Sunday, 18 March 2018

Fixing broken HDMI audio (again)


Back in October I noticed that I had no HDMI audio when running kernels starting from v4.12.0 on an Intel Compute Stick model STK1AW32SC (Cherry Trail) and wrote about how to fix this.

Unfortunately that fix no longer works on Ubuntu's latest ISO: Ubuntu 16.04.4. So I've spent time looking into it and created a script to fix HDMI audio though 'sponsored community work'.

The fix is sponsored by storeanalytics.de and can be downloaded from here.

To use the script to fix a running system first download it and make sure it is executable ('chmod 700 fix-STK1A32SC-and-STK1AW32SC-hdmilpeaudio.sh') then run the script it as root ('sudo ./fix-STK1A32SC-and-STK1AW32SC-hdmilpeaudio.sh'). Finally stop PulseAudio (pulseaudio -k) and restart it (pulseaudio --start) to complete the fix.

Now playing an audio file on the default device with 'aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav' works together with sound in Chrome and other applications.

The advantage of the fix being a script is that you can use it when respinning an ISO with 'isorespin.sh' (using the '-f' option) and automatically fix HDMI audio in the respun ISO for use on this device.

Please donate if you find my work helpful using the following link http://goo.gl/nXWSGf.

Saturday, 17 March 2018

Third look at Ubuntu 18.04 or Bionic: Beta 1 Pre-Release

UpdateThis work is superseded by the release of Ubuntu Mate 18.04 LTS.


As part of preparing for a new release the Ubuntu Release Team issue pre-releases in line with a Release Schedule. For Ubuntu 18.04 codenamed Bionic Beaver the Release Schedule looks like this.

Not all Ubuntu flavours participate in the Alpha and Beta pre-releases however last week those that did issued their Beta 1 pre-releases.

Ubuntu Mate is a participant so I've respun their ISO using my 'isorespin.sh' script and created ISOs suitable for Intel Atom and Intel Apollo Lake devices:

  • Atom (-i ubuntu-mate-18.04-beta1-desktop-amd64.iso --atom)
  • Apollo (-i ubuntu-mate-18.04-beta1-desktop-amd64.iso --apollo)
Update: ISOs have been removed as they have been superseded.

Don't forget to try out the 'Mutiny' panel layout if you want a similar look and feel to Unity by selecting it using 'MATE Tweak':


Please donate if you find the ISOs or script useful using the following link http://goo.gl/nXWSGf.

Saturday, 3 March 2018

Ubuntu 16.04.4 for Intel Atom and Apollo Lake devices

UpdateThis work is superseded ... see Ubuntu announced new point releases for 16.04 LTS.


Canonical have released the fourth point release of Ubuntu 16.04 Long-Term Support (LTS) as Ubuntu 16.06.4. This release is built with the hardware enablement stack using the Ubuntu 4.13.0-36.40~16.04.1 kernel and is slated as being suitable for use on newer hardware with additional information in the release announcement and in the release notes.

However as it may not boot on some of the newer Intel based devices I've respun the ISO using my 'isorespin.sh' script and created ISOs suitable for Intel Atom and Intel Apollo Lake:

  • Atom (-i ubuntu-16.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso --atom)
  • Apollo (-i ubuntu-16.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso --apollo)
Update: ISOs have been removed as they have been superseded. New ISOs to be posted by 7th Feb 2020 and this page will be updated with a link to them.

Please donate if you find the ISOs or script useful using the following link http://goo.gl/nXWSGf.