Urgent support request - Dummy Output Sound
 

Hello all,

for a week now I have been trying to troubleshoot an issue I am having with Linux. THe community over at Linux Mint forums is unfortunately just as baffled as I am, so I am hoping that someone here can shed some light on the problem.

A colleague of mine gave me a new laptop to install Linux Mint on. I put 21 vanessa on. Installed and boots no problem. All hardware seems to be working, the only issue I am having is with the sound. With the base install which is running Kernel 5.15 the soundcard is not recognised, under sound setting the only device is 2dummy output". I spent several days scouring the net trying every solution i could find, to no avail. The only tiny step I have managed to make is by installing the kernel version 5.17. Now when I go into Audio setting an output device "celeron etc." is available, but still no sound.

Here is a link to the thread I started over at LM Forums....

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtop...?f=48&t=381733

Here is the current status of my setup:
I thank you in advance for your efforts in helping me solve this hair-tearing issue.

Kind regards
Martin

Sorry, but this is *NOT URGENT* for anyone here; we are volunteers, and asking for/expecting 'urgent' help is fairly rude. If you want ASAP assistance, please pay for support from any tech-support firm near you.
Telling people to go chase down links where you're cross-posting is also fairly rude.
Have you run pavucontrol and/or alsamixer, and checked to see if there are any channels muted?? Is the volume turned up?? And since this is a laptop, have you checked to see if the mute button (hinted to in what you've posted) is actually triggered, or checked the BIOS to make sure the sound device(s) are enabled??

Yes, this urgent business looks real rude.

OK, I vaguely remember there is an option in kernel which has to be turned on for this this soundcard, in addition to CODEC driver. I think for Mint this means this additional module may be needing manual loading, if it exists. Unfortunately I did not take any notes when I was helping someone with this issue, we got it figured out a year ago or so in Gentoo forums.

Edit: Maybe it is loaded, sof-essx8336.

Do you see pcm* device nodes in /dev/snd/ ?

first and foremost, absolutely no rudeness intended whatsoever. I highly appreciate any support you fine volunteers are willing and able to offer.

Many thanks indeed for your replies.

- i have run both alsamixer and pavucontrol and gone over every setting with a fine toothed comb, checking that all channels are not muted.
- i have checked the mute button on the laptop. OK. Volume is up to maximum.
- i have looked through the BIOS many times but find nothing relating to the enable/disable-ing of an Audio device. In fact, it looks like the bios for this board has been reduced to an absolute minimum.
- in /dev/snd there are a number of what appear to be text files starting with "pcm", for example "pcmC0D8p".

The BIOS has been 'reduced'??? Interesting...never heard of that before. Have you tried to update it?

And it would appear that this is a known issue with the cheap sound hardware on that laptop, and lots of people on the Mint forums (where you cross-posted) report it as well.
https://github.com/thesofproject/linux/pull/3338
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=372139

Further searching (did you do any?) turns up some possible workarounds:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1243...-sof-audio-pci

OK, if you have these pcm* nodes then you have soundcard enabled in hardware and the kernel driver is installed. The problem is somewhere in configuration. Mint uses PulseAudio. Basically, you have ALSA installed and working, PulseAudio is sitting on top of ALSA and commanding it. Unfortunately I do not use PA myself and can't help with it.

Edit: saw the post from TBOne, perhaps there is something true about missing firmware. If you browse your dmesg, do you see any firmware related errors?

1. when I say reduced, I simply mean that it seems to be a very simple bios UI with very few options. most of the options available are relating to booting order, secure boot, fast boot etc. Thank you for the tip about updating the BIOS. I shall check and see if there is a newer version available.

2. yes correct, several people have this issue with verious hardware configurations. I am also wondering if this is is at all related to the recent vanessa upgrade? If all else fails I shall try an earlier version and see if the problem is also present.

3. Yes I did. As mentioned i have spent literally days trying to troubleshoot this,searching the net and trying many workarounds, the only positive development until now was the upgrade to kernel version 5.17. After this upgrade, the audio output "DUMMY OUTPUT" was replaced by the hardware name "celeron pentium...", but still no sound.

THank you Emerson. Sudo dmesg reveals alot of information. THe only error i can find is "SGX disabled by bios". THis apparently means "Intel Software Guard Extension". Unfortunately, there is no option in my bios for enabling this. I see others have also posted about this and there is a tool available for enable sgx even if it is not an option in the bios. I shall investigate this. TBOne also mentioned about updating the bios which could eventually also solve this.

Points #2 and #3 seem to indicate you didn't spend days searching. Since if you did, you'd have seen this bug goes back quite a ways, so the 'recent upgrade' would have no bearing on it. And you were given a link with workarounds...yet don't say if you tried them or what the results were. You were given links to a Github project that addressed this; did you use it?? You are not telling us what, if anything, you've tried except to say you've searched, and checked to see if things are muted. Saying that dmesg reveals a lot of information is telling, because you don't actually *TELL US* what this relevant information is.

Also, truncating a name of "Celeron Pentium" (which are two different CPU's) doesn't give us much to work with. Again, the Mint forums (where you, again, cross-posted), seem to have advice: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=320488

Unless you actually start following some of the advice given, and tell us what the results of doing so were, there isn't much point in posting back because we won't have anything new, will we??

You are correct. My apologies.
thank you.

And since you still provide no information, and seem to be following up in your cross-posted thread on the Mint forums, good luck. They, too, will require you to actually do things and provide details. And (as said there) going back to an older version won't help...yet you say you're going to do that anyway.

So what's the point in asking if you're not going to do anything with the advice you're given???

for someone who claims to value good manners you yourself can be quite abrasive.

i no longer have the laptop so the case is closed. even if did, i have been mourning the loss of a close relative since sunday afternoon, I.T. is therefore not that high on my priority list right now.

As it seems i possess niether the manners nor the competence to participate in your forum, i shall not be bothering you any further.

I still take this opportunity to thank the community for its support.

All the best.

Try this ....


Keep the Laptop on.

connect speakers to the laptop in the 3.5mm socket. connect mic in the mic port . Remove and connect again. Sometimes just by connecting the pin the sound card gets activated.

Sorry, but when you want a group of volunteers to 'urgently' help you, that's fairly rude. When you then ask for advice (and get it) then follow it up by IGNORING it, that's even more so. Not sure why you expect people to be pleasant to you when you don't extend it to others. This isn't a helpdesk where people get paid to do so.

Good luck in the future asking questions in this manner.

It's actually requested by The Rules... :study: