[Pkg-alsa-devel] Sound Open Firmware support in Debian

Gijs Hillenius gijs at hillenius.net
Thu Apr 30 08:49:49 BST 2020


> On recent HDAudio- and SoundWire-based platforms, the use of SOF
> (Sound Open Firmware) is required to enable the DSP-based path. The
> Digital Microphone and SoundWire external components will just not be
> used otherwise.

> Since we see quite a few issues related to configurations on
> debian-based platforms, I thought it'd be a good idea to try and
> engage  directly with Debian maintainers to do the right thing.

(forgive me for cutting the rest of the email by Pierre-Louis)

I'm one of those that approached Pierre-Louis and others about this,
using a thinkpad X1 2019 edition. I'd be very happy to be a guinea pig,
if that helps.


Kind greetings



FWIW:

At the moment I'm trying to figure out what *is* the difference between
Ubuntu 20.04 and Debian Sid. AFAICT Sid is ahead on alsa and pulse
libraries. The SOF firmware, I installed following directions on the
sof repository.

The whole sof-audio experience is smooth in Ubuntu but in Debian not so
much. In Debian, HDMI output is not recognised. It's there, but only if
you do: aplay -D plughw:0,3 (...).

Then, in Debian, none of the microphones work. And the sound is mutually
output via headset and speakers. I have not figured out what causes or
prevent the mixup.

So, I've been testing to see the differences between the Ubuntu live
system to my Debian system. Ubuntu uses 5.4, Sid is at 5.5. 

1) copying Ubuntu's version of /lib/firmware/intel/sof and sof-tplg :
reboot, no difference.

2) diff /etc/pulse/ everything and /etc/alsa everything: I don't see
anything there that would affect the sof-audio (but ...) so I've not
tested that.

3) I'm now looking at the alsa-base.conf .. perhaps that is where the
magic is. I don't see it (but ...)  but I'll just copy it over and
reboot, perhaps today.



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