I'm hoping someone can help me with a sound issue I am experiencing on my new ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED laptop. I am not able to get sound to use the internal speakers. SOund works fine if I plug in earbuds into the headphone port and sound also works fine through the HDMI channel when connected to an external monitor with a speaker built into it. Also, sound works fine with bluetooth. The built in microphone also works fine. I just can't get sound to come out of the built in speakers.
I've worked with the Zorin support team and have gone through all of their steps to try to solve the problem but we haven't had any luck. FWIW, I had the same issue with sound on this same laptop with Fedora 36 and with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. I am running Zorin 16 Pro and it is fully up to date.
Please, if you have ideas that can help me solve this issue, please share them.
Hi @swarfendor437 - thanks for the link. I've read through the whole thread. Not sure how to proceed. Are you thinking that if I install the UMKI it might fix my situation? I think I need to reread that thread a couple of times to fully discern what they did to solve the challenge of sound there.
The thread offers One Method of installing a higher Mainline kernel than what is vetted by the distro.
On Zorin OS, you also have many options, too.
I believe I wrote a tutorial on the forum that is similar to the method in the Mint Thread. Yep, found it:
Another method would be to use the TuxInvader repository and install the patched kernel:
Each of the methods above can help you to achieve the goal: Getting a higher linux kernel onto your build of Zorin OS than what is currently tested stable and vetted by Zorin. Which means... It comes with risks.
It may solve your sound issue.
It may include regressions or instabilities present in a later kernel, which is why Zorin OS has not currently vetted it.
When using a higher kernel, always stay at-the-ready to reverse it by reverting back to the earlier working kernel and Back Up Personal Data first.
Can you open a terminal session and run alsamixer
Hit F5 to show 'All' your sound channels and post a screenshot.
I suspect if you have already spent time with Zorin support team on this problem, you may have already done this, but maybe a chance we can spot something from your screenshot.
Thank you for all of the information you shared. I will dig into it. I wonder though if a later kernel will fix the issue as I have the same situation when I used Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and with that I tried a later kernel that what was first installed. Same with Fedora 36.
It's just so puzzling that sound works fine when using the headphone jack and with bluetooth. I know mechanically the speakers work because I have Win11 dual boot and sound there is fine.
You could try unmuting [Headphone]. Anything is worth a try.
Seems Realtek ALC294 is problematic on Ubuntu derivatives as I have found from doing websearch using: "realtek alc294 no sound ubuntu 20.04"
I tried one solution which involved editing the file /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-output.conf.common (with sudo), but to no avail. That may have just been suitable for folks experiencing either zero or max volume as opposed to no sound.
