Upgrade from MX19 to MX 23 - No Sound! [Solved]

[rob2cv]

I switched to MX Linux 5 years ago when Win7 came to an end.
With the encouragement of a friend, and with considerable support from this forum, I managed to install MX19 but with quite a bit of difficulty.
After years as an incidental Windows user, I've now become an incidental Linux user. After the teething troubles with the initial set up, and the steep learning curve, I have had very few issues with my machine running Linux. With MX19 now well past it's own end of life, I have taken the plunge and installed MX23.5 on my trusty old machine, which just refuses to die! It's still perfectly usable for all the things which I want to do, so I see no reason to discard it while it still runs.
I am relieved to see that MX23 is very familiar to me.
(-:

The installation went so smoothly compared to my first attempt 5 years ago. However, I have got hung up, and rather frustrated, trying to get the sound working! I remember that I had problems with the sound last time. I think that it came down to switching off the embedded motherboard sound in the bios. Well it is still switched off in the bios but I can't work out how to get any sound from the old PC.

I have gone through the advice in the user manual and I have tried searching the forum for a solution. It seems that problems with sound are very common but I can't get anything to work.
Any help would be most appreciated.

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20250215_0856
System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-32-amd64 [6.1.129-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-32-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_x64 Libretto February 15  2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: P35C-DS3R v: x.x serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Award
    v: F12 date: 06/18/2009
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn level: v1 built: 2008
    process: Intel 45nm family: 6 model-id: 0x17 (23) stepping: 0xA (10) microcode: 0xA0B
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB
    L2: 12 MiB desc: 2x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2000 min/max: 2000/2834 scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand
    cores: 1: 2000 2: 2000 3: 2000 4: 2000 bogomips: 22667
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled
  Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; STIBP: disabled; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not
    affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Caicos [Radeon HD 6450/7450/8450 / R5 230 OEM] vendor: PC Partner / Sapphire
    driver: radeon v: kernel alternate: amdgpu arch: TeraScale-2 code: Evergreen
    process: TSMC 32-40nm built: 2009-15 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
    active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DVI-D-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6779 class-ID: 0300
    temp: 46.0 C
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: radeon
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: r600 gpu: radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 509x286mm (20.04x11.26") s-diag: 584mm (22.99")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 model: Samsung T23B551 serial: <filter> built: 2012
    res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96 gamma: 1.2 size: 510x287mm (20.08x11.3") diag: 585mm (23")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD CAICOS (DRM 2.50.0 / 6.1.0-32-amd64 LLVM 15.0.6)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Caicos HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6450 / 7450/8450/8490 OEM R5 230/235/235X OEM]
    vendor: PC Partner / Sapphire driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aa98 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Creative Labs EMU20k1 [Sound Blaster X-Fi Series] driver: snd_ctxfi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 1102:0005 class-ID: 0401
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-32-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8169
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: c000 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
    class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 447.13 GiB used: 12.58 GiB (2.8%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Kingston model: SUV500480G size: 447.13 GiB block-size:
    physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 56RI scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 111.78 GiB size: 109.47 GiB (97.93%) used: 12.19 GiB (11.1%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
  ID-2: /home raw-size: 335.35 GiB size: 329.02 GiB (98.11%) used: 402.2 MiB (0.1%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 46.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2393 libs: 1267 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb https://mirrors.ukfast.co.uk/sites/MX_antiX_packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 232 Uptime: 6h 25m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.75 GiB used: 2.37 GiB (30.6%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

[CharlesV]

So, first thing, lets have you run MX Select Sound and choose your default sound card from the drop down list and then click on apply (I have had to click apply a couple of times on some machines.)

Then test the sound using the button.

If no sound there, then choose the other sound card, click apply and then try it again.

[Jerry3904]

If that suggestion does not work:

q) Do you get no sound on all sources: video, You Tube, music etc?

2) Have you tried starting a sound source, then opening pavucontrol (right-click speaker icon > open mixer) to adjust input, output, etc?

[rob2cv]

So, first thing, lets have you run MX Select Sound and choose your default sound card from the drop down list and then click on apply (I have had to click apply a couple of times on some machines.)

Then test the sound using the button.

If no sound there, then choose the other sound card, click apply and then try it again.

CharlesV many thanks for your suggestion.
Yes, there are two sound cards. It seems that one is from the graphics card via HDMI output and the other is the sound card that I plug my headphones into.
I have tried selecting both in turn, and clicked on apply several times, still no sound from either when clicking "Test current sound card".

[rob2cv]

Jerry3904 thank you for your suggestions.

If that suggestion does not work:

q) Do you get no sound on all sources: video, You Tube, music etc?

No sound on Firefox or Strawberry player.

If that suggestion does not work:

2) Have you tried starting a sound source, then opening pavucontrol (right-click speaker icon > open mixer) to adjust input, output, etc?

OK, I use a Samsung smart TV as a monitor connected to the PC via HDMI. However, I always have the volume on the TV turned down and use headphones plugged into the sound card when listening to music, video etc.

I have had a good play around with the settings in pavucontrol. I increased the TV volume and I can hear sound from the TV on all sources even though the associated HDMI graphics card was not selected in MX Sound Select as per CharlesV instructions. Apart from not disturbing my wife, I now understand why I prefer to listen with headphones, the TV sound is dreadful!

To get the sound on the TV, in the pavucontrol "Configuration" tab I have selected, in turn, all the profiles listed under both sound cards from the drop down menu. The one labelled "Pro Audio" under the HDMI graphics card is the only one that has given any sound even though this card is not selected in MX Sound Select.

In pavucontrol under the "Output Devices" I can see the flickering blue bar beneath the volume slider, suggesting that something is registering with the sound card that the headphones are plugged into...

[rob2cv]

So, first thing, lets have you run MX Select Sound and choose your default sound card from the drop down list and then click on apply (I have had to click apply a couple of times on some machines.)

Then test the sound using the button.

If no sound there, then choose the other sound card, click apply and then try it again.

After playing with pavucontrol as above, I have gone back to the MX Select Sound. I can now hear the test message "Front left, front right" through the TV when either of the 2 sound cards are selected, but only if I choose "Pro Audio" in the profiles drop down menu under the "Configuration" tab in pavucontrol.
Nothing from the headphones connected to my sound card...

[Jerry3904]

This doesn't work?

Pavucontrol > Output tab, select headphones

[rob2cv]

This doesn't work?

Pavucontrol > Output tab, select headphones

Thanks for the quick reply.
(-:

I can't see an option to select headphones. There is just one option in the drop down menu for my soundcard "Analog Output"

[rob2cv]

I'm stuck with no sound through my headphones.
Since the sound worked fine running MX19, I decided to try an older kernel. I chose the oldest one which was available: 4.19.276.
Still no joy with the sound.

Is it likely that there is a hardware fault with the sound card and that it coincidentally happened at same time I chose to upgrade?
Would I be better asking in a different section?

[AVLinux]

Hi,

MX 23 uses PipeWire now, not PulseAudio. Did you install MX 23 fresh? Or did you manually upgrade from 19 to 23?

If it was an upgrade it could be possible that all the PipeWire stuff wasn't fully configured or the 'pipewire-setup-mx' package was not pulled in which ensures a proper setup. In my opinion it is always best to do a fresh install any time there is a platform change (ie MX-23 - MX-25) jumping from MX-19 - 23 was a pretty risky leap.