bytcr_rt5640 sound not working with kernel >= 5.13

[Damien]

Using the built in speakers on a Linx 1010b. The 5.11 kernel works fine, but 5.13 and 5.14 fail.

The card, when working is seen in alsa-info as bytcrrt5640,bytcr-rt5640, whereas in the later (hwe-20.04-edge, oem-20.04d) kernels where it fails, it is seen as "rt5640,sof-bytcht rt5640"

When failing, speaker-test, spd-say, and most other sound sources seem to get 'sunk', and the level meter on the pulse mixer shows activity. FWIW "espeak-ng hello" blocks on the broken setup.

I confess I'm not actually using the linux-meta-hwe-5.13 as it is unavailable in LinuxMint. I am using linux-generic-hwe-20.04-edge, which AFAICT pulls in the same kernels. apt policy pointed me to report here.

[Damien (damien-england)]

I live-booted from U 21.10*, which has a 5.13.0-19 kernel.

Bafflingly, sound test worked from the live system, even though alsa-info shows rt5640,sof-bytcht.

Late now. I'll do it again tomorrow and grab inxi/pactl/alsa-info.

*Lost time making a USB boot stick with 32 bit EFI capability. mkusb to the rescue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Ian (ian-renton)]

I can confirm with the same device and Ubuntu rather than Mint.

Starting from a new install of Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS with kernel 5.11.0-38, sound works fine. I am offered an update to kernel 5.13.0-27 via the package manager, after switching to this kernel sound does not work.

Tested using the Gnome Control Centre Sound test ("front left...")

Another data point - I also have an Ubuntu 21.10 Live USB with kernel 5.13.0-19 on which sound works, so either this regression occurred between 5.13.0-19 and 5.13.0-27, or something else is at play here.

[Damien (damien-england)]

I've installed 21.10 on a stick and updated the kernel to 5.13.0-27. It works fine there, so this is probably about kernel >= 5.13 AND NOT dist =21.10

[Philip Burgess (bigyospeck)]

Also affects my Archos Cesium 90 with the same basic specification

I found booting back to the 5.11 kernel in grub after the 5.13 kernel upgrade while returning audio had pitch shifted the audio very low and caused slow video playback

The only current solution I have is to install the generic 5.4 kernel and remove the HWE packages

[Matthew Lovibond (ub-matt-hv)]

Also affects 22.04 on 5.15.0-23-generic

[Damien (damien-england)]

FWIW:
dmesg | grep -Pi "alsa|pulse|sound|audio"
... for 5.11 and 5.14 differ.

5.11.0-46-generic (works)
[ 0.136592] ACPI: Added _OSI(Linux-Lenovo-NV-HDMI-Audio)
[ 3.051445] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] HDaudio controller not detected, using LPE audio instead
[ 10.791703] input: Intel HDMI/DP LPE Audio HDMI/DP,pcm=0 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/hdmi-lpe-audio/sound/card0/input7
[ 10.791913] input: Intel HDMI/DP LPE Audio HDMI/DP,pcm=1 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/hdmi-lpe-audio/sound/card0/input8
[ 14.393209] input: bytcr-rt5640 Headset as /devices/platform/80860F28:00/bytcr_rt5640/sound/card1/input13

5.14.0-1032-oem (does not work)
[ 0.137603] ACPI: Added _OSI(Linux-Lenovo-NV-HDMI-Audio)
[ 2.685353] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] HDaudio controller not detected, using LPE audio instead
[ 10.499073] input: Intel HDMI/DP LPE Audio HDMI/DP,pcm=0 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/hdmi-lpe-audio/sound/card0/input7
[ 10.499283] input: Intel HDMI/DP LPE Audio HDMI/DP,pcm=1 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/hdmi-lpe-audio/sound/card0/input8
[ 10.721966] sof-audio-acpi-intel-byt 80860F28:00: Detected Baytrail-CR platform
[ 10.722520] sof-audio-acpi-intel-byt 80860F28:00: Detected Baytrail-CR platform
[ 10.762200] sof-audio-acpi-intel-byt 80860F28:00: Firmware info: version 1:6:0-e9637
[ 10.762213] sof-audio-acpi-intel-byt 80860F28:00: Firmware: ABI 3:17:0 Kernel ABI 3:18:0
[ 13.861454] sof-audio-acpi-intel-byt 80860F28:00: Topology: ABI 3:17:0 Kernel ABI 3:18:0
[ 13.927618] sof-audio-acpi-intel-byt 80860F28:00: ASoC: Parent card not yet available, widget card binding deferred
[ 13.977639] input: sof-bytcht rt5640 Headset as /devices/platform/80860F28:00/bytcr_rt5640/sound/card1/input13

[Philip Burgess (bigyospeck)]

I've found a fix

Add:

options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=2

To /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and reboot

At first audio was playing at the incorrect rate (low pitched) which I think is an ACPI issue. Going into the bios and saving then exiting and letting Ubuntu boot up and audio is returned to normal

[Damien (damien-england)]

Confirmed on Linx 1010b on LinuxMint 20.3

Added options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=2 to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
reboot into 5.13
spd-say "Talking too slowly"
shut down
go to bios and save
reboot into 5.13
spd-say "That'll do nicely"

Works in 5.14, plus it seems to still be good in 5.11.

[Артём Шакиров (dvarkin)]

It looks like "options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=2 to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf" works with #1942385 too (At Ubuntu 21.10 5.13.0-39-generic).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Yosha872 (yosha)]

Also concerns a Acer Aspire Switch 10E SW3-013, with Lubuntu 22.04 (kernel 5.15).