Need a little help with Zorin OS on my MSI GP73

Greetings.. (:

I've been running Zorin OS on my MSI GP73 Leopard 8RE laptop for a few weeks now, absolutely loving it so far.. It's lightning fast, silky smooth, it doesn't have "Settings" entries that don't work (like we've all found in other distros), everything here "Just Works" ..except for my sound. Lol.

Fortunately, this is not a deal breaker for me, as all my web and mobile development stuff now happens in Linux, with Windows 10 being kept essentially only for gaming. However, I would like to be able to listen to music from my laptop while I code.

I have the following audio devices on hand to work with:

• Corsair Vengeance V1500 USB - which don't show up as anything, but I've never managed to get these working in any Linux distro anyway
• JBL E500BT - which disconnects immediately after pairing with my laptop
• Built-in laptop speakers - which show in the list of audio devices (no "Dummy" sound issues here), but simply refuse to play any sound

I've also tried plugging in typical desktop speakers to the headphone jack, which the "Sound" settings panel did show appropriately, but I still got nothing from the sound test..

My "inxi -SMA" output is as follows:

Code:

System:    Host: monstrositux Kernel: 5.3.0-59-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Gnome 3.30.2
           Distro: Zorin OS 15.2
Machine:   Device: laptop System: Micro-Star product: GP73 Leopard 8RE v: REV:1.0 serial: N/A
           Mobo: Micro-Star model: MS-17C5 v: REV:1.0 serial: N/A
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: E17C5IMS.10D date: 10/18/2018
Audio:     Card-1 NVIDIA GP106 High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k5.3.0-59-generic

Just a quick note: I did also use the "NVidia X Server" control panel to switch my primary graphics over from the GTX card to the Intel Integrated Graphics, in the hopes that this would stop the laptop from trying to use the HDMI audio output, but that doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Please could someone help me work out what I'm missing here?

Hi, See if the potential solution here helps:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1225804 ... vidia-card

In my case, I did not want hdmi on either my motherboard or Graphics card to be grabbed by Zorin, or the onboard sound which was not recognised in Ubuntu 18.04 (Zorin 15). I use VGA connection to my monitor and have SoundBlaster Audigy 5/RX - had to block these devices using 'blacklist' command in a .conf file:

https://www.techtimejourney.net/how-to- ... -in-linux/

I also then had to install ALSA - had to do this both in Zorin and FerenOS to get sound.

My ALSA packages:



Alternative suggestions:

https://itsfoss.com/fix-sound-ubuntu-1304-quick-tip/

Swarfendor437 wrote:Hi, See if the potential solution here helps:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1225804 ... vidia-card

In my case, I did not want hdmi on either my motherboard or Graphics card to be grabbed by Zorin, or the onboard sound which was not recognised in Ubuntu 18.04 (Zorin 15). I use VGA connection to my monitor and have SoundBlaster Audigy 5/RX - had to block these devices using 'blacklist' command in a .conf file:

https://www.techtimejourney.net/how-to- ... -in-linux/

I also then had to install ALSA - had to do this both in Zorin and FerenOS to get sound.

My ALSA packages:

The attachment Alsa packages.jpg is no longer available

Alternative suggestions:

https://itsfoss.com/fix-sound-ubuntu-1304-quick-tip/

Thanks for the suggestion, but after exploring that rabbit hole for a while, I'm starting to think my issue might be slightly different... I should also note that I don't have a problem with only seeing "Dummy sound" in my sound settings, here's what I currently see:



Reading through the comments in the Bugzilla report linked from that AskUbuntu question, I can see the bug in question was resolved in kernel `5.3.0-46`, whereas my machine already has `5.3.0-59`. I did see someone in the comments who still had the same issue with `5.3.0-46` itself and still needed the `alsa-base.conf` configuration entry workaround. That said, I did try that configuration setting, both with and without the suggested `blacklist.conf` entry, but neither route made any changes.

Something interesting though: I see a few people (both in that Bugzilla comment thread and online in general) complaining that some outputs work while others don't, or that their speakers work but their microphone doesn't, etc. In my case, my accessible sound outputs (as I have no HDMI monitor with speakers) are not working while my microphone appears to work (if I speak while my sound settings are open, the volume meter moves accordingly, but obviously I can't play back my recording to confirm that..).

I've also tried moving my `~/.config/pulse` folder to a backup location and rebooting, but the files created with their defaults are identical and nothing changes. I then tried `apt install --reinstall alsa-base pulseaudio`, followed by `alsa force-reload`, which made no difference. Lastly, I checked `speech-dispatcher` (which others have suggested to try disable) is installed, but it's configuration file already contains `RUN=no`.

I'm running out of ideas here.... Is there any other information that I could gather from my machine that may help debug this one?

(edit) Would it be worth trying to update my linux kernel to a recent release of `5.4`? I've never manually updated a Linux kernel before, so I'm not familiar with the process and/or any potential issues I may run into if I break something..

In respect of that screenshot, you need to disable spdif which you might be able to do in ALSA. On that picture you sent, there is a drop-down arrow at bottom where it says profile - can you click on that down arrow to get a different profile or is it the only item there?



Different OS but you get the picture regarding Profiles!

Swarfendor437 wrote:In respect of that screenshot, you need to disable spdif which you might be able to do in ALSA.

Alrighty, I'll look into that idea..

Swarfendor437 wrote:On that picture you sent, there is a drop-down arrow at bottom where it says profile - can you click on that down arrow to get a different profile or is it the only item there?

The only option I have in that list is the currently selected "Analogue Stereo Output", nothing else.


In the meantime, something else seems to have changed now.. I was sitting on the couch with my laptop last night while I was trying to get the sound working, this morning I took it back to my desk to get back to carry on working, but now Zorin OS is no longer activating my second monitor, which I connect to the HDMI port. The `options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0` line in `alsa-base.conf` and the `blacklist snd_soc_skl` line in `blacklist.conf` are both commented out, so in theory this should be exactly as it was before I started this process.

On a slightly different tack, would it perhaps be easier to try get my JBL E500BT (Bluetooth) headphones working instead..?

This is from Windows 10 community but it might shed some light:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... c3ef7f3934

The other thing to check is that you have blu-man and bluez installed - check using Synaptic Package Manager.

Also - see this article on Bluetooth:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1078847 ... untu-18-04

Ok, progress has been made..

I decided to focus first on getting my second display working, so I launched "Software Updater" to try a different GPU driver. In doing so, it told me there were updates available, one of which was a kernel update (which is now on `5.3.0-61`). I then switched my GPU driver over to use "nvidia-driver-440 (open source)" and rebooted. Still didn't have it working, but then I found a post that had an issue with the "Prime Profiles" configuration files on Ubuntu 18.04, which this user had to edit manually to fix. I couldn't find the exact file they had and the most similar file on my side had vastly different entries, so instead I simply switched from the "Intel" low power adapter back to the "NVidia" high performance adapter through "NVidia X Server Settings". Note: If I switch back to the low power profile, my HDMI output stops working again, but I can deal with this configuration for now..

Then I installed `bluez` and `blueman`, and messed around with that one a little bit. I paired my JBL headphones successfully, but then I got an error that said "Connection Failed: blueman.bluez.errors.DBusFailedError: Protocol not available...". A quick Google search proposed that `pulseaudio-module-bluetooth` was not installed, so I jumped into terminal to install it, which told me it was already installed and that it had simply now been marked as a "manual install". One more reboot and my JBL headphones are now staying connected.

I should note that the "test sound" action in the Zorin OS "Settings" app does not play anything through my headphones, but a quick test with YouTube through Google Chrome does play. Note: this is unfortunately not the case for the "Speakers - Build-in Audio" output device though, I still have no sound from any app with this output selected.

So, while the overall configuration is not exactly perfect, it is currently in a usable state... Massive thanks to Swarfendor437 for your suggestions, I do appreciate your time and efforts. I can work with Zorin as it is for now, I'll spend some more time digging into these issues at a later stage.

That said, if anyone stumbles onto this thread and has any other bright ideas, I'd still love to hear them.