Too right. I got pushed out of the Windows ecosystem by the forced obsolescence of Win10 and after dabbling with an older version of Ubuntu in the past and iOS, Cinnamon felt like I was hanging on to what I was trying to leave. GNOME just worked for me functionally and aesthetically. I use Win11 at work and hate every minute of it.

It was at least on the version I tried and it was super annoying trying to figure out why it wouldn’t detect my GPU which was an RX 9060XT and not supported by the default Linux Kernel. Once I upgraded the Kernel, that got my AMDGPU stuff working but I could not overcome other graphics issues like persistent tearing (even with V-sync).

This is the exact same reason I ultimately gave up on Linux Mint and switched to Fedora. I could not get rid of tearing and I fragged X11 (and made my OS un-bootable) on multiple occasions trying to fix it using recommended tweaks to config files. It was looking like a Wayland based solution was what I needed so I chose to move on.

GNOME haters can just put away their knives since I am no fan boy; I just wanted to completely escape anything resembling a MicroSlop experience and Workstation gave me a clean DE, more current package releases, HDR, Variable refresh rate , and solid gaming performance with a minimal amount of fuss. CachyOS was next on my list if Fedora didn’t work and I am still considering trying it out someday. That said, there is no question that making the switch to Linux as a new user can be daunting and I would still suggest Mint for older hardware with less of a gaming focus.

Just as an update to this, I noticed that there was a new version of gnome control center (49.4-2.fc43) in the latest update push for Fedora so I took a chance and did the upgrade hoping it would include a fix to this issue. Based on initial testing on my two machines at home which were affected and needed to be downgraded to 49.1-1.fc43, it looks like this new version resolves the line-out audio problem. Thanks again for your efforts to raise awareness of this and your suggested workaround.

Hey I tested the downgrade script and it fixed my issue just like you suggested. But of course now my OS wants to update the files back to the version I rolled back from. It doesn’t seem to be a forced update and I updated and upgraded everything before I tried this but I was wondering if the issue will immediately return once I allow the system to go back to version 49.4-1.fc43.

Doesn’t look like there is any way to skip those file updates so I suppose I just need to do the downgrade again if the sound problem returns? Hoping the next revision of gnome-control-center resolves it.

Thank you again for your efforts and information sharing. This is what I love about the Linux community and it is making the transition from commercial slop-ware so much easier.

Thank you for working through this and sharing your findings. I will try this out tonight.

I am seeing the exact same issue on a PC I just put together and loaded Fedora 43 Workstation on. If I hook the 3.5mm jack for the speakers (older Creative Pebbles) to the green port on the back panel it shows up just like OP’s when I try to test; however, if I plug the jack into the headphones port on the case (which is connected to the motherboard audio pins) it detects and works properly. I was also seeing some Dummy Output options with the line out connection in use, and not knowing what it meant, I selected one and this kicked me back to the login screen and gave me an unhelpful kernel alert.

In contrast, the speakers on my other PC, which is also running Fedora 43 Workstation, works fine off of the back panel. Both motherboards are using Realtek audio chips but it may not be the same version since one board is a B650 and one is a B550.

Curious to see what the solution ends up being but I also recently installed pavucontrol on the newer PC so I will try and set the speakers up using the line-out that way. If that doesn’t work I will migrate to bluetooth speakers or just leave things as is.

This is really interesting. I started with Mint-Cinnamon since it sounded like it would be ideal for me as I had no desire to switch to Windows 11 and I needed a daily driver OS; I did not like Mint at all and spent too much time trying to make it work with newer hardware. Fedora Workstation has been a great experience for me and it checks all the boxes with minimal troubleshooting. What is about Arch that made you decide to switch? Genuinely curious as I am all-in on Linux now that I know I can do productivity stuff and gaming so easily and I don’t have to give another dime to MS.