Suggestions before filing an SOF bug

Run alsa-info

The alsa-info script extracts a lot of information from the platform (PCI ids, ACPI ids, DMI, controls, dmesg) that will help the SOF team understand which hardware and OEM configuration is used. alsa-info can upload the results to a server; providing the link is very useful when filing a bug.

Disable SOF on PCI/HDaudio devices to test audio playback

When audio issues occur, first see if the HDaudio legacy can generate sound on speakers and headsets. Accomplish this by adding “options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1” to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf.

If no sound can be heard and jack detection is not functional, an HDaudio external codec configuration is likely. In some cases, the Linux drivers are missing configuration information and may only enable two of the four speakers present. All of these cases are orthogonal to SOF issues in that the SOF driver cannot compensate for codec driver problems on its own.

Try booting into Windows first, then reboot into Linux

On some platforms, such as with an HDaudio codec connected to amplifiers over an I2C/I2S link, the codec driver needs to perform a set of amplifier configurations. This is often handled in Windows but not in Linux codec drivers. A classic example of such issues is when headphone playback works, but speaker playback does not (or not on all speakers).

These types of issues also occur with the HDaudio legacy driver and are not part of SOF bugs proper. To fix such issues, either obtain direct support from the codec vendor, or reverse-engineer the missing configuration by snooping HDaudio commands in a Windows environment.

Make sure the ME is enabled

If the ME is disabled by the OEM or the user, firmware authentication will fail without any explicit feedback provided to the user. In case of any authentication failure, verify that the ME is not disabled. More information about the ME is available in the “Firmware binary” section of Overview of Intel hardware platforms.

Test at the ALSA ‘hw’ device level

When the legacy HDaudio driver produces audible sound without distortion and an SOF-based solution does not, user space configuration issues are possible.

Use the following commands to check if the SOF driver is functional at the hardware device level:

speaker-test -Dhw:0,0 -c2 -r48000 -f S16_LE
arecord -Dhw:0,0 -c2 -r48000 -f S16_LE -d 10 test.wav

The card and device indices may need to be adjusted on different platforms: use aplay -l and arecord -l to see supported values on your platform.

If the playback or capture seems ok at the hardware device level, then the following packages may need to be updated:

  • alsa-lib

  • alsa-ucm-conf

  • pulseaudio

Verify mixer settings

A classic issue with Linux audio is that a mixer control value remains muted or with a volume set to zero. The alsamixer command can be used to check if any paths are disabled (represented as “m”) or if the volume settings are not correct.

Note that randomly playing with ALSA mixer settings can damage audio accessories, speakers, or your hearing. Never change mixer settings while listening to loud music on a headset!

Enable dynamic debug

To avoid spamming all Linux users with audio-specific information, only critical errors are reported in the dmesg log. That information may not be enough to debug a specific issue, and the recommendation is to add the following options to the /etc/modprobe.d/sof-dyndbg.conf file:

options snd_sof_intel_byt dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof_intel_bdw dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof_intel_ipc dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof_intel_hda_common dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof_intel_hda dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof_pci dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof_acpi dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof_of dyndbg=+p
options snd_sof_nocodec dyndbg=+p
options soundwire_bus dyndbg=+p
options soundwire_generic_allocation dyndbg=+p
options soundwire_cadence dyndbg=+p
options soundwire_intel_init dyndbg=+p
options soundwire_intel dyndbg=+p
options snd_soc_skl_hda_dsp dyndbg=+p
options snd_intel_dspcfg dyndbg=+p

Note that this list is only an example.

Install sof-logger

If an issue with the SOF firmware is reported, such as IPC errors, SOF developers will need DSP traces. This is typically done by installing /usr/local/bin/sof-logger as well as the .ldc file, and using the following command to extract DSP traces:

sof-logger -t sof-tgl.ldc