No Sound on live version of Zorin

Hardware Support
1

Hello,

I am in the process of installing Zorin on yet another computer. As always I have used the live version to see if there are any issues before installing.

I cannot get the speakers to work.

From the device manager in windows it shows the speakers as 'Intel Smart Sound Technology for IS2 Audio'

I have done a quick search and see similar problems reported on various distro's, but these appear to be a few years old now.

Can anyone advise. Will the speakers work once Zorin is installed or do I have to carry on using windows on this particular pc.

Many thanks in advance.......

2

You could try it with installing Pulse Audio Volume Control. This is a Tool to set up Audio Input and Output. You can install it with the Terminal Command:

sudo apt install pavucontrol
3

I have installed pulse audio.

Still cannot hear anything.

I can see the output on the pulse audio gui, but the speakers are silent.

4

Try open the terminal and write:

alsamixer

Press F3 to select card and then see if something is muted or set low.

5

Ran alsamixer in terminal.

Note that the speaker is switched off as is headphones.

Manage to turn them on but there is no way to make adjustment to the volume of the speaker. I had already tried this and spent a fair bit of time, following online tutorials for alsamixer. Nothing worked.

6

I have been trying live versions of other distros. In Solus and Fedora the sound sort of works.

When I go into the sound part of settings it only shows Headphones Tigerlake but no speaker option from the drop down.

When I go to test left and right I can hear sound however, I have to turn the volume up to maximum but its definitely coming from the speakers.

I don't want to use Solus or Fedora, I want to stick with Zorin, but I am starting to think I have no choice.

Thank you to those who have tried to help me so far.

7

You could do full installation of Zorin OS and then try installing the latest kernel which may have fix for your sound device. Someone else needs to chim in regarding how to do that in Zorin OS, as I'm on Solus .

2 Likes
8

Here is a Tutorial for installing a newer Kernel:

@geekazoid: Did You take a Look in the ''Additional Drivers'' Tab in Software & Updates if there maybe is a Driver offered?

9

Many thanks to all, I am going to install Zorin and take it from there.

10

So Zorin installed.

Installed latest Kernel using Mainline as above. No change to sound issue.

No additional driver available for the software tab.

I have updated and upgraded to no avail.

Still showing dummy output.

Have re visited the pulse audio suggestion - the output tab shows dummy output as it did on the live version.

Also tried to open Alsamixer but get an error message so cannot try that route.

Also aplay -l shows no soundcard installed.

11

What is shown to You in the Configuration Tab in Pulse Audio?

12

Think I am going to chalk this up to experience and try another distro. I have spent about 10 hours on this and I am getting nowhere. Thanks to all who contributed.

13

Someone posted on this site that it works on a specific Asus notebook running Ubuntu 22.04 but not confirmed:

Seems most distros detect it (identifies it) but does not work. Try seeing if the hardware probe offered on that page helps.

Similarly try installing all ALSA packages except JACK and OSS, plus three qas packages, using Synaptic Package Manager. Install Audacious and in Sound Settings for the App, choose ALSA.
Alternatively try PCLOS Debian as it uses Pipewire not PulseAudio.

14

So I have tried the live version of PCLOS Debian and it is exactly the same as Zorin OS, sound settings shows 'dummy output' and this cannot be changed. Ran Alsamixer in terminal and this just confuses me however, the sliders that can be moved were all on maximum. I don't want to install it fully and spend a lot more time going through all of the tweaks to try and get it going. I am going to try Ubuntu later today and if that is a bust I am going to have to use windows. A very big thank you to all of you who have tried to help me, your time and expertise is very much appreciated.

15

You need to remember that computer was built for that other OS. Manufacturers cannot be bothered to code chips for anything other than Windows. That's why it is good that there are hardware manufacturers that make GNU/Linux friendly hardware.

1 Like
16

So, I have tried MX Linux with advanced hardware support and the sound settings sees the actual sound card but alas, nothing coming out of the speakers. Played about with all the different settings but I have now run out of steam so to speak. Ubuntu showed the dummy output so that was a bust. I am going to try LMDE later as a thread on the mint forums seems to suggest it might work. If that doesn't then its Windows which I hate but I need this machine to work with sound.

17

LMDE checked, actually sees the headphone/speaker output but no sound from the speakers despite the tweaking I have done on the other distros that I have tried. Time to admit defeat and move on. I am grateful to all who contributed.

18

Are the Debian Backports in LMDE integrated by default? If yes, You could try this Way install a newer Kernel and a newer linux-firmware Package.

1 Like