(blanks to increase readabilty - haven’t found out how to make tabs yet)
This is a problem on multiple distros (namely fedora, arch and popOs).
It is a problem I have with pipewire and pulseaudio.
While there is no audio-output right now (besides the dummy output) this is not always the case, I have managed to get the sound to run multiple times for about a day, but at some point (every time after a reboot but not after all reboots) the audio-output reverts to the dummy output. (So no hardware issue)
Neither restarting nor reinstalling seems to help, so I was wondering if others also came across this problem (I have seen some forum posts with similar but not the same problem) and if it would be smart to post a solution here for the community to find.
I’m having the exact same problem on Arch Linux, regardless of whether I’m using pulseaudio or pipewire. It doesn’t happen every time the laptop boots, but often enough that it’s annoying. Did you find any solution?
I wonder if this also happens on Windows. If so, it’s most likely a firmware-based issue. My framework runs with the latest BIOS/firmware (v3.10).
During my time at System76, I saw this a lot with Pop OS and its use of Pipewire specifically. But it’s actually not a sound server thing, it’s lower level.
Here is what I use and have had about a 98% success rate with. Not to worry, if it doesn’t help, I can help you undo it easily.
On many distros (Confirmed on Pop OS and if memory serves me, on Arch as well):
echo "options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
echo "blacklist snd_soc_skl" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
I would agree, if the steps I listed above do not working (Pipewire specifically), then it could be hardware per @Usernames’ post. Hardware can do this sort of thing.
That said, if I had a dollar for every time these steps I listed above fixed the issue, I’d be a rich individual.
@Matt_Hartley, I have both tried to reinstall all software (even trying pulseaudio instead of pipewire) as well as adding the options to the config files, as other threads on the issues advised. Sadly neither fixed any issues.
I had not seen any reports that this could have been a hardware issue, like @Usernames mentioned, but since I have tried pretty much everything in the books, I’d lean to that explanation as well.
For some reason I haven’t had any sound problems for a while. In the meantime, however, I have installed Windows 10 in addition to my Arch Linux installation. So my Framework laptop is now a dual boot configuration. I’ll report more sound issues as I encounter them (either in Arch Linux or Win 10, although I use Linux a lot more).
@Dunkelklinge1 Appreciate the update. Usernames suggestion for using watch should this resurface is a solid path forward to spot what happens as it happens.
For me the issue didn’t resurface a lot either, but today (right now in fact) I don’t have sound. I used watch to see, and there are quite a lot of interrupts for the sound card on CPU6.
I know for myself and Nine_Mile we got a board swap and that was the resolution suggested from support. I would suspect the same will be true for you and the others as it looks like an unexpected hardware issue.
The original post from op was about Pipewire and not PulseAudio, just for anyone else reading this.
That said, the dummy output is much better with later versions of Pipewire and PulseAudio will hopefully be a thing of the past in the near future as other distros begin adopting Pipewire which is backwards compatible with PulseAudio applications.
If you’re on PulseAudio and not Pipewire, then this is generally the best approach. This assumes Ubuntu as I refer to APT below.
I would like to give a small update. As I wrote before, I haven’t had any sound issues for quite some time until it reappeared in Arch today. It never happened in Windows, but I have to admit I’ve used it too infrequently to be sure (only occasionally for light gaming).
I checked for the interrupts as Usernames suggested but unfortunately when the sound problem started I needed an audio output for that moment and so I didn’t investigate much and just took a screenshot and restarted the machine (as always, that quickly fixed it). Anyway, the interesting thing is that unlike Leon_Olmo_Lecht, I don’t seem to have a lot of interrupts for anything with “intel” in its name.
For some reasons I have plenty of issues on my NixOS with sound system on my Framework in the last two months since I got it. I’ve been running Thinkpad with NixOS for years previously, and only ever had some minor glitches occasionally.
However it is rarely (never?) that the sound is simply gone. Usually it’s microphone issues, both on wired headphones and bluetooth ones, sometimes inability to switch outputs. Things like that.
Just to confirm (on multiple distros), reinstalling alsa base provides no joy/resolution after a reboot - meaning after suspend it remains as a dummy output even with the alsa base reinstall?
Not restart, reinstall. This is what works on multiple distros. If you follow the steps in my previous comment, reinstalling (not restarting) as we determined restarting wasn’t enough.
Also be absolutely sure you’re removing the old config.
If reinstalling and removing old conf didn’t help, test hardware with a live release.
