[Acer Swift SF315-52, Realtek ALC256, Mic, Internal] Internal microphone not working

[James Pollock]

Recently bought a new Acer Swift 3 laptop and installed Ubuntu 18.04 on it. Everything works except the internal microphone. I have also tested with an external microphone and this didn't work either.

I have worked my way through all the suggested solutions I could find, including trying to reconfigure the pins using hdajacketask. In pavucontrol I have options for Internal Microphone and Microphone (unplugged) but the internal mic only captures static noise.

The latest HD-Audio Codec-Specific Models has configurations for alc255-acer and alc256 for some other models, but setting options snd-hda-intel model=MODEL in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf does not solve the issue with any of these.

Some info -

lspci | grep -I audio:

00:1f.3 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)

cat /proc/asound/cards:

 0 [PCH ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xdf1a8000 irq 127

dmesg | grep snd:

[ 3.944593] snd_hda_core: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ 3.956337] snd_soc_skl: Unknown symbol snd_hdac_display_power (err 0)
[ 3.956422] snd_soc_skl: Unknown symbol snd_hdac_i915_exit (err 0)
[ 4.000880] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: Probing card using HDA DKMS, version 0.201808050301~ubuntu18.04.1
[ 4.000895] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 4.013061] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: autoconfig for ALC256: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:speaker
[ 4.013063] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[ 4.013065] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: hp_outs=1 (0x21/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[ 4.013066] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: mono: mono_out=0x0
[ 4.013066] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: inputs:
[ 4.013068] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: Mic=0x18
[ 4.013069] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: Internal Mic=0x12

info on node 12 from cat /proc/asound/card*/codec\#*:

Node 0x12 [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x40040b: Stereo Amp-In
  Control: name="Internal Mic Boost Volume", index=0, device=0
    ControlAmp: chs=3, dir=In, idx=0, ofs=0
  Amp-In caps: ofs=0x00, nsteps=0x03, stepsize=0x27, mute=0
  Amp-In vals: [0x02 0x02]
  Pincap 0x00000020: IN
  Pin Default 0x40000000: [N/A] Line Out at Ext N/A
    Conn = Unknown, Color = Unknown
    DefAssociation = 0x0, Sequence = 0x0
  Pin-ctls: 0x20: IN
  Power states: D0 D1 D2 D3 EPSS
  Power: setting=D0, actual=D0

Let me know if you need any other information.

James

---

Tags: bionic
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-34-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 06/22/2018
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: V1.04
dmi.board.asset.tag: Default string
dmi.board.name: Erdinger_KL
dmi.board.vendor: KBL
dmi.board.version: V1.04
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: V1.04
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrV1.04:bd06/22/2018:svnAcer:pnSwiftSF315-52:pvrV1.04:rvnKBL:rnErdinger_KL:rvrV1.04:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrV1.04:
dmi.product.family: Swift 3
dmi.product.name: Swift SF315-52
dmi.product.version: V1.04
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Justin (jruss221)]

Hello I have the same issue. I tried for a couple days to fix it without any results. I have the latest drivers installed (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/UpgradingAlsa/DKMS). I then tried to set all configurations to default and ran alsa-info. The ouput is located at the following url and in the attached text document. I hope this is helpful.

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=79aa0cb7023e375b7255e6789c7bd19c26a70d4f

thankyou

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could be that it requires an hack similar to https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git/commit/sound/pci/hda/patch_realtek.c?id=b72f936f with your ids being 1025:1269

Do you feel like manually patching that in the driver you build to see if that fixes the issue?

it would be adding a line
 SND_PCI_QUIRK(0x1025, 0x1269, "Acer Swift SF315-52", ALC286_FIXUP_ACER_AIO_MIC_NO_PRESENCE),

[James Pollock (jampollock)]

Hi Sebastien,

Yes I would be happy to manually patch the driver. Is it just a case of replacing my existing patch_realtek.c file with the one in the branch and adding that line? Or is the patching process more involved?

Thanks,

James

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

It's just adding that line in the right place in your patch_realtek.c and rebuilding

[James Pollock (jampollock)]

Hi Sebastien,

I added the line as suggested and rebuilt the driver. Unfortunately this didn't resolve the issue.

I notice the added line references the ALC286 chip rather than the ALC256 - is there likely to be a different pin mapping between the two chips? Are there any variations on the above worth trying?

Thanks again for your help,

James

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Sorry you are right. I'm not really familiar with alsa much but triaged a few similar issues recently and tried to help a bit. https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git/tree/sound/pci/hda/patch_realtek.c has mention of hacks with the ALC256 but for asus configs, unsure they would adapt well.

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=201251 is an upstream kernel bug that mentions swift configurations so maybe it's worth following/commenting there

[Tubagus Hendro Pramono (spyndutz)]

Hello there, this bug also affected me even though the Product model is a bit different.
My laptop model is Acer Swift 3 SF314-56G which also use Realtek ALC256 (HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH)
I use the fresh install of Ubuntu 19.04 with 5.0.0-31-generic kernel version. Is there any solutions or steps I need to take to make the microphone works?
Both internal and external microphone is not working at all.

Thanks in advance!

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

Could you ask the Acer what is the hardware design for the internal mic on this machine? Does the internal mic connect to the realtek codec or directly connect to the DSP in the PCH?

[James Pollock (jampollock)]

The response from Acer was that "the realtek codec is directly connected to the DSP". Is there anything else I should ask them?

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

not asking if the codec directly connects to DSP, please ask if internal mic connects to DSP or codec?

[James Pollock (jampollock)]

The response was “The MIC is bulit into the in mainboard of the unit.” Does that help? Happy to ask again if that still doesn’t answer your question.

[serg (serhio-trd)]

the same issue here with
Swift 314-54

just did the support ticket as well

[Sly_tom_cat (slytomcat)]

The same issue on Acer Swift 5F314-56 model N17W7 with Realtek ALC256 chip (HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH sound card).

Both internal and external microphones doesn't work.

[Hazem Alabiad (hazemwhite)]

Same issue here Acer Swift SF315-52G
Both internal and external microphones don't work.