[alsa-devel] Regression Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller

[Takashi Iwai]

At Mon, 5 May 2014 09:46:45 +0100,
Delcypher wrote:
> 
> Thank you for your suggestions:
> 
> If I run
> 
> $ amixer -c0 get Capture
> Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
>   Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
>   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
>   Limits: Capture 0 - 63
>   Front Left: Capture 63 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
>   Front Right: Capture 63 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
> 
> So I think it's currently already on (I think I may of switched it on
> after running the script, but it didn't make any difference). I ran ``
> amixer -c0 set Capture cap`` and it didn't fix my microphone issue.
> 
> I also tried using model=nofixup and that didn't fix the microphone
> issue either :(
> 
> I just tried doing something different and to my surprise it fixed my
> microphone issue, i.e. after doing this the following commands
> 
> $ arecord -d 5 test.wav
> $ aplay test.wav
> 
> work (test.wav isn't complete silence).
> 
> There was one mixer control in alsamixer that I hadn't touched with
> the name "Digital". I had not played with it before because I presumed
> it shouldn't have anything to do with the internal microphone. I
> changed it from 0 to some non zero value and to my surprise my
> internal microphone now works.
> 
> So is this a bug or an intended feature? I've attached the output of
> alsa-utlils-alsa-info.sh before and after the mixer adjustment in the
> hope that it will help.

The "Digital" is a mixer element alsa-lib softvol plugin creates, and
it is irrelevant with the kernel at all.  I guess someone adjusted
this accidentally during updates or so.

So, my take is that it's rather an accident.


Takashi

> 
> 
> 
> On 5 May 2014 09:02, Takashi Iwai <tiwai at suse.de> wrote:
> > At Sat, 3 May 2014 12:57:55 +0100,
> > Delcypher wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I was told to report my bug here because the ALSA bug tracker is no
> >> longer active.
> >>
> >> I'm having an issue with " Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio
> >> Controller" card which is inside the Dell XPS13 9333 developer edition
> >> [1].
> >>
> >> I've tried two different distributions
> >>
> >> * Arch Linux (kernel 3.14)
> >> Output of alsa-utlils-alsa-info.sh [2]
> >>
> >> * Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (kernel 3.13)
> >> Output of alsa-utlils-alsa-info.sh [3]
> >>
> >> The card behaves correctly under Ubuntu but under Arch Linux I've
> >> observed the following issues.
> >>
> >> - The microphone does not work correctly. In alsamixer I select
> >> "Internal Mic" as my capture device but when I do
> >>
> >> $ arecord -d 5 test.wav
> >> $ aplay test.wav
> >>
> >> test.wav contains silence.
> >>
> >> I've also tried enabling/disabling "CAPTURE" on the Capture channel at
> >> the same time - I don't really understand why this channel is here
> >> (seems a little bizarre) but enabling/disabling "CAPTURE" on this
> >> channel doesn't seem to make any difference anyway. Under Ubuntu the
> >> "arecord... aplay" command works correctly.
> >>
> >> - There probably isn't a way to reproduce this but when I first
> >> installed Arch Linux the sound card was put in a state where the
> >> headphone jack would not work at all. Sound would continue playing out
> >> of the speakers when the headphone jack was inserted and no sound
> >> would come out of the headphones. I did notice that if the headphone
> >> jack was only partially inserted I would get some sound sent to one of
> >> the headphones.
> >>
> >> My intuition is that the card is probably being incorrectly
> >> initialised because if you take a look at the output of
> >> alsa-utils-alsa-info.sh and diff them. Two very big differences I
> >> noticed were that
> >>
> >> - The card name (from lscpi) is "Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD
> >> Audio Controller" under Ubuntu but under Arch Linux it is "Intel
> >> Corporation Device 0a0c"
> >> - The card codec is "Realtek ALC668" under Ubuntu but is "Realtek
> >> ALC3661" under Arch Linux.
> >>
> >> One interesting I did notice is that under Arch Linux it is possible
> >> to use the microphone from the Audacity program by selecting "HDA
> >> Intel PCH: ALC3661Analog (hw0:0) Internal mic:0" as the input (this is
> >> not the default). Unfortunately I know of no way to make other
> >> applications use this.
> >>
> >> Any thoughts on how to fix this?
> >>
> >> [1] http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd
> >> [2] https://gist.github.com/delcypher/11367224
> >> [3] https://gist.github.com/delcypher/11367302
> >
> > The "Capture Switch" is off, according to alsa-info.sh output.
> > Try to turn it on.
> >    % amixer -c0 set Capture cap
> >
> > If this doesn't help, it must be a quirk added in 3.14 kernel:
> >   commit f47e5dc464251f661da9495fcbf003a0d22c1360
> >   ALSA: hda - Add a headset quirk for Dell XPS 13
> >
> > I added relevant people in Cc.
> >
> > Meanwhile, you can try to pass model=nofixup to snd-hda-intel module
> > for avoiding the added fixup above.
> >
> >
> > thanks,
> >
> > Takashi