No sound with Fedora 27 installed on a Chromebook

nick0515 · 01-16-2018, 02:58 PM

Hi there,

I recently installed Fedora 27 on my Dell Chromebook 11 (2015 - CANDY), by first flashing a custom bios from MrChromebox.

It worked beautifully and is performing very well in most respects. However, it seems to have not recognized the sound card. When I look in the sound options it lists 'Dummy output' as the device.

I'm a bit of a Linux noob and don't really know where to start with troubleshooting this problem or what info to provide. Any help will be much appreciated!

If it helps aplay -l gives the following:

Code:

<pre>**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
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 1: bytchtnocodec [bytcht-nocodec], device 0: Audio (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: bytchtnocodec [bytcht-nocodec], device 1: Deep-Buffer Audio (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
</pre>

Will edit this post soon to add the output of /sbin/lspci as per the sticky thread instructions.

Code:

<pre>00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series SoC Transaction Register (rev 0e)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics &amp; Display (rev 0e)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx, Celeron N2000 Series USB xHCI (rev 0e)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Definition Audio Controller (rev 0e)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Atom Processor E3800 Series PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 0e)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Power Control Unit (rev 0e)
01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev bb)
</pre>

Cheers,

Nick

Timothy Miller · 01-18-2018, 06:32 AM

This is normal, the sound drivers on most chromebooks aren't part of the linux kernel anymore...

You'd need to do one of 2 things to get it working most likely.

1. Patch your kernel with the chromebook sound drivers. They can be found at the GalliumOS git repository.

2. Switch to GalliumOS as they're kernel DOES have the chromebook sound drivers patched into the kernel.

nick0515 · 01-18-2018, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timothy Miller

This is normal, the sound drivers on most chromebooks aren't part of the linux kernel anymore...

You'd need to do one of 2 things to get it working most likely.

1. Patch your kernel with the chromebook sound drivers. They can be found at the GalliumOS git repository.

2. Switch to GalliumOS as they're kernel DOES have the chromebook sound drivers patched into the kernel.

Thanks Timothy! That explains that.

I was previously using GalliumOS but also had no sound, however I found out recently that that was because I needed to use a different firmware replacement (which I now have) with the model of Chromebook I have. So theoretically, if I install Gallium again it should now have sound. While Gallium is a great OS I'd prefer to use Fedora if at all possible.

So how easy would it be for someone with limited skills to patch the kernel? Any chance you could tell me how to do that? Will take a look at Gallium's Git repository now.

Thanks again!

Timothy Miller · 01-18-2018, 03:29 PM

I've never really looked into it. I prefer Debian, so while I would like to install the patches into Debian to use straight Debian, it's not THAT far off from Debian, so haven't bothered ever trying and am just running GalliumOS on my chromebook.

nick0515 · 01-18-2018, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timothy Miller

I've never really looked into it. I prefer Debian, so while I would like to install the patches into Debian to use straight Debian, it's not THAT far off from Debian, so haven't bothered ever trying and am just running GalliumOS on my chromebook.

Thanks, I think I should probably just go back to GalliumOS which is a fine distro. Fedora worked surprisingly well on the Chromebook other than the sound and function keys not being set up. It's much faster and responsive than my previous Gallium install. Will be interesting to see how Gallium goes now that I have the full custom bios installed. I wish I could run Gallium but with Gnome to replace xfce as Gnome just suits me better.

Timothy Miller · 01-18-2018, 05:59 PM

You can, just requires a bit of work. I'm actually running the Trinity desktop on my GalliumOS w/ TDM. I completely removed XFCE and whatever that DM that it uses is.

nick0515 · 01-18-2018, 06:56 PM

Oh okay, I should look into that. Thanks!

nick0515 · 01-22-2018, 04:16 PM

I have decided to just stick with xfce but have made it resemble and work like Gnome 3 as much as possible. Installed various gnome applications, nautilus, gnome-disk-utility etc. Played around with the panel and whisker menu. Carefully themed it to Arc Dark with Papirus icons. It's not the same but it's good enough. Seemed too complicated to get Gnome 3 working on GalliumOS. You have to keep certain xfce packages to keep things working apparently.