Sound issues with Zorin OS 18

[swarfendor437]

Yes well, that is why I prefer ALSA as you know.

[PHayward]

Hi @zabadabadoo

Do you know how to uninstall PulseAudio volume control? I have read this is not straightforward and the simplest option is to switch off in PulseAudio. Would you agree?

[zabadabadoo]

@PHayward

....the simplest option is to switch off in PulseAudio

Pulse Audio was standard with Z17 not Pipewire now with Z18. But read Pulse Audio is tied to systemd and removal could cause system breakage. Ref:

For Zorin/Windows 11 24H2 Dual-Booter's

Excellent video as always from Chris Titus. The Linux parallel to me is systemd, and moreover, pulse audio; try and remove pulse audio and the whole system breaks.

Which Desktop Environment do you like and why?

I don't like Cinnamon or Gnome because of it's integrated Pulse Audio. Try to remove Pulse audio and the whole DE goes with it. However there is a workaround for Gnome not sure about Cinnamon. So for integrated audio read disintegration of the DE.

Others here may wish to advise regarding the running of Pulse Audio alongside Pipewire and whether the combination is proven problematic generally or just on some PC's or Macs.
Also can Pulse Audio be added/removed without fear of DE damage now Pipewire is the standard backend in Z18?
I guess you could employ Synaptic Package Manager to non-destructive test what else would be removed if you mark Pulse Audio for removal, without taking that final action to actually remove. Any other suggestions?

[swarfendor437]

What I have done in the past was use a suggestion on askubuntu that got zero votes but it worked for me. You need to chown ownership of /etc first in order to make a new folder called 'pulseoff'. Next you may need to chown 'pulse' folder in order to drag it into the 'pulseoff' folder. The only issue then is with updates to pulse audio will present a warning so you need to tell the system to ignore updates for pulse audio. I then used Synaptic Package Manager to install all ALSA packages including apulse but excluding OSS and JACK plugins. I then installed QasMixer, QasConfig, and QasHctrl.

[PHayward]

Hi @swarfendor437

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately I am a complete novice with Linux and I don not understand what your suggestion. I installed PulseAudio volume control as it was advised on the Zorin help page. However I have decided to perform a complete reinstall of OS 18 which has removed the PulseAudio Volume control app from my system. I currently have the sound configuration set as analogue surround 2.1 which produces sound output. If I change to analogue stereo output, there is no output. I guess I will leave at is for now.

[swarfendor437]

So long as the sound is as it should be I would not mess.

[PHayward]

Hi @swarfendor437

Thank you, I agree.

Best Regards