Realtek ALC5642 unsupported by ALSA

[Oliver Marks]

bay trail t100 device not sure how the sound card works on this device may not be pci or usb

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-14.21-generic 3.11.7
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-14-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer'] failed with exit code 1:
Date: Mon Dec 9 09:29:57 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-12-06 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Title: PCI/internal sound card not detected
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/22/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: T100TA.214
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: T100TA
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrT100TA.214:bd09/22/2013:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnT100TA:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnT100TA:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: T100TA
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

After a good bit of Googling, I can't figure out what chipset this thing uses. The best I got was "Realtek i2s" and I think it might be referring to Realtek ALC5642, which is not supported by ALSA yet as far as I can tell. https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/sound/soc/codecs

[Oliver Marks (oly)]

i can also confirm this does not work on 14.04 as of today

[Oliver Marks (oly)]

looking in windows device manager, its reported as Intel SST Audio Device (WDM) using realtek_fw_sst.bin it does not seem to tell you the model in windows how ever.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Based on this link ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2514818 ), I think it's safe to say that it is indeed an ALC5642. Realtek does not yet have a datasheet on their site for that codec, so that may explain why it is unsupported at this time. I will ask on ALSA list for further clarification.

[Oliver Marks (oly)]

okay cheers thanks for that information :)

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

I did not receive any response from ALSA devs, so I assume they're waiting on Realtek to release datasheet. You may want to bookmark this page and keep an eye on if alc5642.c/h ever shows up https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/sound/soc/codecs

[Oliver Marks (oly)]

just an update not sure what happened but laptop now freezes just after alsa-state in the boot process using kernel, 3.13.0-4-generic.

so its may be trying to load the wrong driver, not sure if there is a kernel parameter i can add to stop this ?
blacklist alsa module perhaps ?

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

You're probably running into bug #1269731.

[John Wells (jfw)]

An update on this; sound is beginning to appear in https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/lrg/asoc.git/?h=intel%2Fhaswell-audio-dsp

It also requires firmware (that you can grab from chromiumOS git repository)

It's not ready for prime-time yet; it causes some chips in my T100 to heat up very quickly, making the tablet too hot to hold. Sound is also very poor, even after hunting through all options in alsamixer.

But anyway -- some developments at least. :-)

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for alsa-driver (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]