**** Cyborg Central ****

Upgrading my laptop to the new Ubuntu release broke the audio, but that isn't really news - the sound system in many ASUS laptops, specifically the ALC294 chip in these machines tends to be a real pain to get working. This guide is mainly for myself, but I figured other people might appreciate it.

These steps worked for me, on an ASUS ROG Strix G15, and I've used them on other ASUS laptops as well. YMMV.

First, you'll need to add a line to the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf. You'll need to be root to modify the file, and you only want to add this line to the bottom, do not change anything else:

options snd-hda-intel model=asus-zenbook

You may need to reinstall the pipewire-alsa package - when I upgraded, it had gone missing - which you can do using apt from the command line, or synaptic if you prefer the GUI.

Restart the system and see if the sound is working. Depending on your system, the sound may be "working" but only allow you to mute, or have full volume (a.k.a. the 100 or 0 problem). For this, you'll need to change some pulseaudio settings, but these have moved in 22.10, as the system now uses pipewire instead of pulse.

Edit the file /usr/share/alsa-card-profile/mixer/paths/analog-output.conf.common, and find the section that looks like this:

[Element PCM]
switch = mute
volume = merge
override-map.1 = all
override-map.2 = all-left,all-right

Modify the section to look like this:

[Element Master]
switch = mute
volume = ignore


[Element PCM]
switch = mute
volume = merge
override-map.1 = all
override-map.2 = all-left,all-right


[Element LFE]
switch = mute
volume = ignore

Restart pipewire, or reboot, and your volume sliders should start working correctly again.

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