New PC, no sound in WINE

[MarkTheMorose]

Hi, I built myself a budget PC this weekend, around the AMD AM4 socket. It all seems to be working OK, except two games I could play fine on my old Intel-based system have no sound in WINE.

Brief system specs: AMD A6-9500e APU, Gigabyte AB350M-D3V motherboard, integrated graphics and sound, 8GB RAM.

The games are Sniper Elite (2005, Rebellion), and Age of Empires (1997, Microsoft).

My previous system (still up and running, handily) is an Intel Core i3-2120, Intel motherboard, and 4GB RAM. (I'd only just recently tried both games under WINE on this system, not expecting either to work, and was pleasantly surprised when they did, having had no luck before. Sniper Elite bogged down a little when rain and other effects kicked in, which I ascribed to the mediocre on-CPU Intel HD graphics, hence seeking something with better on-board gfx.)

Incidentally, Sniper Elite also worked fine under WINE on an AMD FM1 APU-based system I threw together quickly to test.

The AM4 platform is fairly new, and the Bristol Ridge APU similar. While I get system sound - playing MP3's and watching YouTube videos tested so far - and I can hear the 'test sound' in the Configure WINE screen, I don't get a peep from games under WINE.

I doubt it has any bearing, but Sniper Elite is the GOG release of the game, rather than a retail (DVD) release. (I also tried Zombie Shooter, another GOG release, but again, no sound.)

The same version of WINE was used across all three systems, it's the one from the repository: 1.6.2. Might a newer version help, or is there some little configuration trick I can use?


Thanks in advance.

[Flemur]

Might a newer version help, or is there some little configuration trick I can use?

I'm not sure who did what to whom from your post, so on the problem system:
- do other programs have sound?
- does winecfg -> Audio -> Test Sound make "bloop" noises?
Edit: - can non-wine linux programs make noises?

[MarkTheMorose]

Might a newer version help, or is there some little configuration trick I can use?

I'm not sure who did what to whom from your post, so on the problem system:
- do other programs have sound?
- does winecfg -> Audio -> Test Sound make "bloop" noises?
Edit: - can non-wine linux programs make noises?

Yes, I get sound outside of Wine, and I hear the 'bloop' test sound in winecfg:

While I get system sound - playing MP3's and watching YouTube videos tested so far - and I can hear the 'test sound' in the Configure WINE screen, I don't get a peep from games under WINE.

[Flemur]

Yes, I get sound outside of Wine, and I hear the 'bloop' test sound in winecfg:

While I get system sound - playing MP3's and watching YouTube videos tested so far - and I can hear the 'test sound' in the Configure WINE screen, I don't get a peep from games under WINE.

I stopped reading when you started talking about a previous system which had audio.

So I dunno, try changing the audio settings in winecfg and/or on the programs.

[MarkTheMorose]

So I dunno, try changing the audio settings in winecfg and/or on the programs.

Thanks. I did try the drop-down, changing it from system default to Pulse Audio, but still no sound. I don't think it's a problem with Pulse Audio itself, since I'm hearing sound outside of WINE. I can't alt-tab out of Sniper Elite when it's running to run Pavucontrol (I think it's called) and make sure it's not being muted there somehow.

I had hoped that the AM4 system was 'close enough' in hardware terms to the working FM1 system that WINE would be happy. I can see the graphical improvement, but the lack of sound puzzles me. I'd have put money on graphics being the stumbling block rather than sound!

I think I'll try an up-to-date version of WINE, and see if that helps. Maybe AM4 and these APUs are too new for WINE 1.6.

[MarkTheMorose]

Well, updating WINE seemed to work quite well. Partial success, in as much as Sniper Elite is now working perfectly with sound, and Age of Empires seems to work OK once the game has started.

Once the latest WINE was installed, I started testing by running AOE. It is very slow to move between the various menus just before starting a game, but seemed to run at normal speed once in the game, and had sound. I didn't test that one much, as I thought something must be wrong to cause the slowness. Disheartened, I then installed Sniper Elite, and to my delight it runs perfectly, with sound.

I don't know what to do about AOE, but I'll give it a fuller test at some point.

This does beg the question why the version of WINE in the Linux Mint repository is so old. It's 1.1.6, from memory, and the latest at WINE HQ is 3.07 I think!