this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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So in my dual boot setup Linux messes up the dedicated audio card so bad it not only sounds like ass on Linux but it somehow garbles Windows audio until I power cycle the entire thing. It is entirely possible it does permanent damage to the hardware. Some of the electrical clicks you hear from it are genuinely concerning.
Had to plug in Linux audio via the motherboard audio and use different sources for each OS to work around it.
Does change how the meme reads to me.
Also, maaaan does Linux need to completely redo its audio systems from the ground up. It's so bad that saying that isn't even that controversial, which is insane in these circles.
What distro? What sound card?
You might try something new that runs pipewire by default, if you haven’t already. But I might also know of some specific quirks with specific cards.
Things a random user of Windows never asks themselves in their lives
Only because the sound card is exclusively designed for windows.
It’s not that way anymore. I actually can’t configure gain (and some other features) for my Fiio KA3 on Windows. Now Android (and iOS) are their main priority.
Which does give the useful quirk of allowing me to configure it in desktop linux…
This is going to be a pattern though. It won’t necessarily get better for the Linux desktop, but Windows is going to increasingly feel the pain of being a “lower priority” OS for hardware.
We're not doing this. People in the Linux community are so tweaked by years of bad support that they assume every complaint is a call for help.
It is not.
I know what's broken, I know why, I know it's not easily fixable, I have a workaround. This is not a tech support thread.
I don't need information from users more savvy than me, I need the bad sound firmware they're loading in lieu of specific support for my audio card to be fixed, or even better, replaced by actual specifically supported firmware so my card works. In the meantime, crappy on-board audio and wasting money on hardware I'm not using it is.
I was kind curious too, even if I can’t fix it. But… okay.
That's fair, and I don't have a problem with that. I'm just annoyed by the tendency of the community to react to criticism with technical advice, which I find to be a frustrating crutch.
FWIW, the card is a Sound Blaster X AE5 (that name sure has aged poorly), and I've had similar issues with it in both a Manjaro and a Bazzite install.
IMO that reaction is healthy, as long as it isn’t a hostile “you’re holding it wrong” (which was not my intent, and is very much a community problem). Communal troubleshooting is the nature of the Linux desktop.
If you don’t want advice, that’s fine, probably reasonable based on what you described. But I have had some similar (but not so severe) issues with Fioo and Xonar cards that got fixed with some low level configs I had no idea existed.
And maybe I could get to some more in-depth solution that sorts it out, but that's me spending time on a problem that a) I shouldn't have to, and b) I have a functional workaround for already.
Communal troubleshooting is the nature of Linux desktop, but also a massive problem. You shouldn't need communal troubleshooting in the first place. It's not a stand-in for proper UX, hardware compatibility or reliable implementation. If the goal is for more people to migrate to Linux the community needs to get over the assumption that troubleshooting is a valid answer to these types of issues.
Which is not to say the community shouldn't be helpful, but there's this tendency to aggressively troubleshoot at people complaining about issues and limitations and then to snark at people actively asking for help troubleshooting for not reading documentation or not providing thorough enough logs and information. I find that obnoxious, admittedly because it's been decades, so I may be on a hair trigger for it at this point.
If it helps for a future purchase, Focusrite's external interfaces have been amazing for Linux support.
To the point where I didn't even notice; It just worked perfectly out of the box.
I'm assuming you've already checked this, but is your interface set to the same frequency/bit depth between Linux and windows? Or if it uses optical, whether it's set to the same word clock source.
I tried fiddling with the Windows settings, but that didn't fix it immediately, and the sound is clearly wrong on Linux even with a power cycle. And googling for it I'm not alone in having issues and support for the thing is patchy. I mean, rebooting should have fixed it anyway. There's no reason why either OS wouldn't initialize those things on boot.
I am not particularly commited to the thing, so I wouldn't buy an upgrade. The only reason I have it is at some point I ended up with a motherboard that wouldn't do 5.1 out of the box, so I got something relatively affordable to slap in there. It sounds noticeably better than integrated audio, though, so now that I have it I'd like to use it, even if I'm not on the problematic old motherboard.
But again, I dislike the tendency to recommend functional hardware or technical support. It's kinda frustrating. And frankly, it works on Windows, so if I was looking for a fix, that's right there. The onus is on Linux for support in this type of setup where the issue is not on the Windows side that's a reboot away.
From the ground up has been done at least once, but given there are multiple layers of interface and driver, it might not be at the right level for whatever hardware you have.
I'm thinking specifically of how pipewire recently came along and basically took over the functions previously provided by pulseaudio, to the point of pretending to be Pulse where necessary so that things don't break.
FWIW, I recently learned that my motherboard has features that weren't unlocked by default in my distro. Not related to sound, mind you, but nonetheless, I've gained access to that now. It required loading an extra kernel module. The same might be required to get the best out of your sound card.
Nah, it's just not supported. Or rather, it's poorly supported so it sounds worse than in Windows and it just doesn't want to properly dual boot without a power cycle. Honestly, I haven't checked if the soft reboot issue has been reported. Pretty sure it hasn't. I could be nice and go find where to file a bug, but I haven't gotten around to it and, frankly, there are enough other problems with this particular setup that nobody is fixing and are getting dismissed with "it's the manufacturer's fault" that I'm not particularly inclined to go out of my way.
We don't talk enough about how spotty new motherboard support is for Linux, either. At least sound is a recurring talking point. But yeah, newer motherboards often don't pick up networking and audio hardware out of the box and need a lot of troubleshooting. Everybody is so proud of how well Linux revitalizes old laptops but nobody likes to talk about how that's because they're old, and newer stuff may not work well or at all. Early adopting hardware platforms on Linux can be a "going on an adventure" Hobbit meme experience.
And you're right that it's not so much about audio getting reingeneered again as it getting done right. I just don't know that the current patchwork barely holding together can be salvaged by bolting more pieces on top. Every time Linux needs to replace something this way it's a years-long argument between nerds and a whole damn mess (see Wayland still being litigated, somehow). Audio never gets enough attention anywhere and I have very low trust that a new attempt wouldn't end up in the same mess they have now, at least for a long while. It extra sucks because Windows audio used to be kinda bad, but now it's... kinda not? So being a dual-booter it's just an extra reason to make that choice of which boot option to pick from the menu.
That shouldn't be possible as the hardware gets reinitialized on boot
You would friggin' think.
And yet.
Turns out a DAC is a fairly complicated and self-sufficient bundle of software and hardcore electrical circuitry, so apparently you can mess it up so badly it will remain broken across soft reboots. Who knew!
My guess is that somehow data left in ram is causing the driver to get screwy. However, that still wouldn't make sense as it shouldn't be using uninitialized memory.
I guess do a full power off before switching OS. The other option is to just run a Windows VM.
The other option is to just use Windows, which is the issue with these types of hardware incompatibility. I also have an ASUS laptop that won't use their slightly weird speakers correctly and, again, that whole thing makes it much less practical to boot into Linux instead.