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grwren
Contributor II
November 22, 2025

Sonos Controller Installed In Linux OS

  • November 22, 2025
  • 21 replies
  • 2194 views

Hi.  I’m curious if anyone out there has any current experience successfully installing the Sonos Controller in a Linux based OS, specifically Zorin.  I say “current” because almost every thing I’ve found on this subject is from some years ago, so just looking for something hopefully a bit more current.

I have an old W10 laptop converted to Zorin OS, Zorin because it’s the most Windows like, they say.  When it was running W10 I could run the Sonos Controller and I play music through our Sonos ARC.  I’d like to be able to do that with Zorin if possible.  With the Zorin OS I’ve been able to a point in the installation process where it almost completes the installation but but fails with the following:

 

Any thoughts, comments or questions would be appreciated.  

Thank you.

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    melvimbe
    melvimbe
    June 23, 2026

    Great explanation - but the reason S1 gets stranded isn’t the speakers, it’s because Sonos is loading up all the smarts into the firmware. This is the same problem you have with a “smart” TV. Software and hardware move on different cadences. Nobody wants to keep reflashing devices. If you keep the TV comparison going the solution was to move the controller functionality into cheap dongles like Roku, Google Streamer, Apple TV, etc. This way you break the link between hardware and the software lifecycle.

     

    This isn’t really accurate use of the terminology, and is a bit confusing I think.  Controllers are devices used to control another device, and that doesn’t really apply to smart TVs, dumb TVs, or video stream boxes.  The remote controls that come with these devices are the controllers.  What your describing is really about the difference between source and sink.  A source is where the content is coming from  and a sink is the device that is playing the content.  A video stream is a source, a dumb TV is a sink, and smart TV is both a source and sink. 

    As you pointed out, it is often wise to separate your source and sink devices, but not exactly because hardware and software move at different cadences, but because source and sink tech moves at different cadences.  You can upgrade your video streaming device much cheaper than you can upgrade your entire TV in most cases.  Similarly, if a new TV tech comes out, you can keep your existing streaming setup.

    Bringing this back to Sonos, your Sonos speakers are typically both the source and sink, and the Sonos app (or whatever custom app used)  is the controller.  Because Sonos has bluetooth, airplay, aux input, hdmi-arc, and UPnP, it can be used more like a sink device alone with other devices being the source.   It can make a lot of sense to use Sonos a sink only device in many cases, but I also think Sonos speakers work well as a source, directly streaming content, for most people.

     

     

     

    Danny
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