Linux / Windows VM's and sound via HDMI

Hi folks
a number of you use Linux VM's (and some probably as hosts too).

If you have HDMI connections to a sound enabled monitor sometimes it's annoying as the sound (when working) still goes by default through the internal speakers --especially on a Laptop. This also is a problem if you want to get a Windows VM on a Linux Host to have sound. -- Note I'm using VMWare here.

However I've found with a slew of Linux distros whether as a VM on windows or as a Host -- you need to set up the sound hardware to use HDMI 2 -- why I haven't a clue but it always seems to do the trick -- just select the option with ONLY HDMI 2

click also the 2 boxes as shown in my screenshot if it appears on your audio configuration panel.

as per :



works on Fedora, opensuse, archlinux, manjaro, centos.

ensure sound mixer installed of course.

Now Windows VM's on host Linux have perfect sound as well as the other way around. Blu tooth shouldn't be effected by this of course.

With the HDMI sound via the monitor you can then of course route the HDMI sound from the monitor to external speakers or whatever via the spif out (optical) or analog out. Remember of course that using HDMI sound will switch off if you share the monitor via say KVM switch to another computer and switch the display to the other computer.

Cheers

jimbo