Hi all,

I own a Dell laptop that unfortunately comes with the Realtek ALC3204 sound card, which works on Windows, Manjaro and Ubuntu but not on Solus. I have been waiting for kernel upgrades hoping it would get naturally fixed, but I believe it is a problem elsewere.

  • I seek help on debugging this.

Here is my system:

Some debug information:

[    3.419710] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: dmic_detect option is deprecated, pass snd-intel-dspcfg.dsp_driver=1 option instead
[    3.419727] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[    3.423872] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: bound 0000:00:02.0 (ops i915_audio_component_bind_ops [i915])
[    3.513554] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: autoconfig for ALC3204: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:speaker
[    3.513560] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    3.513563] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    hp_outs=1 (0x21/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    3.513566] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    mono: mono_out=0x0
[    3.513567] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    inputs:
[    3.513570] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:      Headset Mic=0x19
[    3.513573] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:      Headphone Mic=0x1a
System:    Kernel: 5.10.15-172.current x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
           Desktop: Budgie 10.5.2 Distro: Solus 4.2 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 5490 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0YMVR1 v: A04 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.11.0 
           date: 08/13/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 35.1 Wh condition: 48.7/51.0 Wh (95%) model: BYD DELL M4GWP08 
           status: Discharging 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-10510U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake 
           note: check rev: C L2 cache: 8 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 36799 
           Speed: 1800 MHz min/max: 400/1800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1800 2: 1800 3: 1800 
           4: 1800 5: 1800 6: 1800 7: 1800 8: 1800 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GP108M [GeForce MX230] vendor: Dell driver: N/A bus ID: 01:00.0 
           Device-3: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus ID: 1-6:3 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1600x900 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.3 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.15-172.current 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 9462 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 4000 
           bus ID: 00:14.3 
           IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 151.24 GiB (63.4%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: A-Data model: IM2P33F3A NVMe ADATA 256GB size: 238.47 GiB 
           temp: 40.9 C 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 229.59 GiB used: 151.24 GiB (65.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 3.73 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 55.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2533 
Info:      Processes: 272 Uptime: 1d 2h 54m Memory: 15.43 GiB used: 4.8 GiB (31.1%) 
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 Packages: 1336 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 
           inxi: 3.2.01```


```luis@solus ~ $ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     69632  1
snd_sof_pci            20480  0
snd_sof_intel_hda_common    77824  1 snd_sof_pci
snd_sof_intel_hda      16384  1 snd_sof_intel_hda_common
snd_sof_intel_byt      16384  1 snd_sof_pci
snd_sof_intel_ipc      16384  1 snd_sof_intel_byt
snd_sof_xtensa_dsp     16384  2 snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_intel_byt
snd_sof               122880  4 snd_sof_pci,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_intel_byt,snd_sof_intel_ipc
snd_soc_skl           155648  0
snd_soc_hdac_hda       20480  2 snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_skl
snd_hda_ext_core       32768  4 snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hda,snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_intel_hda
snd_soc_sst_ipc        16384  1 snd_soc_skl
snd_soc_sst_dsp        36864  1 snd_soc_skl
snd_soc_acpi_intel_match    45056  3 snd_sof_pci,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_skl
snd_hda_codec_realtek   143360  1
snd_soc_acpi           16384  4 snd_soc_acpi_intel_match,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_intel_byt,snd_soc_skl
snd_hda_codec_generic    94208  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_soc_core          311296  4 snd_sof,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hda,snd_soc_skl
ledtrig_audio          16384  3 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_sof,dell_laptop
snd_compress           20480  1 snd_soc_core
snd_pcm_dmaengine      16384  1 snd_soc_core
ac97_bus               16384  1 snd_soc_core
snd_hda_intel          57344  4
snd_intel_dspcfg       24576  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_sof_pci,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_skl
snd_hda_codec         167936  5 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_soc_hdac_hda
snd_hda_core          106496  10 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_ext_core,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hda,snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_intel_hda
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm               135168  11 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_sof,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_compress,snd_soc_core,snd_soc_skl,snd_hda_core,snd_pcm_dmaengine
snd_timer              40960  1 snd_pcm
snd                   106496  17 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_timer,snd_compress,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm
soundcore              16384  1 snd

Now, I think the problem is actually related to firmware called sof, which I think does not comes with Solus, but I can be wrong. It can be found here.

  • Any ideas on how can I fix this?

References