[BUG] [LE13] with kernel 6.18 HDMI Audio has vanished

[sixpack13-GH]

Describe the bug

in nighlies with kernel 6.18 HDMI Audio has vanished

comparing lsmod shows no differences
no error in dmesg
but differences in kodi.log's

to me it seems this is NOT a bug with kernel 6.18, cause I run HDMI Audio under kernel 6.18 on my desktop (Intel Gen. 11 CPU) without errors.

How to reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. install a nightly with kernel 6.18
2. see the audio settings

Information

• LibreELEC Version: 13
• Hardware Platform: NUC13
• Forum Thread: none so far (no account there !)

Log file

Please compare lines around 222

with kernel 6.17.x:
kodi.log

with kernel 6.18:
kodi.log

[kuraikaze]

Same issue here.
No Alsa sound outputs found, only audio output left is a bluetooth Pulse device.

Seems more likely that it's the updating of Alsa from pull #10771 that's the culprit, rather than kernel per se.

[kuraikaze]

Logs from working LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-13.0-nightly-20251208-778c292

LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-13.0-nightly-20251208-778c292.img.gz_log-2025-12-09-14.06.56.zip

Logs from broken LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-13.0-nightly-20251208-c5df4f6

LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-13.0-nightly-20251208-c5df4f6.img.gz_log-2025-12-09-14.01.54.zip

[sixpack13-GH]

Seems more likely that it's the updating of Alsa from pull [#10771] that's the culprit, rather than kernel per se.

No, I've tested 2025-12-08 (fee7d26).
Alsa update came later

[kuraikaze]

@sixpack13-GH That's not what your logs show.

The 6.18 log is from build c5df4f6

The kernel 6.17 -> 6.18 update pull happened between the Nightly builds:
2025-12-08 (778c292): | #10770 | Package updates - (Full compiled build published at 2025-12-08 11:32)
2025-12-08 (fee7d26): | #10576 | Linux update to 6.18.y - (log of pull, not a compiled, downloadable build)
2025-12-08 (c5df4f6): | #10771 | Alsa update to 1.2.15 - (Full compiled build published at 2025-12-09 00:26)

[sixpack13-GH]

I fetched an early build (2025-12-08 (fee7d26), what was on the server yesterday, but no more today and initial noticed the bug.
Today I updated to 2025-12-08 (c5df4f6), what doesn't fixed the bug.
so the log is from that one.
see:
https://test.libreelec.tv/13.0/Generic/Generic/

[kuraikaze]

Fair enough, if there was a build that was published then removed - I didn't see that.

Note, however, that the log you posted

with kernel 6.18:
kodi.log

is from build c5df4f6

2025-12-09 12:42:37.157 T:835 info <general>: Kodi compiled 2025-12-09 by GCC 15.2.0 for Linux x86 64-bit version 6.18.0 (397824)
2025-12-09 12:42:37.157 T:835 info <general>: Running on LibreELEC (community): nightly-20251208-c5df4f6 13.0, kernel: Linux x86 64-bit version 6.18.0

[sixpack13-GH]

I can't get what is wrong with my log's.

I do not have a log from 2025-12-08 (fee7d26) !

[kuraikaze]

My point is that the 2nd log you posted is from a build with both the 6.18 kernel and the ALSA update, so one can't tell from that which update is the point where the audio issue started.

[sixpack13-GH]

my log's were to show mainly the differences to give an hint where the bug might be
I promise it was the same without the alsa update

[kuraikaze]

Pity about not having the fee7d26 log
I, too, only have a c5df4f6 log.

It seems a very peculiar coincidence that the sound issue cropped up with kernel & ALSA updates so close together.
Who knows ... maybe it was something in the 6.18 kernel that was known to cause ALSA issues, prompting the ALSA 1.2.15 merge, or perhaps there's an issue with the tidy-up of LE's ALSA build config from alsa-project/alsa-utils#311 ;)

[HiassofT]

It's an alsa issue, see also alsa-project/alsa-lib#488

Alsa folks are working on it but it's not fully resolved yet