Audio issues

I have spent a lot of time on Debian 13.1.
I will put it on my HP EliteBook instead, now that I am able to make the audio work.

Everybody have a great week!

spapakons said:

For the crackling sound quality the audio drivers are responsible.

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Crackling or distortion in Linux audio is not necessarily caused by the audio drivers themselves. It’s often due to - incorrect buffer sizes or sample rates, misconfigured PulseAudio or pipeWire settings, CPU scheduling latency, power-saving settings on the audio interface. So blaming the driver alone oversimplifies the issue.

spapakons said:

Whatever Linux distro you choose if you install the same drivers it is not going to be fixed as by magic.

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Different distros may ship different kernel versions, audio stack configurations (PulseAudio vs. PipeWire), and default latency settings - all of which can affect crackling. That being said, the issue could vary by distro (same goes for newer releases vs older) - even with “the same driver.”

spapakons said:

The solution is to use different drivers, either for the same virtual audio device, if available....

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Linux audio drivers (ALSA modules) are usually hardware specific and built into the kernel. You can’t just “switch to different drivers” for the same device unless alternative drivers exist (which is rare). “Virtual audio device” drivers (like loopback or dummy devices) are for routing audio, not fixing hardware level crackling.

spapakons said:

...or switch to a different audio device, such as SoundBlaster 16 and use the official Linux drivers.

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Even tho, there's Linux distributions released this year - that can still run/handle older hardware (like late 2000) - SoundBlaster 16 is a 1990s ISA sound card - and that would be a really bad choice even for Linux. Since it's very old hardware and there are no "official Linux drivers" from Creative Labs for modern distributions (Linux uses open-source ALSA drivers), thus - getting it to work properly could be challenging with room for significant issues. Even if we're to take into account the latest kernel patches intended to improve support for some older SoundBlaster cards, these are often for specific models like the AWE32 - and compatibility with modern sound systems like PipeWire is still a challenge.

PS. You're approaching Linux related issues with a Windows mentality (way of thinking and solving issues).

neves said:

PS. You're approaching Linux related issues with a Windows mentality (way of thinking and solving issues).

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when in Windows think Windows, when in Linux think Linux. the twain don't meet.
best of luck Steve ..

It should be as simple as it is in Windows. Just install different drivers, but Linux never was as user friendly as Windows. Add to that the much lower software choice and then they wonder why it still has that small user base on desktops and laptops.

You should NEVER have to pay for ANY Linux distro -- commercial organisations that use Linux servers etc often pay for maintenenace contracts which is perfectly OK.

As for sound -- I'd sggest something like Fedora as it's up to date and maintained by Red Hat now owned by IBM --both companies have excellent pedigree.

I'm not sure what your hardware is or if you are playing sounds via streaming from the Internet -- poor connections / interference from other sources could be a problem but I haven't had any problems with sound on Linux even with an old 9 year old laptop. The only issue I have is that if using a Linux VM on a Windows Host on Hyper-V is that because the new distros all tend to use Wayland instead of X11 / XORG for GUI server which isn't (currently) compatible with Ms's RDP so sound is non existent -- but that's hardly Windows fault.

Cheers
jimbo

The OP tries to run Linux on a virtual machine, not on bare metal. The quality of the sound depends on many factors, including the virtual audio drivers and the translation from host to guest (how good job the virtual machine application does emulating the virtual audio device on the real hardware).

spapakons said:

The OP tries to run Linux on a virtual machine, not on bare metal. The quality of the sound depends on many factors, including the virtual audio drivers and the translation from host to guest (how good job the virtual machine application does emulating the virtual audio device on the real hardware).

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If the HOST is Windows then running a Linux VM may well have sound issues - if you run VmWare WKS or Virtual Box you must install the Linux equivalent of vmware tools or vbox additions (on the VM) to get better paravirtualised audio, video, and mouse drivers.

If you can pass through the audio device so the native sound drivers can be used then that should work too.

If running a Linux VM under hyper-V then sound is still a no-no in most instances currently.

Cheers
jimbo

Like I said in a previous reply, if you can select which device (SB16, AC97, HD audio) the virtual audio device will emulate, then you have a greater choice of drivers and you can find one that works, either from the virtual machine additions or native Linux driver (could be better). Yes, I think like a Windows user because it makes more sense than thinking like a Linux nerd "if it doesn't work, I will fix it". I don't have the programming skills nor the time to fix it, so it better works out of the box or it's just another reason against using Linux.

You guys are really high-tech gurus and truly computer savvy. For me, it has always been on a trial-and-error basis.

Anyway, I have installed Debian 13.1 on my HP EliteBook and fine-tuned it, and
am posting this on Debian OS on my VMware WK right now.

When you choose SFCE under 'Software Selection', you can fix the audio problem.

Right-click on any part of your desktop.
Multimedia->Volume Control->Unmute-> Adjust the slider to increase the volume

You can't install additional software the usual way using Terminal like other distros.
(# sudo apt install bleachbit)

Instead, you need to click
Application Finder->Synaptic Package Manager-> Bleachbit
Click on it to install.

Debian is sleek and fast by the way.

I have a virtual machine running Ubuntu 64-bit standard version (not LTS) in VMware Workstation 17.5 (latest version). I search for updates and keep it updated for experimentation with Linux (rarely, but happens). I never noticed any audio issues. I use the default settings applied by VMware when I created the virtual machine. The host is running Windows 11 upgraded to 25H2 and build 6901.

PS: I tried to download the official VMware Tools for Linux but it was recommended to install Open VM Tools instead, so I installed it, if that helps.

Just to clarify things.

ALSA = the kernel driven sound driver
PulseAudio = Sound Server System (working as a proxy for sound applications)
PipeWire = Low level, low latency multimedia framework and sound server (audio and video, has support for ALSA, JACK, PulseAudio and GStreamer based apps)
JACK = Audio Connection Kit and sound server daemon for low latency connections for both Audio and MIDI (require application support)
GStreamer = Pipeline-based multimedia framework for handling complex workflows (Audio and Video Streaming, recording, transcoding etc...)

BTW, crackling sound could be caused by slow hardware or in this case the VM not having enough resources or slow translation to HOST, causing audio latency. Typical symptom. Some distros barely have audio working properly and others have it pretty well fine tuned for low latency audio.

And one more thing...I am trying to make this and HW video acceleration to work properly in Arch Linux on Android ran via Termux in a PROOT environment...

Wish me good luck boys and gals!

SlicEnDicE said:

BTW, crackling sound could be caused by slow hardware or in this case the VM not having enough resources or slow translation to HOST, causing audio latency. Typical symptom. Some distros barely have audio working properly and others have it pretty well fine tuned for low latency audio.

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Like I said, either a driver issue or bad audio emulation of the virtual machine. Both might depend on if you have the Tools installed or not, which version you have installed and if you have proper audio drivers for the host, this case Windows. Every single detail matters, so I would start by updating the host drivers, then make sure I have installed Tools and then focus elsewhere. It doesn't help to blindly search for any other reason if you haven't done these two first. Update both the host and the guest OS drivers.

in Debian or Ubuntu you can install alsa-utils
in a terminal
>> sudo apt install alsa-utils <<

or install synaptic from the software store and install alsa-utils via the synaptic GUI

then in a terminal
>> sudo alsamixer <<

this will open the alsa mixer utilities that you can adjust for sound
you can only browse this utility by keyboard and FN keys.
best of luck Steve ..

XxXxX said:

in Debian or Ubuntu you can install alsa-utils
in a terminal
>> sudo apt install alsa-utils <<

or install synaptic from the software store and install alsa-utils via the synaptic GUI

then in a terminal
>> sudo alsamixer <<

this will open the alsa mixer utilities that you can adjust for sound
you can only browse this utility by keyboard and FN keys.
best of luck Steve ..

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If you are using a VM and running under HYPER-V it won't make ANY difference as the Guest (the linux VM on most modern distros) won't have access to any physical audio hardware so it matters not a jot what drivers you load.

With Vmware WKS or Oracle's VBOXyou can at least attach an audio usb device to the VM if you need to.

I like Hyper-Vas the virtual machine software on a Windows Host as it's very efficient enabling guests to get near native speeds but it does have irksom restrictions such as usb drives need to be attached and made offline to the host and there's no dynamic usb or pci redirection etc. available.

cheers
jimbo

SlicEnDicE said:

And one more thing...I am trying to make this and HW video acceleration to work properly in Arch Linux on Android ran via Termux in a PROOT environment...

Wish me good luck boys and gals!

Click to expand...

Good luck with that one -- you might have better luck if you use Android on an arm type of device and go from there.

cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Good luck with that one -- you might have better luck if you use Android on an arm type of device and go from there.

cheers
jimbo

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I am...and darn Arch is fast..for now.