Can anyone advise on the correct sound settings in OS 18 to use with an iMac’s built in speakers? The default analogue speakers produces no sound. However if I select either analogue surround 2.1 or analogue surround 4.0 sound works. As far as I am aware my iMac does not have surround sound. Is it ok to use the analogue surround 2.1 setting? Would it cause any damage to the speakers? I followed the help section instructions to no avail. Any help would be appreciated.
You could try it with Pulse Audio Volume Control. It is a Tool to set up Audio Input and Outout. You can install it with sudo apt install pavucontrol
When installed, look at the Output and Configuration Tab for the Speakers and check the Options for them.
Hi,
I have tried this without any improvement. I followed the instructions in the Zorin help section.
Open terminal typing Ctrl+Alt+T
type:
alsamixer
Hit F6 to show soundcards.
Do you have more than one soundcard listed in the dropdown?
If Yes, post a screenshot.
Hit F5 to show all sound channels, both inputs and outputs.
Try unmuting any speaker and headphone channels marked "MM" by using arrow keys to the channel, then type "M" to unmute the channel. Increase volume using up-arrow.
Also play with [Auto-Mute] and [Loopback-mode] channel settings and see if any effect.
No, it would not. All that setting does is map to the present speakers, it does not change the voltage or amplify the sound.
It is about how the broadcasting is mapped.
Thank you for the reassurance.
Hi
I have followed the instructions for alsamixer and pulse audio> have attached some screenshots. I can only get sound if I change the configuration from Analogue Stereo output to either Analogue Surround 2.1 output or Analogue Surround 4.0 output.
If I try to restart the audio server I receive the following message
Any help would be much appreciated.
I am puzzled why alsamixer is showing "PipeWire" for both sound "Card" and "Chip", instead of the actual hardware from your first screenshot.
Hi @zabadabadoo,
Being a complete novice to Zorin OS, I cannot answer that. If I have understood this correctly, alsamixer is suggesting my iMac has two sound chips, I am sure it only has one.
Can you state exactly which iMac you have. Perhaps we can then search to find which sound card it has.
(I do not have an iMac and also not yet running Z18, so may not be a great help)
I wonder if this item could help: No sound from built-in speakers on MacBook 9,1 - Support and Help - Ubuntu Community Hub
Note it says. ref alsamixer "If it shows PulseAudio press F6, pick HDA Intel PCH"
If you choose "HDA Intel PCH" does it then show sound chip = "cirrus logic cs2048" instead of Pipewire?
Sound chip is Cirrus Logic CS4208, my mistake apologies.
Hi @zabadabadoo
I believe there is an experimental driver for the CS4208 that is intended for Macbooks.
Zorin OS 18 uses pipewire and Zorin 17 uses PulseAudio which would explain why I cannot restart the audio server using the instructions in Zorin's help section. It has probably not been updated to date.
Thanks again
alsamixer now shows the sound card and sound chip as I would expect to see.
If in doubt, unmute everything marked [MM] in alsamixer, e.g. headphone shows [MM].
Note, if you find an alsamixer setting that works for you, save it using:
sudo alsactl store
EDIT: From another websearch, this time using searchterm "Cirrus Logic CS4208 iMac Ubuntu 24.04"
I found this: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=426802
Maybe that is what you have also found. Check if you are running both Pipewire and PulseAudio together, which was significant thing not to do in that Mint item.
I have found some sound/audio issues are sometimes illogical and difficult to solve, you just have to keep pecking away at them. Sometimes a solution happens unexpectedly out of the blue.
Hi @zabadabadoo,
I will try that and let you know. I don’t understand why there is no sound with analogue speakers but sound with the surround options.
Thanks again for your help.
Isn't that because Zorin has introduced Pipewire instead of Pulse Audio in Zorin 18?
Yes Z18 should have Pipewire, but if you add Pulse Audio and run both, that was indicated to be a problem from the Mint forum item I posted.
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