Low sound in Ubuntu 22.04 (no impact from the fix)

[golovart]

Hi!
On my Ubuntu the sound is present, but the maximum volume is very low (as everyone refers to ~30%).
Unfortunately, this fix does not influence the behaviour in any way (neither by package installation nor by manual application from the README).
I also tried on/off FastBoot and on/off SecureBoot, in any combination, it does not seem to influence the sound.
Only when rebooting from Windows might the sound be completely absent, but that's unrelated, I suppose.

Please, let me know if I can provide any additional information about the system, that would be useful

[facugaich]

Hi,

What's you kernel version? Run uname -a to find out. If you're not at least on kernel 6.8 I'd try to upgrade to that, which from my googling is what 22.04 supports.

Can you upgrade to 24.04 LTS?

[golovart]

Hi,
6.8.0-50-generic
I would prefer to keep 22.04 for now.

As far as I understand, 6.11+ fixes the issue by the kernel alone. However, I am not sure about updating Ubuntu 22.04 to it.

[facugaich]

You'll eventually get kernel 6.12 but it's gonna take a while.

You should keep Secure boot off for this fix to work. Do you see anything related to sound/firmware loading when running sudo dmesg | grep hda ? What about sudo journalctl -b -p err?

[golovart]

The secure boot is off, but the fast boot is on. However, I did not notice any influence from either.

the dmesg output:

[   32.875365] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: Cirrus Logic CS35L41 (35a40), Revision: B2
[   32.875734] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: Reset line busy, assuming shared reset
[   32.897102] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: Cirrus Logic CS35L41 (35a40), Revision: B2
[   33.225684] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: DSP detected with PCI class/subclass/prog-if info 0x040100
[   33.225776] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: Digital mics found on Skylake+ platform, using SOF driver
[   33.513665] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: DSP detected with PCI class/subclass/prog-if info 0x040100
[   33.513698] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: Digital mics found on Skylake+ platform, using SOF driver
[   35.075195] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: DSP detected with PCI class/subclass/prog-if info 0x040100
[   35.075228] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: Digital mics found on Skylake+ platform, using SOF driver
[   35.113168] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: hda codecs found, mask 5
[   35.113176] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: using HDA machine driver skl_hda_dsp_generic now
[   35.116796] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3:  Topology file:     intel/sof-ace-tplg/sof-hda-generic-2ch.tplg
[   35.309471] skl_hda_dsp_generic skl_hda_dsp_generic: ASoC: Parent card not yet available, widget card binding deferred
[   35.331957] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: Falling back to default firmware.
[   35.332303] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: DSP1: Firmware version: 3
[   35.332307] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: DSP1: cirrus/cs35l41-dsp1-spk-prot.wmfw: Fri 24 Jun 2022 14:55:56 GMT Daylight Time
[   35.405021] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: DSP1: Firmware: 400a4 vendor: 0x2 v0.58.0, 2 algorithms
[   35.405432] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: DSP1: cirrus/cs35l41-dsp1-spk-prot.bin: v0.58.0
[   35.405442] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: DSP1: spk-prot: e:\workspace\workspace\tibranch_release_playback_6.76_2\ormis\staging\default_tunings\internal\CS35L53\Fixed_Attenuation_Mono_48000_29.78.0\full\Fixed_Attenuation_Mono_48000_29.78.0_full.bin
[   35.416963] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0: CS35L41 Bound - SSID: 10431A63, BST: 1, VSPK: 1, CH: L, FW EN: 1, SPKID: 1
[   35.416971] snd_hda_codec_realtek ehdaudio0D0: bound spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.0 (ops cs35l41_hda_comp_ops [snd_hda_scodec_cs35l41])
[   35.417266] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: Falling back to default firmware.
[   35.417394] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: DSP1: Firmware version: 3
[   35.417397] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: DSP1: cirrus/cs35l41-dsp1-spk-prot.wmfw: Fri 24 Jun 2022 14:55:56 GMT Daylight Time
[   35.478067] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: DSP1: Firmware: 400a4 vendor: 0x2 v0.58.0, 2 algorithms
[   35.478509] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: DSP1: cirrus/cs35l41-dsp1-spk-prot.bin: v0.58.0
[   35.478514] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: DSP1: spk-prot: e:\workspace\workspace\tibranch_release_playback_6.76_2\ormis\staging\default_tunings\internal\CS35L53\Fixed_Attenuation_Mono_48000_29.78.0\full\Fixed_Attenuation_Mono_48000_29.78.0_full.bin
[   35.492046] cs35l41-hda spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1: CS35L41 Bound - SSID: 10431A63, BST: 1, VSPK: 1, CH: R, FW EN: 1, SPKID: 1
[   35.492052] snd_hda_codec_realtek ehdaudio0D0: bound spi1-CSC3551:00-cs35l41-hda.1 (ops cs35l41_hda_comp_ops [snd_hda_scodec_cs35l41])
[   35.492484] snd_hda_codec_realtek ehdaudio0D0: autoconfig for ALC294: line_outs=1 (0x17/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:speaker
[   35.492492] snd_hda_codec_realtek ehdaudio0D0:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[   35.492495] snd_hda_codec_realtek ehdaudio0D0:    hp_outs=1 (0x21/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[   35.492497] snd_hda_codec_realtek ehdaudio0D0:    mono: mono_out=0x0
[   35.492499] snd_hda_codec_realtek ehdaudio0D0:    inputs:
[   35.948567] skl_hda_dsp_generic skl_hda_dsp_generic: hda_dsp_hdmi_build_controls: no PCM in topology for HDMI converter 3
[   35.966561] input: sof-hda-dsp Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input14
[   35.966698] input: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input15
[   35.966842] input: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=4 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input16
[   35.966930] input: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=5 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input17

the journalctl does not seem to have anything sound-related.

[golovart]

I have not tried the linking, that is in the updated README. Is it relevant for kernels after 6.11 or for any kernel?

[facugaich]

You can try, I don't remember if I ever tried it with kernel 6.8

I'd try to debug why the manual installation in this repo is not working for you. Either some of the steps are not doing anything (look at the 01_acpi file, it should print something when it's being executed) or you should be getting some kind of error in the logs.

[golovart]

How do I find if there were any errors from 01_acpi?
When I ran update-grub it mentioned it, so the system knows it's there.

[facugaich]

You would see some errors in journalctl -b mentioning something related to ACPI. Tbh I think it might be working but the generic firmware that is being loaded just has that max volume. You could try symlinking like it says in the readme and see if it loads a different one.

[golovart]

But what exactly does the Do so at your own risk! part mean?
Is there a risk of "frying the speakers" or which risk do you mean?

[facugaich]

Yes, even though the firmware is by Cirrus themselves, there's always the potential to damage the hardware when playing around with it

[facugaich]

Hi again @golovart , did you fix the issue? I was testing Fedora 41 in a live USB and found that they add the same symlinks as suggested in this repo's README. Maybe you could try their live USB and see if sound works for you in there.

[golovart]

I was a bit hesitant about the risks. I will try the live USB as you suggest and let you know.

[facugaich]

If it works for you in the Live USB, you can look at how the symlinks are setup in it by doing something like ls -al /lib/firmware/cirrus/ | grep 1a63

[bizmate]

@golovart any feedback?
@facugaich if latest kernels have the right firmware any chance that using mainline to load a later kernel would work? I am on ubuntu 24

[facugaich]

@golovart any feedback? @facugaich if latest kernels have the right firmware any chance that using mainline to load a later kernel would work? I am on ubuntu 24

I'd say kernel 6.12 should probably work yeah, though I'm not on Ubuntu. Keep in mind that the new kernel releases just contain logic to load the firmware correctly, but the firmware files are usually distributed in a different package, which may or may not be included in the PPA you use.

[golovart]

@golovart any feedback?

@bizmate sorry for disappearing, was a bit busy lately.
The fedora USB does the trick, the sound works correctly there. Have not managed to reproduce it by linking the drivers on Ubuntu yet. Will update here as soon as I do it.