Hello everyone - new here , could need some expert advice.
Sorry cant add any more info right now , like inxi or so , because computer was left at work…
Got an acer r-11 chromebook cb5-132t with 4gb and 30gb nvme, installed kde neon 6.2 on it and everything works except for chtmax98090 soundcard , after a few minutes of playing sound with any program a beeping sound occurs and stops after a few seconds when closing the program .
been having this issue with all distros except debian12 but there touch screen didnt work.
Does any of you have some advice or workaround this issue with sound.
I am using bluetooth now for sound and that works without any problems.
And when running without activating bluetooth even if im not playing any actual sound Neon freezes and have to reboot.
Really like kde so would like to keep using it.
Grateful for any help
Hi! Based on the type of issue you described, and the fact that it’s happening on most distributions, this sounds like an issue involving how the upstream Linux kernel and core audio components (like Pipewire) are interacting with your hardware. Chromebook devices are more likely to require custom configuration to function correctly on Linux, given that they were built to specifically target Chrome OS
Hi and tnx for the reply…
Yes i have been down this road before so to speak , and found that Debian 12 worked without any problems, but i really like kde and even touchscreen works with neon , but i was almost prepared for it , in kde everything works but not the soundcard , in Debian sound and everything worked but not touchscreen…
Well if i dont find a solution with kde , i will go back to Debian and run kde or cinnamon desk , il just wait and see if someone got any idea.
Chromebooks and audio in Linux are well known issues, since they have everything baked into the SoC, more or less. It is more the proper audio firmware and config files than the actual drivers, depending on the specific board.
I have been using Linux on Chromebooks off and on for a number of years now, using one right now actually.
I am surprise that audio works for you on Debian and not KDE neon/Ubuntu 24.04, to be honest. What kernel do you have? It should be 6.8 on neon.
What firmware did you use to boot and install Linux? The full UEFI one?
Did you follow Chrultrabook’s guides for doing this? Their audio script blocks running on *buntu because they won’t support it (yet will do so for the older Debian, even building a custom kernel for it).
However, modifying the script to skip the Ubuntu check by commenting out lines 238-239 does work on 24.04 based distros, at least in my experience on my recent hardware.
Hello claydoh …
Will have to come back on this with more info about installations , bios is mrchromebox - firmware utility script and seabios uefi full rom …
Tried zorin , mint , gallium , kde … All gave this sound issue , Debian 12 12.8 later updated to 12.9 did not have this issue everything worked but not touchscreen support.
I dont have enough knowledge to retrieve info about the function and difference in these installed distros , but guessing its some kind of soundcard driver difference here that causing this issue .
Going to fetch the acer and post machine and installation configuration info here.
How do i paste data from system info here, theres seems to be a limitation character amount when i am trying to paste in the sound info.
What inxi output is needed to get revelant information for this issue.
FWIW all the not-Debian distros you have tried are the same Ubuntu LTS under the GUI. The same OS, particularly in terms of hardware support. Some iirc are based on old versions (Zorin, Gallium) and I would not recommend for this use case.
It is the correct firmware blobs and the correct configs, not the audio driver itself that is the likely issue. I can’t say why Debian has it while *buntu doesn’t, seeing as Ubuntu 24.04 is based on Debian (trixie/sid), but more current parts than Debian 12.
I linked to documentation that includes an audio support script that takes care of all that.
Unfortunately you’d have to download the file and edit it as I mentioned, when run on Ubuntu 24.04 based installs (mint, KDE neon)
You’d need to run the script on a Fedora or an Arch based systems to get audio support there, and on Debian, this script installs a custom built kernel --maybe this helps with the touch screen?
The touch screen is probably a kernel thing. Debian is older in this regard.
Hi again claydoh…
Well dont really care about touchscreen , sound issue is worse .
But i liked the look of kde , so abit boring to leave for a working distro when i actually liked it.
Well perhaps i will retrieve some other laptop that will work with kde and problem solved.
