Minisforum V3 / Realtek ALC245 Audio Configuration
hardware-compat
The Minisforum V3, and by extension, the Realtek ALC245 Sound Card, has issues with the default settings used by Bazzite and most other Linux distributions. There are at least 2 documented fixes out there that work, however, they both come with caveats. One relies on alsa-soft-mixer, which breaks headphone compatibility. The other requires the user to modify 2 files in the /usr directory. This is the best solution, as headphones will continue to work with this fix in place, however, it is not possible to implement this fix by default on an immutable system like Bazzite, as /usr is read-only. The solution, in this case, is to overlay the modified files over /usr, without violating the immutability of the OS using systemd-sysext.
1. Create the extension directory structure by running the following commands:
2. Create the identity (compatibility) file:
3. Copy and edit your fix files into the extension:
4. Apply your edits to the analog-output file (using nano or your preferred editor)
PLACE the following text BEFORE [Element PCM]:
5. Apply your edits to the analog-output-headphones file (using nano or your preferred editor)
EDIT [Element Master] so that it looks like the following:
6. Enable and Merge the Fix:
NOTES
- This fix is persistent across updates and restarts, however, will break if configuration files are changed in the future by the OS, such as if they are moved, or different systems relied upon.
- The audio being adjusted in this fix is PCM, and as such, is adjusted LOGARITHMICALLY. What this means is that volume adjustments are not in perfect sync with the digital volume adjustments you see on your screen. On my system, 15% volume is equivalent to 1% PCM volume, effectively muting the system at this level and below.
- Thank you to several community members who assisted me in figuring this issue out, especially to the one who brought up the idea of layering the fixed files via the /var/ folder!
1. Create the extension directory structure by running the following commands:
2. Create the identity (compatibility) file:
3. Copy and edit your fix files into the extension:
4. Apply your edits to the analog-output file (using nano or your preferred editor)
PLACE the following text BEFORE [Element PCM]:
5. Apply your edits to the analog-output-headphones file (using nano or your preferred editor)
EDIT [Element Master] so that it looks like the following:
6. Enable and Merge the Fix:
NOTES
- This fix is persistent across updates and restarts, however, will break if configuration files are changed in the future by the OS, such as if they are moved, or different systems relied upon.
- The audio being adjusted in this fix is PCM, and as such, is adjusted LOGARITHMICALLY. What this means is that volume adjustments are not in perfect sync with the digital volume adjustments you see on your screen. On my system, 15% volume is equivalent to 1% PCM volume, effectively muting the system at this level and below.
- Thank you to several community members who assisted me in figuring this issue out, especially to the one who brought up the idea of layering the fixed files via the /var/ folder!
