šŸ› Bug Report: Fedora 42 - Cracking/distorted sound after suspend (Intel Meteor Lake / Realtek ALC294 / CS35L41)

Project Discussion
1

Hello guys!

Iā€™m posting a summary of my issue here ā€” I would really appreciate any ideas or suggestions for how to solve it. Big thanks in advance!

Summary

Audio becomes distorted and crackling after suspend/resume, and often on boot as well. This affects both laptop speakers and HDMI audio via DisplayPort. The issue is specific to Fedora 42 (and likely other recent Linux distros) and does not occur under Windows. Likely related to SOF firmware and new audio codec support.
System Information

OS: Fedora 42 (fully updated)

Kernel: 6.15.4-200.fc42.x86_64

Audio:

    Intel Meteor Lake SoC

    Realtek ALC294

    Cirrus Logic CS35L41

    Intel SOF DSP

How to Reproduce

Boot into Fedora 42

Play audio (via speakers or HDMI)

Suspend the laptop (sleep mode)

Resume

ā†’ Audio is now crackling, distorted or silent

The problem may also occur randomly on cold boot, or only fix temporarily with reboot.
What Was Tried (with no success)

Installing sof-firmware and verifying linux-firmware versions

Disabling SOF with kernel parameter:

snd-intel-dspcfg.dsp_driver=1

Forcing HDA via modprobe config

Reinstalling and resetting PipeWire, PulseAudio, WirePlumber

Booting older kernel versions (6.14 and earlier)

Manually updating GRUB and verifying driver load order

Reinstalling darktable and rebuilding deps (not related, but tested)

Reinstalling the whole system (clean Fedora 42 install)

Additional Notes

snd_hda_intel, snd_sof, snd_soc_*, and snd_hda_codec_* are all loaded at runtime

sof-firmware package is not available via dnf on Fedora 42 (returns "No match")

Audio works perfectly under Windows 11

Users on forums report similar issues with CS35L41 + SOF on Meteor Lake laptops

Expected Result

Audio should work clearly through both built-in speakers and HDMI/DP

Suspend/resume should not break sound completely

Actual Result

After resume, sound is distorted/crackling (or completely gone)

Issue persists until reboot

Happens with and without external monitor/audio output

Audio also distorted sometimes on cold boot

Request

Please investigate and consider:

Updating SOF firmware + support for CS35L41 on Meteor Lake

Adding fallback to snd_hda_intel where SOF is unstable

Including updated kernel patches or firmware blobs

Let me know if I can provide any logs, test patches, or detailed alsa-info.sh output.

Thank you!

4

Yes, I saw that post, thanks ā€” but unfortunately, it didnā€™t work in my case.

5

mkdir -p ~/.config/wireplumber/main.lua.d
nano ~/.config/wireplumber/main.lua.d/51-disable-suspension.lua

insert :
table.insert (alsa_monitor.rules, {
matches = {
{
{ ā€œalsa.card_nameā€, ā€œlikeā€, ā€œHD-Audio Genericā€ }
}
},
apply_properties = {
[ā€œaudio.suspend-timeoutā€] = 0
}
})

that fixed problem for me no more suspend audio no more cracking noise :d

6

Hi! Iā€™m on Manjaro (kernel 6.16), and also having issues with the cs35l41 cirrus firmware on a 2023 ASUS ROG G18.

In windows audio works fine, but on linux Iā€™m hearing constant popping, crackling and audio distortion.
It seems to always start at boot but with variations in intensity.

I also specifically remember these issues as way less frequent and lower intensity before the last major update.
Perhaps a recent driver update changed something and thatā€™s why this doesnā€™t occur on less up to date distros.

Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake High Definition Audio
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    alternate: snd_soc_avs,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
    bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7a50 class-ID: 0403

card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC294 Analog [ALC294 Analog]

Any idea what could be the issue?

7

Youā€™re asking for help with Arch/Manjaro on the Fedora forums, you realise that right?

8

I suspect the issue is not distro related. I just added that for the sake of clarity.

9

Stable Fedora doesnā€™t have kernel 6.16 yet, so if your issue is with the last major update then itā€™s not necessarily something that Fedora users are seeing.

10

I also tried 6.12 and 6.6. This is not kernel specific.

11

OK, so the last major update was this? [Stable Update] 2025-08-11 - Kernels, Mesa, KDE Frameworks, Systemd - Stable Updates - Manjaro Linux Forum

In which case, if itā€™s not the kernel, linux-firmware-20250808 seems like the most likely source.

So thatā€™s something that Fedora users might have seen, but it wouldnā€™t have been the cause of the OPā€™s issue raised on 7 July.

12

Could be the culpritā€¦ However, as I said, I also had these problems before, only spontaneously, once every 2-3 hours.

13

Okay, so I downgraded linux-firmware to the previous version (linux-firmware-20250708) and my initial impression is that the audio is better.

It still showed a bit of crackling initially, but much softer, and now it has stabilized.
So I guess Iā€™m back to the old, less frequent, distortions.

Perhaps linux-firmware is also the culprit for the problem at large.