Dell 3180 Chromebook, No sound. Zorin 16.2 Core

jcmax101 · 18 June 2023 03:19

I had pretty much given-up trying to get sound on my Dell 3180 Chromebook and started looking at other distro's

When I searched for "Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series High Definition Audio Controller" (which is the Sound adapter this old Chromebook has), it seems no one has been able to get sound from this sound card using any distro based on Ubuntu

So I installed Fedora 38 and behold sound works pefectly (at least when I use YouTube)

The problem I having with Fedora is: When I try to run a Commodore 64 game using the Vice emulator it's very choppy (slow)

So I'm heading back to Zorin again as the Vice emulator run C64 Games very well (smooth and very resposive)
The only problem is: I can't get Sound using I use Zorin

But of all the distro's I've tried, Zorin is still the best

So I'm back to trying to get Zorin to produce sound on my Dell 3180

rolltide101x · 18 June 2023 03:28

Give Nobara/Ultramarine a shot as well. They are based on Fedora but have some non-free drivers by default that might help you.

Aravisian · 18 June 2023 04:16

Have you yet tried:

sudo apt install linux-firmware

Run

lspci | egrep -i audio

And relay the result here, please.
You should see something like sof-xxxx####

Open Alsa mixer elevated to Root

sudo alsamixer

tap F6 to select your card that you identified above.
Now, in a terminal window, run

sudo alsactl store

Reboot and test...

jcmax101 · 19 June 2023 00:11

There is only two to select
Whether I select 0 or 1 I get no sound

Also, is there some way to "save" the selection ?
Or do I just exit ?

Aravisian · 19 June 2023 00:59

Yes, exit with your selection chosen, then save it with

Choosing 1 should be the correct method.
Hmmm...
You might try installing the NonFree Firmware
http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-intel-sound_20210315-3_all.deb

jcmax101 · 20 June 2023 19:36

I tried to run an intall by double clicking the .DEB file but I ended-up with the following error:

"Unable to install firmware-intel-sound:
Error while installing package: trying to overwrite 'lib/firmware/intel/-intcSST2.bin', which is also in package linux-firmware 1.187.35"

I also tried to run the install from Terminal but received a similar error

Aravisian · 20 June 2023 19:53

Can you please launch Software & Updates
In the first tab, you will see five options with checkboxes.
One should be Software restricted by copyright or legal...

Is that box checked or unchecked?

jcmax101 · 21 June 2023 05:02

It is checked

Aravisian · 21 June 2023 05:16

Ok. I am not sure that Forcing that install may do more harm than good. Let's change tactics.

Can you elevate to Root and look at the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
Find the line options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=
If it exists, change the value to 2:
options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=2

If it does not exist, add the line as
options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=2

Save and exit the file.

Once complete; let's try the Tux Invader kernel:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tuxinvader/lts-mainline

sudo apt update && sudo apt install linux-generic-6.02

The purpose of this is because it looks like this is the driver you need to be using for sound:

github.com

torvalds/linux/blob/master/sound/soc/codecs/rt5645.c

// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
/*
 * rt5645.c  --  RT5645 ALSA SoC audio codec driver
 *
 * Copyright 2013 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
 * Author: Bard Liao <bardliao@realtek.com>
 */

#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/moduleparam.h>
#include <linux/init.h>
#include <linux/delay.h>
#include <linux/pm.h>
#include <linux/i2c.h>
#include <linux/platform_device.h>
#include <linux/spi/spi.h>
#include <linux/gpio/consumer.h>
#include <linux/acpi.h>
#include <linux/dmi.h>
#include <linux/regulator/consumer.h>

This file has been truncated. show original

And NOT SOF after-all.

So after all of the above, reboot and test...

zabadabadoo · 21 June 2023 15:14

I see from screenshot "Download from" is set "Server for Canada".
I wonder if setting to "Main Server" may be better for you generally.

jcmax101 · 22 June 2023 04:48

I noticed something kind if interesting
On my 'end of life' Chromebook the Output Device says "Dummy Output"

So I did a quick install of Zorin onto a Virtual Machine (using VirtualBox on my Windows PC) I tested the sound and it works perfectly
Instead of seeing "Dummy Output" for the Sound Device is says "Analog Output / No Amplifier - Buit-in Audio"

I'm now going to start searching for the meaning of "Dummy Output" (using Google)

By the way, I tried your suggested steps anyway but I still don't have sound
But again I thinking I'm might be onto something here with this "Dummy Output" showing as the Output Device

zabadabadoo · 22 June 2023 08:10

You can search this forum with "sound dummy output".
You will find several previous threads dealing with that issue.

jcmax101 · 31 July 2023 18:52

If you can believe it, I'm back again

Most of the people that reported having the problem of no sound after installing Zorin have resolved thier issue by going to another distro such as KUBUNTU or Fedora

My problem has been, I can't find another distro that is small enough to fit on my 16gig emmc drive and run as smothly as Zorin (Zorin is very fast and responmsive on my old 'end of life' Chromebook)

I have now found another distro that has sound and runs smoothly and is very familiary as it uses the Windows 11 interface
Its called WUBUNTU

The problem I am having with WUBUNTU is I can't remove enough of the pre-installed apps in order to install the WUBUNTU updates

So now... I'm looking at Zorin again

I found something interesting while using WUBUNTU
When I look at the Device Manager, the selected Audio device is "SOF - sof-bytcht rt5650

So I'm now thinking there must be a way to add the driver for "sof-bytcht rt5650"

I probably shouldn't be spending so much time trying to get sound of of Zorin but I really want to use Zorin as it runs so well (very smooth and responsive) on my 'end of life' Chromebook

Aravisian · 31 July 2023 22:30

You may need the non-free firmware firmware-misc-nonfree or to immediately bump up to the 6.2 kernel.

zabadabadoo · 1 August 2023 07:46

I think @Aravisian is on the right track. I just did a few websearches using "sof-bytcht rt5650 Ubuntu 20.04". Most hits point to support to this soundcard arriving in Ubuntu 22.04.
e.g.

jcmax101 · 2 August 2023 04:00

I just tried UBUNTU 22.04 and the sound works perfectly
So it looks like I’ll have to wait for the next release of Zorin

Luca_Pavan · 3 August 2023 18:14

There's AAM on Disks as additional parameter for the hard disk, no one proposed it to check. Do you think it's related to this issue? I have all of these parameters disabled by default, I don't think I'll ever touch them.

Ocka · 3 August 2023 22:50

Gday @jcmax101 , Welcome to the community.
Could we get you to update your profile to indicate to Edition of Zorin OS your using. Here. (This saves you having to repeat yourself or us to ask again for any future enquires)

Can i get you to check/update the laptops firmware.

Next
Please run

pulseaudio -k

Then start your audio player, does this give you sound.
Note:
If you had your audio player open prior to the above command, you will need to restart the app again to test.

If you got sound, please follow close the audio player then run these commands.

systemctl --user restart pulseaudio

rm -r ~/.config/pulse

Then

pulseaudio -k

Restart your audio player & test.
Then
reboot laptop & test.

Hope this helps.

If no luck please screenshot the result of the below.

sudo lshw -C sound

jcmax101 · 18 August 2023 16:05

I ran the commands then rebooted but still no sound
So I ran "sudo lshw -C sound" and here is the output

system · 16 November 2023 16:05

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