[BUG] NUC11PAKi5 11 Gen intel NUC no sound

[bart3005]

I have a intel NUC 11 gen running Fedora 41. This is connected to a Yamaha amp over HDMI. The only way I could get any sound out of it is by enabing the DSP option in the BIOS and setting options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=3 in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf. Could never get DTS/AC3 pass through to work. Did seem to do mutli channel OK however which was workable.

After updating to Fedora 41 from 40 it no longer works at all. All looks OK in Gnome settings, but playing sound results in no output at all.

My laptop also running Fedora 41 works fine. Just to validate, the Yamaha amp over HDMI will work with Linux.

root@mediabox:~# dnf list alsa\*
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Installed packages
alsa-firmware.noarch           1.2.4-13.fc41       fedora
alsa-lib.x86_64                1.2.12-2.fc41       fedora
alsa-sof-firmware.noarch       2024.09-1.fc41      fedora
alsa-tools.x86_64              1.2.11-3.fc41       fedora
alsa-tools-firmware.x86_64     1.2.11-3.fc41       fedora
alsa-ucm.noarch                1.2.12-2.fc41       fedora
alsa-utils.x86_64              1.2.12-2.fc41       fedora

root@mediabox:~# uname -a
Linux mediabox 6.11.5-300.fc41.x86_64 thesofproject/sof#1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Oct 22 20:11:15 UTC 2024 x86_64 GNU/Linux

root@mediabox:~# dmesg | grep sof
[    0.048873] software IO TLB: area num 8.
[    1.089048] PCI-DMA: Using software bounce buffering for IO (SWIOTLB)
[    1.089048] software IO TLB: mapped [mem 0x0000000024989000-0x0000000028989000] (64MB)
[    1.493080] integrity: Loaded X.509 cert 'Microsoft Corporation UEFI CA 2011: 13adbf4309bd82709c8cd54f316ed522988a1bd4'
[    1.493093] integrity: Loaded X.509 cert 'Microsoft Windows Production PCA 2011: a92902398e16c49778cd90f99e4f9ae17c55af53'
[    4.290050] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[    4.290197] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: DSP detected with PCI class/subclass/prog-if 0x040380
[    4.290237] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: bound 0000:00:02.0 (ops i915_audio_component_bind_ops [i915])
[    4.296921] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: use msi interrupt mode
[    4.327091] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: hda codecs found, mask 5
[    4.327094] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: using HDA machine driver skl_hda_dsp_generic now
[    4.327097] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: DMICs detected in NHLT tables: 0
[    4.349830] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: Firmware paths/files for ipc type 0:
[    4.349833] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3:  Firmware file:     intel/sof/sof-tgl.ri
[    4.349834] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3:  Topology file:     intel/sof-tplg/sof-hda-generic.tplg
[    4.366314] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: Firmware info: version 2:2:0-57864
[    4.366316] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: Firmware: ABI 3:22:1 Kernel ABI 3:23:1
[    4.366324] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: unknown sof_ext_man header type 3 size 0x30
[    4.462749] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: Firmware info: version 2:2:0-57864
[    4.462753] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: Firmware: ABI 3:22:1 Kernel ABI 3:23:1
[    4.474858] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: Topology: ABI 3:22:1 Kernel ABI 3:23:1
[    4.563460] input: sof-hda-dsp Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input20
[    4.563508] input: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input21
[    4.563540] input: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=4 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input22
[    4.563570] input: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=5 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/skl_hda_dsp_generic/sound/card0/input23

[lgirdwood]

@bart3005 can you provide output of /proc/asound/cards and /proc/asound/pcms.
The logs provided show that audio HW is detected and DSP FW has loaded and enabled the PCMs, I assume you can render audio to a HDMI monitor instead of the amp ?
@ujfalusi fyi.

[ujfalusi]

This machine does not need SOF, it is a pure HDA device. The legacy HDA stack should work fine (dsp_driver=0 or 1) and with that the DTS passthrough as well.
It should have i5-1135G7 and 2 HDA codecs (analog and HDMI):

[    4.327091] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: hda codecs found, mask 5
...
[    4.327097] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: DMICs detected in NHLT tables: 0

@bart3005 , Can you try the legacy stack and attach the output of alsa-info.sh

[ujfalusi]

having said that, audio should work with the SOF stack (but not passthrough in default IPC version for the 11th gen CPU).
If you could attach the alsa-info.sh also with dsp_driver=3, it might reveal something which goes wrong.

When you say nothing works: neither the 3.5 jack on front, nor the HDMI audio?

[bart3005]

root@mediabox:~# cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [sofhdadsp      ]: sof-hda-dsp - sof-hda-dsp
                      IntelCorporation-NUC11PAKi5-M15551_302-NUC11PABi5

root@mediabox:~# cat /proc/asound/pcm
00-00: HDA Analog (*) :  : playback 1 : capture 1
00-03: HDMI1 (*) :  : playback 1
00-04: HDMI2 (*) :  : playback 1
00-05: HDMI3 (*) :  : playback 1
00-31: HDA Analog Deep Buffer (*) :  : playback 1

[bart3005]

alsa-info_dsp3.txt

With dsp_driver=3

[bart3005]

alsa-info_dsp0.txt

With dsp_driver=0

[bart3005]

The reason why I was using dsp_driver=3 was I could never get sound out with dsp_driver=0.

I am pretty sure it is the NUC device that is quirky, rather than issues with Linux, as stated every other PC running Linux works fine.

Ill grab a PC monitor with HDMI sound and test with this NUC and report back.

Thanks for any insight.

[ujfalusi]

@bart3005, can you try https://benwilcock.wordpress.com/2021/02/17/intel-nuc-11-with-pop_os-ubuntu-20-04-lts/

[ujfalusi]

The alsa-info outputs look correct, all is detected fine, there must be some quirk missing for this NUC or some configuration changed

[ujfalusi]

@bart3005, this might work as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/intelnuc/comments/ru80d7/comment/j8l8gqj/

[bart3005]

OK very strange, plug in an HDMI monitor with sound and as expect sound works.

Plug the amp back in and it is working. Switch it all off and no sound again.

So discovered that if I power on with a different HDMI monitor then switch cables back, it works. Bizarre.

This was all tested with no values at all in mod probe files.

Also tested the suggestions above, no joy. I have actually as with one of the blog posts tested Clear Linux, Ubuntu and no joy.

Probably some sort of HDMI controller firmware quirk.

Lot of people do seem to have issues with the 11th gen NUCs and sound even on Windows, which is officially supported by intel, so you would think it would work.

Thanks for your help.

[ujfalusi]

@bart3005, interesting, I have an old NUC8i5BEH/NUC8BEB and I think a year ago out of blue all CEC (source switching, volume change with TV controller) stopped working on my AVR. It took a while and it turned out that I needed to disconnect the NUC HDMI from the AVR and CEC worked again.
I use the NUC as server, so no big loss.

I think I noticed this in January, 2024, and I cannot recall doing BIOS update, it had to be some kernel change. If you can try an old, at least 1.5 years old kernel, it might work. I did not bothered on my end with this, the NUC is really just a non media oriented server.