Yes, used meter bridge, yes there was movement.

That said, since my last post I booted to the original os on this laptop (it is a system76, so it came with vanilla Ubuntu) the speakers worked.

(Since it was vanilla, I had no jack, etc. to play with...and has been so long I had to log in as guest, so didn't attempt to install anything.)

So, I rebooted to UbStudio. Now I can start jack and get sound from the speakers, but it's distorted.

Following is the output of jack_control dp:

--- get driver parameters (type:isset:default:value)
              device: ALSA device name (str:set:hw:0:hw:HD2)
             capture: Provide capture ports.  Optionally set device (str:set:none:hw:PCH)
            playback: Provide playback ports.  Optionally set device (str:set:none:hw:PCH,0)
                rate: Sample rate (uint:set:48000:44100)
              period: Frames per period (uint:set:1024:64)
            nperiods: Number of periods of playback latency (uint:set:2:2)
               hwmon: Hardware monitoring, if available (bool:set:False:False)
             hwmeter: Hardware metering, if available (bool:set:False:False)
              duplex: Provide both capture and playback ports (bool:set:True:True)
            softmode: Soft-mode, no xrun handling (bool:set:False:False)
             monitor: Provide monitor ports for the output (bool:set:False:False)
              dither: Dithering mode (char:set:n:n)
          inchannels: Number of capture channels (defaults to hardware max) (uint:notset:0:0)
         outchannels: Number of playback channels (defaults to hardware max) (uint:notset:0:0)
              shorts: Try 16-bit samples before 32-bit (bool:set:False:False)
       input-latency: Extra input latency (frames) (uint:notset:0:0)
      output-latency: Extra output latency (frames) (uint:notset:0:0)
         midi-driver: ALSA MIDI driver (str:notset:none:none)