Samsung Notebook 9 Pro - Internal Speaker Playback problem - HDA Intel - Realtek ALC298

[Robert Davenport]

Unable to get system speakers working running 19.04. At max volume, sound is barely perceptible through headphones. Pavucontrol shows sounds is present, but no amount of adjustments makes a difference.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-20.21-generic 5.0.8
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: robert 3355 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Fri Jun 28 00:44:13 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-06-05 (22 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo" - Release amd64 (20190416)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:PCH failed
Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_Jack: Digital Out, HDMI
Symptom_Type: None of the above
Title: [930MBE, Intel Kabylake HDMI, Digital Out, HDMI] Playback problem
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/25/2019
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P02AHK.029.190425.PS
dmi.board.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: NP930MBE-K04US
dmi.board.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
dmi.board.version: SGL9872A0S-C01-G001-S0001+10.0.17763
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 31
dmi.chassis.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP02AHK.029.190425.PS:bd04/25/2019:svnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:pn930MBE:pvrP02AHK:rvnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:rnNP930MBE-K04US:rvrSGL9872A0S-C01-G001-S0001+10.0.17763:cvnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:ct31:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.family: Notebook 9 Series
dmi.product.name: 930MBE
dmi.product.sku: SCAI-A5A5-A5A5-A5A5-PAHK
dmi.product.version: P02AHK
dmi.sys.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[jg2331 (jg2331)]

Same issue on Ubuntu 18.04 and 19.04.

I tested multiple Arch distros as well and ran into the same issue.

Sound through headphones and internal speakers is absent, USBC to Headphone does work.

[Sooraj P Suresh (soorajpsuresh)]

Same issue using Samsung Notebook Model NP930MBE

The sound in headphone is not clear and no sound at all in internal speaker

[Filipe Garrett (wowbaggerbr)]

Here to also report that this issue persists on a newer Samsung laptop. The model in question is the Notebook 7 Force NP760XBE(Style S51 Pro on some countries) running 19.10. In my case, the speakers work fine, though. The problem only manifests itself through headphones: very faint and distorted sound.

I've reported it everywhere support-wise and posted it as a question here, on Launchpad:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/685478

My alsa-info output file could be found here: http://alsa-project.org/db/?f=f7aa21f8fde284a2b2eb1d08524b6eb67d45bdfb

[Martin S (martins4321)]

Same problem as OP under Ubuntu 19.10. I also tried Ubuntu 18.04, and Clear Linux with 5.3.8 kernel.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1851518

[Yongwook Kim (wharup)]

Same issue using Samsung Notebook 9 always (NT950XBE) w/ 19.10 and 18.10

The sound in headphone is barely perceptible through headphones. Pavucontrol shows sounds is present, but no amount of adjustments makes a difference.

Bluetooth headphones & usb audio cards works good.

[Briggs (jba1978)]

I have the Samsung Notebook 9 pen and there is no speaker volume at all, in Ubuntu 19.10

[Robert Davenport (fairhb)]

Just upgraded to kernel 5.3.0.29-generic and still no sound.

Found a user who compiled his kernel with ALC294 patch and seems to have gotten his sound working.

His system is the ASUS UX362FA, running Realtek ALC298 (Device: pci 0x9dc8).

Details can be found here: Kernel.org Bugzilla – Bug 203443, with reference to Kernel 5.1-rc6

[Robert Davenport (fairhb)]

Should have provided the links for reference:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=203443

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1826645

Appears to work on 4.19.9 kernel when recompiled with patches:
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/alc294-analog-audio-card-detected-but-no-sound-internaly-or-headphones/54089/29

[Duke Fong (duke-c)]

Same problem with Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 930QCG.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook and Galaxy Book Flex look very similar, the sound chip should be the same, the Chromebook is open source and also uses the Linux kernel, can we refer to the Chromebook code?

[Mike Pozulp (gannon1)]

roinincoder and I reported a kernel bug, https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=207423

[Michael Burnside (zeekar)]

Related problem: (Headphones work, no speaker volume whatsoever) w/ Notebook Pen 9 (Nvidia) #NP950SBE-X01US on Ubuntu 0.04.

[Krish C (inventivepotter)]

Same with me, tried in 18.04 and 20.04 versions. No sound in internal speakers and in 3.5mm audio jack but works with bluetooth headset and type-c earphones.

[Mike Pozulp (gannon1)]

Good news! A very smart Arch user by the name of ronincoder discovered a fix for the headphone jack. I worked with ronincoder to make a kernel patch [1] and our patch made it into the 5.7 kernel release! It was also applied to the 5.4 LTS kernel. I booted both 5.7.2 and 5.4.46 and the headphone jack audio is loud and clear. :)

Does it work for you? It should if you have a Samsung Notebook 9 Pro NP930SBE-K01US or NP930MBE-K04US (ronincoder's is the former, mine is the latter). You can check your laptop model by running alsa_info.sh and looking at "Board Name". The Realtek ALC298 codec in the NP930SBE-K01US and NP930MBE-K04US identifies itself with "Subsystem Id" 0x144dc169 and 0x144dc176, respectively. If snd_hda_intel sees either of these ids it implements the fix.

What about the speakers? I reported the no-sound-on-internal-speakers issue on the kernel bugzilla [2]. Linux sound maintainer Jaroslav Kysela speculates that there may be some amplifiers connected to the HDA codec which are not initialized by the BIOS, and are thus not active in Linux. He suggests dumping the codec communication for the Windows driver using QEMU. We could then parse the dump and replay the communication in Linux using Early Patching [3] or writing another kernel patch. It's been a month since Jaroslav made this suggestion and I've made some progress but I still don't have a good dump. Please join the discussion on the kernel bugzilla if you'd like to help me. ^^

[1] For reference, our patch made it into Linus' tree as commit 14425f1f521f (ALSA: hda/realtek: Add quirk for Samsung Notebook).
[2] https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=207423
[3] https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.17/sound/hd-audio/notes.html#early-patching

[Robert Davenport (fairhb)]

Confirming headphones work with 5.7.x kernel, board name: NP930MBE-K04US.