No sound on macbook 2017

jdd · January 29, 2025, 3:55pm

Hello,
I have no sound on my macbook 2017 (Ventura). Tumbleweed kde plasma
no Yast module. In kde setup, nothing visibly wrong, even the vu meters works, but no sound on speakers.
I don’t really understand the opensuse page
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Audio_troubleshooting
specially when it speaks of changing id, Dunno what to do

aplay output is:

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CS4208 Analog [CS4208 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

any clue?

hcvv · January 29, 2025, 3:58pm

I hope that help comes soon, but in the meantime you will have seen that your computer text in your post is malformed.
So for the future.
Please, to make the pieces of computer code in your posts better consumable by technical oriented people:

And post as complete as possible. That is starting with the line with the prompt and the command, then all output, and ending with the new prompt line.
When you really feel you need to change anything in such a copy, then add that in a comment, else we take all characters literally.

When the text is very long, then you can upload to https://paste.opensuse.org/ .
Or you can use the tool susepaste by piping the output to it ind posting the URL you get.

hui · January 29, 2025, 3:59pm

Is the package sof-firmware and alsa-firmware installed? If not install it and restart.

jdd · January 29, 2025, 5:48pm

They are already installed :-(.
One more clue: in kde setup I have no choice of any peripheral
thanks
jdd

Svyatko · January 29, 2025, 6:03pm

Look at

alsamixer

Select needed card.

jdd · January 29, 2025, 7:11pm

well, this don’t send anyway. The sound card seems right, but still no speakers. However I noticed that headphones works.
Pavucontrol say that there are no speakers

Svyatko · January 29, 2025, 7:20pm

For Macbooks you often need special tuning - search Net for that.

jdd · January 29, 2025, 7:28pm

I just notice that aplay -l gives:

# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CS4208 Analog [CS4208 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

all speaks of hdmi… so I guess internal speakers are not seen
thanks
jdd

Svyatko · January 29, 2025, 7:41pm

Post

lspci
lsusb

deano_ferrari · January 29, 2025, 10:40pm

Actually
inxi -Aa
would provide better fundamental hardware and audio environment information.

jdd · February 22, 2025, 10:30am

I could find way to have special characters with my mac keyboard :-). so

inxi -Aa is

Audio:
Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
alternate: snd_soc_avs,snd_sof_pci_intel_skl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
chip-ID: 8086:9d71 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Broadcom 720p FaceTime HD Camera driver: facetimehd v: kernel
pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1570
class-ID: 0480
API: ALSA v: k6.12.9-1-default status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.2.7 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

sound works as expected on macos ventura (so not a hardware problem)
works ok with earphones
No usable hdmi on this tiny, only one usbC plugin (and I have no hdmi<>usbc hub

hints welcome thank
jdd

jdd · March 13, 2025, 4:33pm

Hello,
No other clues? I didn’t have any better result since then :-(.

I’m ready to help, including debugging driver if instructed how to do so
thanks
jdd

deano_ferrari · March 14, 2025, 7:09am

See if the advice in this Ubuntu thread helps…

Otherwise, more diagnostic information can be supplied via alsa-info.sh…
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Audio_troubleshooting#Script_to_run_to_obtain_detailed_information

jdd · March 14, 2025, 4:19pm

thanks, I will try this asap

jdd

jdd · March 15, 2025, 3:27pm

the ubuntu clues didn’t give any better

result after new update just now

alsa debug

help welcome.
vu-meters move, but no sound on any speaker

thanks
jdd

deano_ferrari · March 15, 2025, 8:44pm

They weren’t clues as such. A user in that thread (using similar hardware to yours) found some muted controls, and auto-muting was also in place. Just something worth checking.

deano_ferrari · March 15, 2025, 11:28pm

The asla-info.sh output shows some muted output nodes, but difficult for me know if they are relevant here…

Node 0x02 [Audio Output] wcaps 0xd043d: Stereo Amp-Out Stripe
  Control: name="Line Out Playback Volume", index=0, device=0
    ControlAmp: chs=3, dir=Out, idx=0, ofs=0
  Device: name="CS4208 Analog", type="Audio", device=0
  Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x7f, nsteps=0x7f, stepsize=0x01, mute=1
  Amp-Out vals:  [0x6e 0x6e]
  Converter: stream=0, channel=0
  PCM:
    rates [0x7f0]: 32000 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000
    bits [0x1e]: 16 20 24 32
    formats [0x3]: PCM FLOAT
  Power states:  D0 D3 EPSS
  Power: setting=D3, actual=D3
  Delay: 13 samples
Node 0x03 [Audio Output] wcaps 0xd043d: Stereo Amp-Out Stripe
  Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x7f, nsteps=0x7f, stepsize=0x01, mute=1
  Amp-Out vals:  [0xff 0xff]
  Converter: stream=0, channel=0
  PCM:
    rates [0x7f0]: 32000 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000
    bits [0x1e]: 16 20 24 32
    formats [0x3]: PCM FLOAT
  Power states:  D0 D3 EPSS
  Power: setting=D3, actual=D3
  Delay: 13 samples
Node 0x04 [Audio Output] wcaps 0xd043d: Stereo Amp-Out Stripe
  Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x7f, nsteps=0x7f, stepsize=0x01, mute=1
  Amp-Out vals:  [0xff 0xff]
  Converter: stream=0, channel=0
  PCM:
    rates [0x7f0]: 32000 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000
    bits [0x1e]: 16 20 24 32
    formats [0x3]: PCM FLOAT
  Power states:  D0 D3 EPSS
  Power: setting=D3, actual=D3
  Delay: 13 samples
Node 0x05 [Audio Output] wcaps 0xd043d: Stereo Amp-Out Stripe
  Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x7f, nsteps=0x7f, stepsize=0x01, mute=1
  Amp-Out vals:  [0xff 0xff]
  Converter: stream=0, channel=0
  PCM:
    rates [0x7f0]: 32000 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000
    bits [0x1e]: 16 20 24 32
    formats [0x3]: PCM FLOAT
  Power states:  D0 D3 EPSS
  Power: setting=D3, actual=D3
  Delay: 13 samples

Let’s have a look at the results of
amixer -c0

deano_ferrari · March 15, 2025, 11:45pm

FWIW, I found a number of other Linux distro threads describing the same issue. Here’s just one of many

This one contained a github link outlining the issue and another for a driver which can be built for the macbook audio hardware. YMMV.

A more pragmatic option for you might be to purchase a USB audio device with appropriate output interface instead.

jdd · March 16, 2025, 8:30am

I have no “mute” option anywhere (and only one cursor in alsamixer :-(. I have audio interfaces, but this very small computer have only one usbc plug :-(.
I will try the other links, may be compile the driver myself.
I can use the macos part of the macbook, but would like to have my openSUSE works :-).
after the last tumbleweed update, I even can see several chanels in kde’s audio controls, with vu-meters moving, but still no sound out on speakers

Thanks for you help

deano_ferrari · March 16, 2025, 8:35am

I would like to have seen the output from amixer -c0 as requested.