Installed Linux OS January of 2016 on new HP laptop. Sound is good on original Win 10. Real poor on 17.3 Cinnamon. I have tried endless suggestions to get good sound, none have worked. After two years I am about finished with Linux. Anyone have a real solution? Thank you for listening to my problem.

What sound sources are you using?

Have you tried installing pavucontrol?

Cinnamon used to have issues maybe give Mate a go if you haven't already.

How old is your sound card?

Hi fm1 - welcome to LQ.

Sorry to hear you're having sound issues .. You mention Cinnamon so I'll hazard a guess that you're using Mint. Can you provide a bit more detail with respect to the sound problems you're having ? In my experience, things work differently in linux for sound, but once you figure it out, you can do pretty well anything you need to do as well as you can in Windows.

I'll wait for you to get back to us - Cheers.

I am using Suse Leap 42.3 and the sound is equal to Win 10.

What sound card or sound chip are you using?

windows often uses post-processing of sound.
usually some proprietary software like DTS...
Linux does not, by default. that means you get objectively better sound on linux!
you can use pulseaudio or jackaudio and install equalizers and what not to "improve" the sound yourself.

Hey guys, thanks for the replies to my question. I don't know who to answer first, last or how to select one or the other.
All sound sources are at extremely low volume even when set to 100%.

Sound card is Reaktek High Def Audio. It is the original equipment that came with this 2015 HP laptop.

Yes, 17.3 cinnamon mint.

I will give Mate a go if you can tell me what it is and where to get it. Please pardon my ignorance.

I'll try suse leap 42.3 as well. Is it a sound card, driver, program or update?

Again, thank you all very much. I hope I haven't offended anyone or violated any rules. Please tell me if I have,. as I haven't used this Q+A system until now.

Hey fm1 - firstly, don't worry about offending anyone or violating rules ... this is a pretty friendly place to ask for help :-)

A couple of comments:

• Just for clarity: "Mint" is the version of linux your are using (commonly referred to as a "distro" .. short for "distribution" ...). "Cinnamon" is the Desktop Environment (or "DE"), essentially the GUI (graphical user interface) you are using with Mint. Most distros can be used with a variety of DEs, but tend to package certain ones by default.
  
• "Mate" is one of the other DEs popularly used with Mint.
  
• SUSE is a completely different version of linux, originally based on Slackware, if memory serves, which is one of the oldest existing distros. I do not think our member was suggesting you actually try SUSE (nor do I), but was just relating his / her own positive sound experience. I would expect that you will be able to solve your issue with Mint with Cinnamon, given that this is an extremely popular distro, currently, especially with less experienced linux users.

Cinnamon probably comes with Pulseaudio - a kind of post-processing audio package. The suggestion by a member to use pavucontrol (this is an acronym of sorts for PulseAudio Volume Control) is a good place to start, in my opinion. Although Pulseaudio is useful for configuring sound in certain ways, it can be confusing to understand at first. Pay particular attention to the "Configuration", "Output Devices" and "Playback" tabs.

Let us know how that goes.

Cheers !

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you Rickkkk. I'll see what I can do with this info. I wish Linux would provide tutorials on this stuff.

Hi again fm1,

... a few more comments:

• While not tutorials, by any means, most linux commands contain fairly complete manual entries (use the "man" command followed by the name of the command for which you are looking for information ...)

• There usually exists alternative documentation on most applications. Sometimes the developer will have a proper website, whose address will appear in the "About" field under the "Help" menu .. Other times, the developer may maintain a short explanation of his software on his source distribution page (often part of git).

• Some distros do actually have excellent documentation / guides / tutorials / wikis. An example is the Arch Linux wiki (the distribution I mostly use). The Arch wiki is so well done that it often provides information that is useful even to those using other linux distros.

• Google can be your friend :-) ... If it is not immediately obvious where to find something, don't hesitate to do a search. You're probably not the only person looking for an answer.

• This place (linuxquestions.org) is a great place to learn. Although it is expected that those looking for assistance demonstrate a certain degree of effort on their own part, members here are very generous with their time in providing assistance.

Remember that linux is a legitimately free, community-maintained operating system. In that sense, it does require a greater degree of self-help than a bought-and-paid-for type of solution, such as Windows. This should be expected.

Hope this helps - don't give up !

2 members found this post helpful.

ok, i believe you.
but this is still a very subjective statement; some objective numbers would be better here.
please start opening up those apps others talked about and have a look.
re-installing different distros won't help; the fix is probably simpler than you think.

Thanks again Rickkkk. Not giving up, just trying to find the time to get back to working on the problem. I do like Linux and will eventually figure this thing out. Love my old XP Pro, but it is an antique. Hate Win 10, so I have to get this working.

I would try it with Ubuntu Studio

I had the best results with it and nothing to configure, everything works fine and gets configured during the installation.

In my experience (your's may vary, but no harm in trying), when the sound volume is low, even when set to 100%, it's time to open a terminal window and run
If all you see is a single column labeled Master, press F6 to select your sound card You should see a menu. Select device number 0. Use the right arrow key to select the PCM column; then the up-arrow to crank it up. You can then play with the setting in the Master column to adjust the volume to your liking. When done; press the Esc key to exit

1 members found this post helpful.

With all due respect. The best media and sound systems are produced with Linux. I would call this a learning curve.
many of the finest media developers from Planet CCRMA Stanford University
Then the studio people that have built a life around Linux Musicians
They even have there own distro's.
Every linux Distro out of the box can do these things with knowledge. I choose Slackware because it works great. The developer has the Largest Grateful dead collection ever. Sound always seems to work great in Slackware.

1 members found this post helpful.