Lenovo Y50-(70) Subwoofer Enabler for Linux

This is just a generalized and fixed version of the original script. It automatically detects the Intel HDA device ids, so works if you have USB sound card(s) as well. The systemd scripts, starting-stopping and resume-suspend mechanisms are much better than the original. Also the original script works only on English locale, because pactl is localized. This script has a solution for that problem too.

This has been tested on Ubuntu 18.04.

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Hi!

This script fixes the issue of the subwoofer of Lenovo Y50 laptops not having any sound on Linux distributions (in a dirty way!). Tested on Ubuntu 16.04 but should work on all Linux distributions.

The script install.sh uses apt-get once to install alsa-tools. If using a non-Debian distribution, use your package manager of choice and continue to use the script (or modify acordingly). Also, use common sense on the security part of these scripts and, if you can, inspect all three scripts (which are small!) before anything. (see Warnings below).

Important: Use simply install.sh to install the script as a user service. For me, that means it can detect pulseaudio, which I believe runs in the user space and not in the system space (at least for me). If it doesn't detect pulseaudio, the script wastes 8% of CPU constantly. You can also useinstall.sh system to install the script as a system service, because apparently Ubuntu does not work the same for everyone: dragosprju#3 .

Open subwoofer.py to modify helpful options:

• speakerBalance (values between -100 and 100): Sets the stereo volume balancing of the speakers. Mostly needed because the subwoofer itself is on the right of the laptop and if everything was 100% volume and no balance, it would sound debalanced anyway. (but you should check extraVolume)
• headphonesBalance (values between -100 and 100): In case your headphones are a bit broken (like mine) and sound debalanced, this setting will help you. Using the normal sound settings panel from your Linux distribution won't work, since balancing is being reset every time you plug the headphones in or out.
• subwooferBalance (values between -100 and 100): If at 0, the subwoofer will get the left and right channels of the song you are playing and play them both at 100%. Set at -25 (as it is by default) makes it so you hear 100% of the left channel but only 75% of the right channel.
• extraVolume (values between -100 and 100): Helps balancing the whole sound as mentioned, since the subwoofer is placed on the right. This limits the subwoofer's volume instead and not the speakers'.
  • 0 is relative to general volume. Maximum subwoofer volume is achieved when general volume is at 100%;
  • 100 is maximum subwoofer volume even if the general volume is low.

Maximize it for a party by setting extraVolume over 0 considerably. Default is 11.

Warnings

The script will let the program hda-verb, which is usually called using sudo, to be called without it by adding a sudoers file to /etc/sudoers.d/. It does so for the current user at installation and the guest user. This might be a security issue for some!

I am not responsible if your speakers or subwoofer breaks! Please inspect the script by yourself if you can, making sure that everything is being protected. I've designed it to cut down anything over maximum possible subwoofer (100 is for speakers and 87 weirdly enough is for the subwoofer), so nothing should break as I use the script myself and do still want a fully working laptop.

Try not to reinstall twice as it appends the needed modifications to /etc/sudoers file twice. Just recopy subwoofer.py to its install location /opt/subwoofer.py. (install.sh now can override past installation cleanly!)

Needed improvements

The script doesn't take care of the subwoofer when you suspend the laptop. Therefore, a crack is heard from the subwoofer when suspending. (now does accordingly: however I have only tested on pm-suspend command only, but the way it does it should be generic - inspect install.sh and subwoofer.sh)

The script is also a dirty way to fix things. A more resposible person would report the problem as a bug and cooperate with the people related to the component that has the issue. (alsa I believe)

Related links

http://superuser.com/questions/945110/how-do-i-make-my-lenovo-y50s-subwoofer-work-on-linux

http://superuser.com/questions/975219/how-to-disable-power-saving-on-my-lenovo-y50s-subwoofer-audio-pins

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/3ejkbe/how_do_i_make_my_lenovo_y50s_subwoofer_work_on/

Have fun!