No sound only dummy output Dell

Hardware Support
1

Hi,

A few days ago I installed Zorin 16.2 on a Dell Micro Optiplex 5070.
I used this guide because it was my first experience with UEFI and Secure Boot:

Everything went fine except audio. There is only a dummy output for audio available. But I have also read that it is unwise to use Secure Boot in relation with my audioproblems. Rather confusing.
So I followed the Zorin help concerning audioproblems, but nothing helped.
Installing Pavucontrol did show me that there is an audiosignal.
But the signal does not reach any further. 'Sounds' like a driver/hardware problem.
What is a wise to do?

Regards,
André

I have read a lot of pages about

2

Here are a few things to try:

  1. Check alsamixer to make sure it's enabled.

  2. Switch to PipeWire instead of PulseAudio. bluetooth - Replacing Pulseaudio with Pipewire in Ubuntu 20.04 - Ask Ubuntu

  3. Modify GRUB file, assuming your model is an Intel one: No sound (on laptop) - #77 by Aravisian

If nothing else works, you could update the kernel, which could make your PC unbootable. Disable secure boot and update if you accept the risks.

3

Don't know if this thread will be of help: Dell Precision 5750 - No sound ( Dummy Output )

4

Thanks, I will try.
Just tried: liveusb has the same problems.
Plugged-in an usb with PCM2704, works fine.

5

Buy a cheap USB sound card like TROND, 20 $ it is working like a charm, and do not change, update kernel, grub if you do not know what you are doing...most of them are working with Linux.

It is the BEST solution for bad drivers, non existing drivers, faulty drivers...

You can disable Secure Boot from the bios, to know if it is active uses this

mokutil --sb-state

Do not try to install software left and right. as suggested, without investigating first and foremost.

Install Pulse Audio Volume Control (has a nice graphical interface), alsa mixer is a dog...

6

Installing software left and right without knowing what is wrong is always a bad solution.

Updating the kernel is useless if the driver is faulty...anyway..Linux (more than 20 years of experience) is bad for audio drivers, scanner drivers and pretty bad for a lot of laptop.

Pipewire is a transport protocol on top of the sound drivers, like PulseAudio. if the driver is faulty it is solving nothing.

alsamixer is a dog.

You can always disable secure boot without touching the kernel. Secure boot can also stop you to install drivers not supplied by open source software.

As I said buy a cheap USB sound card like TROND, 20 $...working like a charm on Linux and working like a charm on laptop.

7

Since a lot of laptop soundboards are integrated with the gpu, would you mind sharing what graphics card you are using? Is your system using a proprietary driver for the video card? Is it the right driver (are all features of the card represented in the nvidia server app, if nvidia...i don't know about Intel or amd vid cards)?

8

Graphic card is GeForce GT 1030.
I am using S/PDIF Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller
Was the same with POP-OS
Drivers and software going with (Nvidia application) were downloaded from Nvidia site.
I am not using a laptop

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