Any fellow Linux users on here?

[Judge]

Last time I messed around trying to address various Audio inputs and outputs in Linux with an old crystal audio soundcard I almost threw my laptop across the street!

Was that Intel High Definition audio you needed to run through rear audio speaker ports? Every distro I have tried has launched without any sound through my external speakers. Though I found a four-step hack that has worked on all of them.

I'm still miffed how Intel distros continue to come out of the box without speaker sound. Granted all the default installs had headphone sound working just fine. No hacks required. But to get sound to my speakers I had to "retask the audio jack" using Alsa-Tools-GUI combined with some changes in a few files.

If I hadn't found this hack long ago I might not have continued with Linux. But that's the way it is. It continues to be in the realm of a DIY operating system. That you either have the drive and patience to follow through or not. So Linux is definitely not for everyone...presently. But I still prefer it to Windows hands-down.

It will be interesting to see how things influence the market in Europe. Germany and Denmark have fired Microsoft and their respective governments will now be adapting to Linux and Libre Office software. It's expected that other EU governments will follow given the decline of trade relations with the US. Perhaps this might eventually work for consumers, with Linux distributions taking a more aggressive approach to customer service given some very important clients.

 

[Outdated]

Was that Intel High Definition audio you needed to run through rear audio speaker ports?

I just twigged - that's why I've never had the same problem. Cheaper motherboards all have RealTek audio.

 

[Judge]

I just twigged - that's why I've never had the same problem. Cheaper motherboards all have RealTek audio.

All mine are Intel software, but Realtek hardware. Though I've never attempted to negotiate Nvidia audio through HDMI. I suppose a lot probably do though. I just have enough issues with their video drivers...don't have the stomach to mess with their audio stuff just to get sound from my speakers.

I'm just grateful this re-tasking my audio jack works. Even with Mint moving from PulseAudio to Pipewire, it still requires me to do this. Ugh....

It is weird and obviously aggravating at times to developers working so hard with some things, and ignoring others. But then priorities usually have budget considerations as well. I'd just think audio through speakers would have been a priority, but then perhaps a lot of people just use headphones.

One thing I do try to avoid like the plague is Intel Ethernet devices. Always prefer Realtek.

 

[Outdated]

All mine are Intel software, but Realtek hardware.

What software? Are you trying to run some intel audio program?

 

[Judge]

Are you trying to run some intel audio program?

No. It's all just to get sound from the external audio jack of a motherboard. Both an old Asus motherboard as well as two much newer MSI motherboards. On multiple Ubuntu or Arch-based Linux distros. At least this was my experience. Incredibly frustrating.

I once posted all the things I have to do to attain sound through my external speaker jack on three different motherboards (none high-end). I'll simply post them again so you can see exactly what changes I must make with the software to get speaker sound. (Headphone sourced sound always works on default when installing a Linux OS.)

HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO HACKS - REALTEK ALC DRIVERS (new or old)

A. Provide sound to external speakers:

1. Download “Alsa-Tools-GUI”. Select the feature called “HDA Jack Retask” and select “Realtek ALC887-VD”. Then check the override box marked “Green (or Red) Line Out, Rear Side” - ”Internal Speaker (Back)”. (Line out colors can vary depending on the motherboard)

2. Check the    box under “Options” marked “Parser Hints”. Then select from “Hints” and change    the first line called “Jack_Detect” value to “NO”.

3. Then click the box marked “Install Boot Override” and click the “ok” prompt. Then reboot the system.

* If your repository doesn't have "Alsa-Tools-GUI", they can also be downloaded from the terminal with the following commands:

a. sudo apt-get update -y
b. sudo apt-get install -y alsa-tools-gui

Then reboot the system. You now have external speaker sound. (Just make sure to change your sound settings if they were on headphones only.)

B. Fix  random popping sounds:

Root Authority: Right-click file manager to choose “open as root”, then access the files accordingly:

1. Using root authority, access: sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

-Change the value from 1 to 0.

2.    Using root authority, access: sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save_controller

- Change the value from Y to N.

3. Using root authority, access: etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Adding the following  as the last line:
- options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N

4. Then access the Terminal, and input the following: sudo apt update and reboot the system.

5. Change the Built-In Audio Profile from    “Analog Stereo Duplex” to “Analog Stereo Output”.

* These changes should not only restore speaker sound, but fix the output so the audio output no longer has any discernable audio glitches.

 

[MildredHubble]

Was that Intel High Definition audio you needed to run through rear audio speaker ports? Every distro I have tried has launched without any sound through my external speakers. Though I found a four-step hack that has worked on all of them.

You know, I wonder if Intel just bought up the company that made the soundcard in my "laptop" (in quotations as it folded in half but it was huge). I'm pretty sure it had a Crystal Audio sticker on the soundcard. It kinda clipped in near the front right of the motherboard and screwed on to some stand offs. The problem with that machine was that it got so hot and the internals were so heavy, the plastic began to fracture and the soundcard would pop out of its header. In the end when I was trouble shooting it, it popped out and shorted against the motherboard and I could never get it to power up again.

The reason why I'm wondering if they purchased them is that I recall in the early days of Hackintoshing the process to get Intel HD audio was very similar. You had to boot Linux and use some utilities to figure out which outputs were addressed where, then once you did that you would copy the configuration files, boot into OSX and build a kext to use your sound card natively.

I used to dual boot OSX and Windows XP on my laptop but I used to loathe the buggy mess XP had become so I opted for some flavor of Linux and tried to use Wine or at least something similar to run Windows specific software, but in the end I just ran VMWare Fusion which was a bit slow but usable due to some CPU features having to be emulated (SSE3 mostly).

The problem with Linux dual booting at the time was that it would just stop working and failing to initialize the desktop environment. There would vevsone corruption occur for a reason I could never figure out and I would end up with half my hard drive space dormant for weeks until I could fix it or reinstall it. The sad thing was that I had discovered some very fancy Linux based Digital Audio Workstation software that really impressed the other students at college but when they saw how fragile Linux was or experienced it for themselves they just moved on and forgot about it.

The irony is that the ones brave enough to try found it easier to run OSX on their systems than linux. As long as they didn't update OSX it would just keep working. Updating a hackintosh back in those days was not very simple and eventually you wouldn't be able to run the latest apps. Obviously I couldn't be there to maintain their OSX installs so most probably went back to windows in the end.

If the Linux community could settle on a update solution and application package management that works then I think Linux would be a no brainer.

I was going to mention about the EU moving towards using Linux and open sourced solutions to escape Microsoft. It might have been Munich that migrated to Linux a while back? They ended up going back to windows due to the issues maintaining systems. Even Linus Torvalds has criticized Linux distros for not getting their act together and even being quite proud of the issues Linux has as being a "feature not a bug".

All I know is that often, like with the music production software, I will find something cool, cool, enough that other people want to try it out and then they get annoyed when it breaks. I've ended up being the one making the excuses for Linux, patching things up and the people who did become interested lose that interest. They have to learn a whole load of stuff they haven't got time for or ask me to fix it when I might struggle too.

An analogy would be like I'm trying to sell people a car that they've never heard of before and show them just how good it is and has all the things they recognize from a car from Ford or Hyundai. They feel convinced, buy the car and then one day they go to use the car and suddenly the brake pedal is on the roof. They complain, I make excuses and say "well when you think about it, that's pretty good as you are less likely to hit them by accident..." Then they have to adjust. Then a week later the steering wheel disappears and is replaced by an apparatus that sticks up your nose and opperates like a joystick. People just dont like that. I have more tolerance but Linux never fails to exceed it.

 

[Judge]

I kind of foolishly expected Linux Mint to have cleared up such problems once and for all given their publicizing of moving from Pulse Audio to "Pipeline". But sure enough, it wasn't the case. This newer protocol may provide better quality sound, but it's still meaningless for anyone like me who gets no immediate sound at all from external speakers after a default installation of any Linux distro.

The thing is, I suspect this is a "deal-breaker" issue particularly with brand new Linux users. Where most people may not take or have the time to figure such things out. Which still leaves me thinking this OS will remain what it is, with a paltry percentage of the market, regardless of how Microsoft Windows has faltered for so many users.

Some two and a half years later, I just don't understand how something so fundamental can be overlooked by Linux developers. But for me the difference between Linux and Windows is why I will always attempt to work the problem rather than run away back to Windows.

 

[Outdated]

On multiple Ubuntu or Arch-based Linux distros.

Just out of curiosity, have you tried with Ubuntu itself rather than an Ubuntu Based system? You don't have to install it, just boot from a thumb stick and see if you have sound.

 

[Judge]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried with Ubuntu itself rather than an Ubuntu Based system? You don't have to install it, just boot from a thumb stick and see if you have sound.

Absolutely. No joy with Ubuntu itself when it came to sound. Otherwise it performed nominally. Didn't like some of the glitches associated with their repository though. But this was with my oldest motherboard at the time.

 

[Outdated]

The problem with Linux dual booting at the time was that it would just stop working and failing to initialize the desktop environment.

Not sure if this is the same issue or not, when dual booting Windows and Linux on the same physical drive, every time Windows gets an update it removes the Linux boot sector, deliberately. This doesn't happen if both OS's are on their own individual harddrives.

 

[Judge]

Not sure if this is the same issue or not, when dual booting Windows and Linux on the same physical drive, every time Windows gets an update it removes the Linux boot sector, deliberately. This doesn't happen if both OS's are on their own individual harddrives.

I heard about that one. Another reason I chose to stay away from dual booting altogether and simply rely on removable (SSDs) with their respective operating systems on them. A primary reason for still needing those cases with external 5.25 and 3.5 drive bays.

Though I thought some distros have since addressed this....

 

[Outdated]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried with Ubuntu itself rather than an Ubuntu Based system? You don't have to install it, just boot from a thumb stick and see if you have sound.

All of mine have just worked as advertised straight out of the box. The only time I ever had a drama, and it was just like you describe, was when I installed Linux on a Mac Pro desktop. That had an Intel built in soundcard.

 

[Outdated]

Though I thought some distros have since addressed this....

It can't be addressed by Linux. As long as Linux and Windows are sharing the same boot partition then both OSs have to have write permission for that boot partition.

I always used internal drives instead of externals like you, but the same thing. Dual booting on a laptop is more drama than it's worth.

 

[Judge]

All of mine have just worked as advertised straight out of the box. The only time I ever had a drama, and it was just like you describe, was when I installed Linux on a Mac Pro desktop. That had an Intel built in soundcard.

All three of the motherboards I have used (Asus/MSI) all had this issue on the first boot of multiple Linux distros. Leaving me completely baffled. Yet they all conformed to retasking the audio jack I did through the use of the Alsa-Tools-GUI program suite. And then going into the same Intel subdirectories all these distros had to improve the external speaker sound, once I had it. All with Realtek as well. Go figure.

The one question I can't answer is whether or not this is a hardware issue at the source- using Logitech 10-watt external speakers. But they are as common as dirt!

Wondering how many absolutely "green" noobs to Linux would just walk away in a huff over this.

 

[Outdated]

Wondering how many absolutely "green" noobs to Linux would just walk away in a huff over this.

The great majority of the world population wouldn't even try to solve any problems, just "Nope, that didn't work." and move back to what they had before.

But for me the issue simply doesn't exist, on many computers over the years. I've never seen the Alsa tools gui, never needed it. And although Alsa is also installed, all my sound is running through Pulse Audio.

That's what all the games I play list my audio as anyway. Soundcard: PulseAudio

 

[Outdated]

I wonder if this makes a difference or not - there's a setting in your BIOS for using Non Windows OS. There's only two options on that setting - Windows or Non Windows. I've always made sure to set that to Non Windows.

And yes, I'm clutching at straws there.

 

[Judge]

I wonder if this makes a difference or not - there's a setting in your BIOS for using Non Windows OS. There's only two options on that setting - Windows or Non Windows. I've always made sure to set that to Non Windows.

On my oldest (13 years+) Asus motherboard it was set up like that. But in experimenting I quickly discovered I couldn't boot either Mint or Pop!OS using the Windows setting. Apart from using Secure Boot back then, which would prevent either from booting at all.

I don't know what other Linux distros will be doing along those lines. Linux Mint now runs with Secure Boot and TPM 2.0, but Pop!OS just hangs if I have the BIOS defaulting to them. Even though their UEFI settings and requirements have changed somewhat. Secure Boot may be fine in the next version of Pop!OS, but for now it's the kiss of death if your BIOS is set up for it.

 

[Judge]

The great majority of the world population wouldn't even try to solve any problems, just "Nope, that didn't work." and move back to what they had before.

But for me the issue simply doesn't exist, on many computers over the years. I've never seen the Alsa tools gui, never needed it. And although Alsa is also installed, all my sound is running through Pulse Audio.

That's what all the games I play list my audio as anyway. Soundcard: PulseAudio

With Linux Mint I had the same audio jack issue with both Pulse Audio and Pipewire. Made no difference. I still had to retask the jack just to get external speaker sound.

Not for any one application mind you, but no sound period from a properly connected jack and speaker. Nada. Not until I used Alsa-Tools-GUI to retask the jack. And then to alter some of the other Intel-based software just to improve the sound quality once I heard it.

So what motherboard are you using?

 

[Outdated]

I don't know what other Linux distros will be doing along those lines. Linux Mint now runs with Secure Boot and TPM 2.0,

Ubuntu won't boot without them. Fedora doesn't care either way.

 

[Judge]

Ubuntu won't boot without them. Fedora doesn't care either way.

I only see this as an issue if one intends to run both Linux and Windows through the same BIOS. Where it will be a problem for some but not for others. But then both OS manufacturers ideally want to see their users married to their respective products....business as usual.

Frankly I'm still on the fence about adding Windows as a separate SSD. I guess a lot of it depends on what actually happens when Microsoft releases their 25H2 update which allegedly fixes so many of the problems of the 24H2 update.