[Bug 1930188] Re: Acer Aspire 5 sound driver issues

Tue Sep 14 04:53:25 UTC 2021

Hello, regarding the latest SRU Justification for alsa-ucm-conf

Isn't it normal to have separate microphone volume and mic boost.
Currently I have mic volume on 100% and mic boost on 20db gain. It's
just like windows where microphone volume and mic boost is separate. We
just don't have UI for it need to change using alsamixer.

With latest ubuntu official kernel mic boost has 4 levels just like
windows now 0db, 10db, 20db, 30db. Anything above 20db causes too much
noise. So, if mic volume and boost was to be tied so that both changes
it would be difficult to achieve what I am using right now.

Maybe would be better to provide a UI to change mic boost independently.
Just a suggestion, let me know if I got the change wrong. Thanks.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Sponsors Team, which is subscribed to the bug report.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1930188

Title:
  Acer Aspire 5 sound driver issues

Status in linux package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in pulseaudio package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress
Status in linux source package in Focal:
  Fix Released
Status in pulseaudio source package in Focal:
  In Progress
Status in linux source package in Hirsute:
  Fix Released
Status in pulseaudio source package in Hirsute:
  In Progress
Status in linux source package in Impish:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  SRU Justification for alsa-ucm-conf:

  [Impact]
  On the machines with the sof audio driver, users could adjust the input
  volume from UI, but this only adjusts the "Capture Volume",  the "Mic
  Boost" can't be changed, if "Mic Boost" is 0, even we adjust the "Capture
  Volume" to max, the recorded volume is still very low.

  [Fix]
  Backport a upstream patch, the patch adds the "Mic Boost" into the
  ucm

  [Test]
  plug a headset, make sure the headset-mic is the active input device,
  adjust the input volume to %20, open a terminal and run alsamixer,
  check the "Capture Volume" and "Mic Boost" value, then adjust the
  input volume to 80%, check those values and we could see both values
  are changed.

  [Where problems could occur]
  This patch could make the parse of input volume control fail, then
  the input volume can't be changed anymore when users adjust the
  volume from UI. But this possibility is very low, I tested this patch
  on many lenovo and dell machines with sof audio driver, all worked
  well.

  ====================================================================

  SRU Justification for pulseaudio:

  [Impact]
  On the machines with the sof audio driver, after booting up, the
  active output device is speaker by default, we adjust the output
  volume to 100%, then we plug a headphone, and adjust the output
  volume from 100% to 20%, now in theory, the speaker's volume is
  100%, the headphone's volume is 20%. We plugout the headphone,
  the active output device becomes speaker and we expect the volume
  changes to 100%, but the output volume for speaker is 20%.

  [Fix]
  Backport a upstream patch, this patch is already in the pulseaudio-15.0,
  so impish already has this fix. Only hirsute and focal need to backport
  this patch.

  [Test]
  adjust speaker's volume to 80%, then plug headphone and adjust headphone's
  volume to 20%, unplug the headphone, the speaker's volume becomes to 80%,
  plug the headphone, the headphone's volume becomes to 20%.

  [Where problems could occur]
  The patch writes the output volume to hardware immediately when switching
  output device on the machines with sof audio driver, this could introduce
  pop noise when changing the output device, but this possibility is very
  low, I tested the patch on many lenovo and dell machines with sof audio driver,
  all worked as expected and have no pop noise when switching output device.

  ====================================================================

  The patch was merged to ubuntu 5.13.0 and 5.11.0 generic kernels
  with stable update already, but it is not merged to ubuntu 5.4.0
  kernel yet, so I sent this SRU for the focal kernel.

  [Impact]
  Users plug headphone and Mic to the audio jacks, but the system
  can't detect them, and couldn't output sound through headphone and
  record sound through Mic.

  [Fix]
  Backport a upstream patch, this will set the Mic to auto-detection
  mode and set the headphone to left location.

  [Test]
  Plug a headset to the headset audio jack, both headphone and mic
  could be detected. And output the sound to headphone, could hear
  the sound, record the sound through Mic, the sound could be recorded.

  [Where problems could occur]
  The patch is specific to Acer Aspire 5 machine, if it could introduce
  regression, it will make the audio like internal mic and internal spk
  stop working. But this possibility is very low.

  Hello,

  There seems to be lots of issues in sound driver for Acer Aspire
  A515-56-57XR with ALC255. I will list all of them below and what I
  have tried so far.

  1. Headphones appears always plugged in even if they are physically not
  2. When actually plugging in headset/earphones it does not auto switch from speakers/internal mic to headphones/headset microphone automatically and vice versa, have to manually switch everytime.
  3. External headset/earphones microphone won't work at all

  After, logs of trial and error I have found a temporary fix. This
  seems to use legacy intel drivers which solves all 3 issues mentioned
  above but the internal/dmic mic is completely gone (which seems
  intentional when using this). Both depreciated dmic_detect and
  dsp_driver works, I have been using dsp_driver for now as I need
  external microphone at any cost.

  End of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
  # Headset mic fix
  options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0 / options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1
  options snd-hda-intel model=alc255-acer

  In another thread similar to this I got some support and at least
  fixed the external microphone without using the alsa-base.conf change
  in custom modified kernel. I will attach it here. Now, hoping to fix
  other issues as well slowly like making headphones unplugged when
  physically removing as well as auto switching like the legacy driver
  one.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1930188/+subscriptions