On 11/10/25 09:55, ael via Dng wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 10, 2025 at 08:43:10AM -0500, Curtis Maurand via Dng wrote:
>> I have a fairly generic install of Excaliber with the mate desktop. I can't
>> get sound to work at all. I'm working on AMD hardware. (AMD Ryzen 7 6800H).
> I recently installed excaliber (and then upgraded to testing) on an AMD
> Ryzen 9 laptop.
>
> The problem that I had with sound was that it defaulted to HDMI instead
> of the built in speakers and microphones: in other words it defaulted to
> the wrong sound card.
>
> I am on the wrong machine just now to compare with your lscpi.
>
> But I would always suggest that you work at the alsa level first and get
> that working: it underlies all the other stuff.
>
> Start with trying aplay/arecord and use the -l and -L switches to see
> what is happening.
>

> It would be a good idea to download and run
>    https://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh
> and examine the output. It includes all the /proc/asound/cards and much
> more that I would otherwise be mentioning.

>
> Oh yes, and run alsamixer to see what controls and cards you have. Don't
> forget F5 and F6.
>
> You may want to strip out any other sound software like pipewire and
> pulseaudio (spit) that might be interfering with configuration in the
> first instance. Once alsa is working, you can build other layers on top
> if you need them.
Once I set pipewire, wireplumber, and pipewire-pulse to auto start on
login, things worked by default. The sound quality is awful. I'm now
able to make changes to sound cards via the mate sound app (control
panel), which I think is a front end for alsa-mixer. HDMI audio output
is horrible. The analog output to either speakers or headphones works
great. I haven't set up bluetooth on it so I have no idea how that
works. I'll have to figure out the hdmi issues, but I can live with it
this way.  The reason being is that this machine is half nas and half
media machine. The monitor is a television and I watch videos and listen
to music on it.

Thanks, all, for your help.

--Curtis