I successfully turned on the amp on my hp spectre x360 and now have sound.
It is just 2 speakers of the B&O system though. I came across references how to turn surround on... I currently only see Hifi play in the pulse surround settings.
Before I start attempting a variety of changes, just wondering whether there is uniform guidance for this.
Hi, I don't know if it will help you in your instance, but I have a desktop machine with a SoundBlaster Audigy Rx soundcard with 5.1 surround sound card and Logitech Z506 surround sound system.
I installed all ALSA packages except the ones for JACK and OSS plus qasMixer and two other qas packages via Synaptic Package Manager. I then install Audacious, open Audacious settings and change from PulseAudio to ALSA:
Unfortunately this did not work for me.
From what I understand on the x360's is that there are 2 speakers on a separate amp which are currently enabled and produce sound. There are another set on the front of the laptop... but those do not produce any sound, regardless what I try currently.
I also do not get more than a sterio profile which I can select.
In alsamixer, I get quite a few channels, but not sure whether those are the additional speakers and how I would be able to address them.
Can you install qasMixer and see what that shows? I also wonder if it is a kernel issue:
qasMixer just shows a master audio and mic slider, that's it.
Not even left or right speakers or hdmi outputs.
I have tried repinning with hdajackretask, but that locks up whatever I try... so cannot really experiment there.
If you load up Pulse Audio Volume Control, and go to the "Configuration" tab, and click on the "arrow" corresponding to your sound output source used, do you see the list of sound profiles like this?
This is how I know how to select a sound profile in Linux.
I tried mainline kernel 6.13. Messed up my boot and I notice missing dependencies... But, my sound works fully... So it is a kernel issue.
Now the question is when zorin gets to 6.13... Or I need to figure out how to run 6.13 with current zorin properly... Or run Ubuntu.
What about 6.14 or 6.12?
@geevk Hi, I have created a video for you regarding qasMixer which explains what you have to do to show multichannel. You need to select View | Card:
Sadly, no sound because I forgot to include recording source!
I tried the latest Ubuntu lts release as liveboot... And there I have no sound.
So it appears the prior x360 fix I used on zorin17 is still necessary but it seems that that fix now pulls in more realtek.c fixes from the kernel than with 6.8. I was surprised the latest Ubuntu alsogave no sound... Like the new zorin17 install.
So the fix seems to be in the alc245 sound fix I did and then adding something from the new kernel... Because this now still works when I boot again into zorin with 6.8
I have now moved on from the external drive boot (given that I have figured out some solutions to the sound issue)... and installed Zorin on the main drive next to Windows. Surprise surprise, secure boot is on, but boot works perfectly (just get a small interrupt message (0.108 no irq handler for vector)... but boot keeps going.
The challenge now though is how to add the 6.13 kernel... without bricking boot again. Because the 6.13 files are unsigned, they definitely won't boot.
There seems to be always something around the corner to puzzle about. But I am happy that there is a resolution path at least... even if it means waiting until Zorin hits 6.13 or later
EDIT: I installed kernel 6.14.2 on my main drive, just for the heck of it. As expected, the image did not boot... in GRUB I was able to select the old 6.8 image though... and that booted.
I adjusted the grub menu to save last chosen option... so hopefully it will mostly boot into the 6.8 on its own. Sound is now fully functioning on the laptop. The mute led still does not work, but the mic mute led actually does work oddly enough. But another issue popped up... when I switch to sound for bluetooth... it doesn't do anything (which I did have with 6.8...). After a reboot and several attempts to switch sound it actually worked... but it is obviously quite particular.
I do get a red dot warning in the taskbar to run package manager updates because a number errors due to dependencies exist. I saw that during install of 6.13 and 6.14... couple of firmware errors. Not sure whether that is anything to worry about. I tried also to uninstall the 6.14 again and see whether the sound solution persisted... but not so. I need the soundfix and the 6.13+ kernel.
And that is the Reason why it doesn't boot right. The Kernel Files are unsigned. And You have Secure Boot enabled. Try it with disabled Secure Boot. And turn off Fast Boot in BIOS and Fast Start-Up in Windows, too.
I indeed turned off fast boot and fast start for windows.
I do need secure boot though for some software on the windows partition (for the time being), so turning it off is causing me issues in the very few applications I still need Windows for.
For now, the system works... it's a bit clunky with me getting stuck with the unsigned images of the 6.13/6.14 kernel... but checking out how to sign them myself made me get totally lost; I gave up 
On top since a few files gave errors on install... I probably would not run 6.13 for the moment anyway.
