, muting the headphones.
3) There is a weird interaction between pulseaudio (g-v-c) and alsamixer when 
in "Analog Output" mode which causes the sound to be muted when plugging in 
headphones.

If anyone knows how to fix those problems, that would be helpful to
making things behave in a way that is more transparent (to me at least).

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/565685

Title:
  [Asus K50IJ] Lucid Lynx - No automute (Headphone jack does not disable
  speakers on laptop)

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