No HDMI audio on Lenovo pro dock with T440s

[Martin D. Weinberg]

pavucontrol shows Display Port/HDMI output as "(unplugged)" and cannot be chosen as a sink. This is only a problem with the dock; audio works when plugging HDMI through the laptop's DP input.

The audio did work with the dock in Ubuntu 14.04. Did something in jack detection change? Anyway, my work around is to plug a 3.4mm audio cable into the dock and power the speakers that way, but it would be nice to use the HDMI audio again.

I would love to have a work around. I've attached the output from alsa-info.sh, just in case this is useful.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:8.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-22.40-generic 4.4.8
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC3: weinberg 2221 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC2: weinberg 2221 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: weinberg 2221 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: weinberg 2221 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon May 16 17:18:06 2016
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-05-06 (10 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 03/19/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: GJET74WW (2.24 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20ARA0S100
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Defined
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrGJET74WW(2.24):bd03/19/2014:svnLENOVO:pn20ARA0S100:pvrThinkPadT440s:rvnLENOVO:rn20ARA0S100:rvrNotDefined:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 20ARA0S100
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T440s
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Luke, do you know offhand if those sort of issues are rather due to the audio stack or the kernel?

[Martin D. Weinberg (martin-weinberg-5)]

Does this issue have to do with MST support in kernel 4.4? The 3.13 in 14.04 did not have MST support.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

The best way to determine whether this is kernel related is to test a recent daily trusty live image that has a newer kernel... I think newer images have the xenial kernel on them, so this would be a good way to determine where the problem is. A fair bit changed in pulse between trusty and xenial, and same with the kernel.

Martin, please download the latest daily image from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/trusty/daily-live, put it onto a bootable device or an optical disk, and boot from it. Try and use the dock's DP/HDMI connection and report back.

Thanks.

[Martin D. Weinberg (martin-weinberg-5)]

Thanks.

Booted with the latest daily, which is kernel 4.4.0, and it does not detect HDMI/DisplayPort on the ThinkPad ultra dock.

Also, from the old-releases repo, I downloaded the 14.04.1 iso running kernel 3.13.0-32, and that one DOES detect the HDMI/DisplayPort.

[Martin D. Weinberg (martin-weinberg-5)]

I also tried 14.04.2, which is kernel 3.16.0-30, and that also detected the HDMI/DP.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Resolution (norman-abi02)]

Hello and thanks to Martin to open the Bug report and doing all the research as well thanks to the launchpad team!

I got the same problem with Ubuntu 16.04 on my private and my office laptop (T440s and T440 on an ultra dock).

Upgrading the dock's firmware didn't help, too.

It would be nice to get a solution some time.
If I can help with any data, let me know.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Folks still affected by this bug could try using newer ALSA drivers. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/UpgradingAlsa/DKMS.

[Martin D. Weinberg (martin-weinberg-5)]

Thanks Luke.

I tried it but, sorry to report, the results are the same: pavucontrol claims that the HDMI is unplugged.

I also checked with "aplay -D" commands and none of the HDMI devices detected will play. The internal audio and a USB device are detected and work fine.

[Adam Avilla (adam-z)]

I tried it as well and it is still showing as unplugged.

[Ray-Ven (ray-ven)]

check if this is a dupe of:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1467190/

[Martin D. Weinberg (martin-weinberg-5)]

The symptoms and behavior are nearly the same, so the issue seems closely related, if not the same. However, the report is for different hardware and dock (UltraDock rather than OneLink dock although both Haswell). But, without doing the back port of Dave Airlie's patches to 4.9.x, 4.10.x or 4.4.0, it's hard to know for certain. I'd suggest keeping the bug open if only to document the breadth of the problem.

If I get a chance, I may try the backport myself, but I don't have time right now.