Arch Linux

LBJensen

Member

Registered: 2024-05-28

Posts: 23

Dell XPS new 13, shaky audio

Hi gang,

I had a troubleshooting thread here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=296238
In which I was shown how to activate the Pro profile of my Mateor Lake-P HD Audio Controller. Using the Pro profile I was able to hear music via the built in speakers.

Following a recent (last week) I noticed an extra option in profiles "Play HiFi quality Music" which also seems to work.

The problem is this:
Occasionally the sound will be reduced to crackling for a minute or so, after which it will die completely. To reset it, I have to disable all profiles "Off", wait 30 seconds, then re-enable the Pro profile. And sometimes, I need to repeat this process 4 times before I can hear music again.

As a caveat I have a headset connected to USB. There's almost always trouble if both the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro has an active profile while the Meteor Lake also has an active profile. Usually I have to kill one to use the other and vice versa, which makes joining online meetings a chore

Note: If I'm listning to a Youtube playlist or Apple Music, the profile sometimes breaks between songs. Not every time but fairly consistently. So one song finishes, then comes the crackling, then no audio at all.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Lau

Last edited by LBJensen (2024-07-03 07:12:58)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,903

Re: Dell XPS new 13, shaky audio

This sounds (especially since two distinct devices without any interaction point seem to have issues) like potential audio daemon conflicts. What do you get from

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
systemctl --user status pipewire{,-pulse} wireplumber pulseaudio

in this situation.

LBJensen

Member

Registered: 2024-05-28

Posts: 23

Re: Dell XPS new 13, shaky audio

Appologies V1del, I seem to have caused some confusion. The BlackShark has never had this crackling issue, at least to my memory. It's only the onboard Meteor Lake device, but both in the Pro and HiFi configuration.

 sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  lau         818 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/controlC1:  lau         818 F.... wireplumber
/dev/snd/pcmC0D2p:   lau         817 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/pcmC0D3c:   lau         817 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/pcmC0D4c:   lau         817 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/pcmC0D5p:   lau         817 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/pcmC0D6p:   lau         817 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/pcmC0D7p:   lau         817 F...m pipewire
/dev/snd/seq:        lau         817 F.... pipewire

And status

$ systemctl --user status pipewire{,-pulse} wireplumber pulseaudio
● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2024-06-29 17:32:24 CEST; 3 days ago
 Invocation: 984f2f7e02b34cf9b2259629a75f2cca
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
   Main PID: 817 (pipewire)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 76692)
     Memory: 98.8M (peak: 100.3M)
        CPU: 1h 6min 50.969s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
             └─817 /usr/bin/pipewire

jul 03 12:53:09 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,5p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:12 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,7p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:12 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,2p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:12 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,6p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:12 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,5p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:15 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,7p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:15 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,6p: (186 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:15 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,2p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:15 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,5p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe
jul 03 12:53:18 archlinux pipewire[817]: spa.alsa: hw:sofsoundwire,2p: (187 suppressed) snd_pcm_avail after recover: Broken pipe

● pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2024-06-29 17:32:28 CEST; 3 days ago
 Invocation: 2709208d2bdb442d92a206a7ab3aecd6
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire-pulse.socket
   Main PID: 1016 (pipewire-pulse)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 76692)
     Memory: 152.4M (peak: 154.8M)
        CPU: 47min 24.358s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire-pulse.service
             └─1016 /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse

jun 29 17:32:28 archlinux systemd[806]: Started PipeWire PulseAudio.

● wireplumber.service - Multimedia Service Session Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/wireplumber.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2024-06-29 17:32:24 CEST; 3 days ago
 Invocation: b721a223e1a44f05b1b1b851e26064f6
   Main PID: 818 (wireplumber)
      Tasks: 7 (limit: 76692)
     Memory: 22.5M (peak: 23.7M)
        CPU: 46.878s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/wireplumber.service
             └─818 /usr/bin/wireplumber

jul 02 23:58:11 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: Failed to enable ucm device Speaker
jul 03 08:19:01 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: FailedUnit pulseaudio.service could not be found.
 to enable ucm device Mic
jul 03 08:19:01 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: Failed to enable ucm device HDMI1
jul 03 08:19:01 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: Failed to enable ucm device Speaker
jul 03 08:19:42 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: Failed to enable ucm device Mic
jul 03 08:19:42 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: Failed to enable ucm device HDMI1
jul 03 08:19:42 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: Failed to enable ucm device Speaker
jul 03 09:03:41 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: Failed to enable ucm device Mic
jul 03 09:03:41 archlinux wireplumber[818]: spa.alsa: Failed to enable ucm device HDMI1

LBJensen

Member

Registered: 2024-05-28

Posts: 23

Re: Dell XPS new 13, shaky audio

Addendum: Now I've been listening to a song for 15 minutes or so. I went to the volume control in the KDE Taskbar and turned it down a bit after which the crackling started. And it just keeps going, no sounds/music can be discerned it's completely garbled.

Last edited by LBJensen (2024-07-04 06:32:15)

LBJensen

Member

Registered: 2024-05-28

Posts: 23

Re: Dell XPS new 13, shaky audio

Addendum II: I've had a browser with Apple Music running for a while, 75 minutes or so. First time it goes from one song to the next it dies crackling and I have to reset/flip the profiles. Then it plays flawlessly for 70 minutes until I open another browser window on Youtube and as soon as the video makes it's first sound, the crackling starts and I have to do a full reset.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,903

Re: Dell XPS new 13, shaky audio

Sounds like some weird kernel/ALSA level bug, I'd test something like linux-mainline from the AUR to check whether it's fixed in a newer kernel, maybe also sof-firmware-git.

Seeing as the UCM profiles "just" gained support in the latest alsa-lib release, chances are some newer quirks not yet being fully ironed out.

Some config suggestions I have is try to increase the ALSA headroom of wireplumber: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PipeWi … rt_playing -- for completeness sake, rtkit is installed, so that pipewire can elevate it's priority?

Last edited by V1del (2024-07-04 12:24:47)

LBJensen

Member

Registered: 2024-05-28

Posts: 23

Re: Dell XPS new 13, shaky audio

Addendum III: I have now witnessed the issue on the Razer device. To achieve this I simply had both profiles activated and picked up the phone on a Teams call. This somehow triggered the issue.

Will review your reply in a bit.

Last edited by LBJensen (2024-07-12 06:59:05)