Member Avatar for oompedoomp

Hi
I recently dumped all things windoze and made the move to Linux. Everything is cool so far but I have a USB speaker made by BOYNQ called the vase. Does anyone know whether this will run under Linux or do I need to ebay it?
Thanks

Simon

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by nick grattan

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Generated

Quick, practical checklist for diagnosing a USB speaker (like the Boynq Vase) on Linux — aimed at the two problems seen in this thread: the device not being picked up () and detected-but-very-quiet audio (). Start with the simple tests below, then try the fixes if a device shows up.

Run these to see what the kernel and ALSA/PulseAudio see:

lsusb
dmesg | tail -n 80
cat /proc/asound/cards
aplay -l
speaker-test -t wav -c 2
alsamixer

If lsusb shows the hardware but aplay -l does not, ensure the kernel USB-audio driver is loaded: lsmod | grep snd_usb_audio and sudo modprobe snd-usb-audio. If dmesg shows errors on plug-in, capture that output and try a different USB port or a powered hub (some USB speakers are power-limited).

If the device is listed but sound is low or muffled: open alsamixer (or pavucontrol on PulseAudio systems) and check all relevant controls (Master, PCM, Speaker, Auto-Mute). Unmute and raise each control — some USB devices expose separate controls that start very low. Save ALSA mixer state with sudo alsactl store. To test direct playback try aplay -D hw:X,Y file.wav using the card/device numbers from aplay -l.

Other practical notes: try the speaker on another machine (or Windows) to rule out hardware faults; check for a separate analog cable or volume knob on the unit; and if the kernel/ALSA version is very old, a newer distro kernel or updated ALSA stack can fix quality/compatibility issues. For reference troubleshooting steps and sample outputs, look for the vendor/product IDs from lsusb and search those IDs if kernel support is unclear.

Thanks to and for narrowing down the problem space in earlier posts — most USB-audio problems are either a wrong connection, muted mixer controls, or a missing/old USB-audio driver.

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Member Avatar for pty

Hi
I recently dumped all things windoze and made the move to Linux. Everything is cool so far but I have a USB speaker made by BOYNQ called the vase. Does anyone know whether this will run under Linux or do I need to ebay it?
Thanks

Simon

Did you have to install drivers to make it work on Windows or did it work automatically?

I have a USB headset (plantronics) that works fine on Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu and SuSE have all worked with it).

Which distro are you using?

Member Avatar for oompedoomp

Did you have to install drivers to make it work on Windows or did it work automatically?

I have a USB headset (plantronics) that works fine on Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu and SuSE have all worked with it).

Which distro are you using?

Hi, thanks for the speedy reply! :) When I used it with Windoze it was just plug and go - no special drivers. I have Mepis Linux installed with the latest core update.

Thanks

Simon

Member Avatar for oompedoomp

Hi, thanks for the speedy reply! :) When I used it with Windoze it was just plug and go - no special drivers. I have Mepis Linux installed with the latest core update.

Thanks

Simon

Hi again
Blimey o riley. Guess what? I did solve it! A. Plugged the audio lead into the wrong socket (Duh!) B. Now using ALSA.

But - sound quality is crap and NOT LOUD. Hmm!

Thanks

Si

Member Avatar for nick grattan

hi ive hust brought a boyng vas cam but when i plug it in my computer dont pick it up can any one help me that knows how to install it cause a cd never came with it and ive also been to boyng's site and they cant help me either pls id be so very grateful thanks nick

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