Problems with suspend and sound on old laptop

Hardware Support
1

I have installed Zorin 16.3 Lite on my Acer Aspire 5530 and now I have several problems:

  1. After I suspend OS it gives me black screen on boot. After some googling I suspect gpu drivers (ati mobility radeon hd 3200, haven't changed driver after os installation)
  2. Laptop have built-in dolby home theater so it have subwoofer in addition to speakers (so it's technically 2.1 audio) but I can't get the sub working - it makes no sound and doesn't show up anywere in audio settings. On Windows I had to install audio drivers to make it work, don't know what I have to do on linux
2

The initial release date for that make and model was 2008. Is this a later generation model?
You may need an earlier kernel than the one that comes default.
You can check kernel version with terminal command:

uname -r

3

I don't think it's a later generation model because mine laptop was produced exactly in 2008. Kernel version is 5.15.0-97-generic. Do I need earlier kernel in this case and how can I get it?

4

You can try the 5.8 kernel which was pretty solid:

sudo apt install linux-headers-5.8.0-63-generic linux-modules-5.8.0-63-generic linux-modules-extra-5.8.0-63-generic linux-image-5.8.0-63-generic

After a successful install, you must reboot, then start tapping the esc or tab key to pull up the Grub Menu (If it does not show up each boot by default) if using EFI boot.
If using MBR (Legacy) boot, hold down the left shift key, instead to pull up the grub menu.
Choose Advanced Options for Zorin, then select Zorin on 5.8.0-63 (Do not select the option with RECOVERY in the name).
Once booted, check you are on 5.8

uname -r

and test performance.

5

Booted with older kernel version and didn't noticed any changes. The performance is quite the same and problems I wrote about is still there

6

It is highly likely that the black screen with AMDGPU is a kernel issue due to the AMD graphics drivers being bundled with the kernel.

Ignoring the Nvidia answers, you might read the AMD answers supplied here:
suspend - how to solve black screen after suspension with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS? - Ask Ubuntu).

and see if any offer some hope.

7

I tried to use amdgpu-install command, but it says that the command not found. Found no information on how to fix that. Maybe I've missed something?

8

The author in that thread was not very clear; A user must elevate to Sudo.
Either by elevating the terminal, or running the adgpu-install command with sudo.

Here is the repository for the AMD drivers:
https://repo.radeon.com/amdgpu-install/

And here is the latest driver packaged as a self-installing .deb package:
https://repo.radeon.com/amdgpu-install/22.20.5/ubuntu/jammy/amdgpu-install_22.20.50205-1_all.deb

If you want to, you can just download the .deb package for the drivr you want and double click it to run the installer instead of running the terminal command.

9

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