Linux – How to make the Lenovo Y50’s subwoofer work on linux

audiolinuxlinux-mint

I have a Lenovo Y50 laptop which has a subwoofer integrated that works only on Linux Mint 17.2, if I download HDA Analyzer and change with it:

  • PIN 0x17 -> Widget Control -> Check OUT
  • PIN 0x17 -> Output Amplifier -> Val[0] -> Uncheck Mute
  • PIN 0x1a -> VREF -> Set it to 100

The problem is I tried various other distributions (Ubuntu, Antegros, Manjaro, Debian, Fedora) and doing the same thing doesn't make the subwoofer work. On the other distributions I tried to apply various other solutions (along with the previous mentioned solution), such as:

  • Trying hdajackretask from the alsa-tools package (can only do something on Ubuntu, on others it reports tee: /sys/class/sound/hwC0D0/reconfig: Device or resource busy; keep in mind that I tried various settings with it on Ubuntu but subwoofer still fails to work)
  • Setting enable-lfe-remixing = yes in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
  • Setting default-sample-channels = 3 and default-channel-map = front-left,front-right,lfe in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
  • Uninstalling PulseAudio and leaving ALSA only (I haven't tried much at this state, only noticed speaker-test -c 6 only detects 2 channels: Front Left and Front Right)

  • Leaving only alsa-base.conf in /etc/modprobe.d/ with the following content (this only reorders the cards, but I believe it helped when the system was ALSA only, to set the PCH as primary):

    # Intel PCH
options snd-hda-intel index=0  model=auto vid=8086 pid=8c20
# Intel HDMI 
options snd-hda-intel index=1  model=auto vid=8086 pid=0c0c

  • Copying many related configuration folders from Linux Mint to Fedora, such as:

    • /etc/alsa/, /etc/modprobe.d/ and /etc/pulse/
    • /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/ and /usr/share/alsa/

All of these attempted solutions didn't work.

I started analyzing the problem further by running a few information commands. From the command wget -O alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh && chmod +x ./alsa-info.sh && ./alsa-info.sh, I got the following information for Linux Mint and Fedora Workstation 22 (on which I'm currently on). I didn't spot anything interesting, but maybe you will.

However, by running the command pactl list on both distributions, I got for Linux Mint (Pastebin ID #Z81bqaR3) and Fedora (Pastebin ID #gDNJg4Lq) and I noticed this:

On Fedora (and also Ubuntu):

Card #1
    ....
    device.product.name = "8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller"

And on Linux Mint:

Card #1
    ....
    device.product.name = "Lynx Point High Definition Audio Controller"

In this regard, I followed the first link of the Google search ubuntu Lynx Point High Definition Audio Controller and noticed many Dell laptops having this sound, then Google'd pulseaudio models.txt (first link) and therefore tried setting in my alsa-base.conf in /etc/modprobe.d/ the following:

    # Intel PCH
    options snd-hda-intel index=0  model=dell-vostro-3500 vid=8086 pid=8c20
    # Intel HDMI 
    options snd-hda-intel index=1  model=auto vid=8086 pid=0c0c

Didn't work.

Sorry for the search mentions instead of links and unproper pastebin links, but I'm new and only get 2 links maximum to post.
Now, my questions are:

  • Do you know a proper way to make my subwoofer for this laptop work on any distribution (not just Linux Mint)? or
  • Do you know how to make my Fedora installation see the sound card as Lynx Point High Definition Audio Controller as Linux Mint sees it? (I haven't found anything on the internet to help in this regard) or
  • Do you know other model names to set for model=... in the alsa-base.conf that might work? I've only tried dell-vostro-3500. or
  • Do you know other solutions that might help without PulseAudio installed? (Isn't HDA Analyzer for ALSA? PulseAudio might break things I don't notice but ALSA alone doesn't detect the subwoofer still, as I've mentioned trying)

I can also try running any other commands from both distributions (Fedora and Linux Mint on Live USB) that might help you guys and post the information here.

Thank you! Hopefully someone can help me, because I've grown crazy this last week. Only Monday I found out about HDA Analyzer, and I lost hope making the subwoofer work on Linux ever since I bought this laptop.

EDIT: Follow-up question with solution here.

EDIT2: My own solution using a python script here.

Best Answer

Same problem I've faced in my LENOVO G-580 I've solved it using pulse audio

https://askubuntu.com/questions/366303/how-to-install-pulseaudio-on-ubuntu-13-10

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