No audio via USB-C

Hey, I did a bare-bones install of fedora everything ISO, installed the KDE plasma desktop, nvidia drivers/extra packages, etc to the point where everything is functioning. However, I get no audio. I’m connecting a schiit mimir DAC to my PC via a usb-c cable, and there’s no issues with the DAC itself or anything outside of the PC. I’m very new to linux, so I tried following the steps from the fedora audio troubleshooting guide, and also downloaded a few packages (I can give you a full list of all the packages I’ve downloaded if that would help).

In my settings, I can see that the USB is listed as an S/PDIF, which I think is incorrect as it’s just usb-c to usb-c. I’ve tried to change it, but there’s no option to for output devices. I tried changing which end device, cord, and port I’m using, but no combination ended up working, although the USB-A ports seem to be working fine.

One other thing to note is that the ports themselves did work at one point? I had done another clean install at one point, and at that time I was able to plug in my audio via usb-C, but there was a ton of background noise (partially due to the front usb port picking up more noise than motherboard ports). So I don’t believe it’s a hardware issue (especially since the front usb-c port I just tried is connected to the motherboard via SATA cables, so it’s not like there’s a defect in all the usb-c ports or something).

One final thing to note is that the DAC I’m using is plug-and-play, so there’s no extra drivers I need to install for it.

(Also, if anyone knows whether this discussion form or the fedora chat are associated with the discord, please let me know. The community there is absolute hogwash compared to other linux servers I’m in, so while I’m hoping to stay connected with the Fedora community specifically, if there’s going to be significant overlap with the discord server, then I’d rather just stay away entirely)

When reporting a problem, you should provide enough detail to allow others with access to similar hardware to reproduce the issue:

  1. Basic data describing your system from running inxi -Fzxx in a terminal (you may need to install inxi), posted as web-discoverable text using the </> button, and

  2. Applying all Fedora and vendor firmware updates avoids lengthy exchanges comparing configurations and avoids wasting time on a solved problem.

I had audio problems with a recent fresh install of F44, but it started working after a few updates. There are often delays getting sound, BlueTooth, and networking to work after kernel updates because Linux devs can’t test every hardware configuration. Many hardware vendors and users don’t participate in prerelease testing, so problems are only found after a release is made. From decades of experience with Linux, I keep USB dongles for use while waiting for fixes to arrive.

System:
  Kernel: 7.0.9-205.fc44.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 16.1.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.6.5 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: N/A
    Distro: Fedora Linux 44 (Forty Four)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Micro-Star product: MS-7E59 v: 5.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG X870E TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (MS-7E59) v: 5.0
    serial: <superuser required> Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends LLC.
    v: 5.A20 date: 01/13/2026
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming
    Mouse serial: <filter> charge: 100% (should be ignored)
    status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: 12-core model: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 5
    rev: 0 cache: L1: 960 KiB L2: 12 MiB L3: 64 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 614 min/max: 614/5662 boost: enabled cores: 1: 614
    2: 614 3: 614 4: 614 5: 614 6: 614 7: 614 8: 614 9: 614 10: 614 11: 614
    12: 614 13: 614 14: 614 15: 614 16: 614 17: 614 18: 614 19: 614 20: 614
    21: 614 22: 614 23: 614 24: 614 bogomips: 211199
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
    ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GB203 [GeForce RTX 5070 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia
    v: 595.71.05 arch: Lovelace pcie: speed: 32 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
    active: HDMI-A-2 empty: DP-4,DP-5,DP-6 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2c05
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Granite Ridge [Radeon Graphics]
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2 pcie:
    speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3,
    HDMI-A-1, Writeback-1 bus-ID: 79:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:13c0 temp: 45.0 C
  Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.11 compositor: kwin_wayland
    driver: gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-2 model: LG (GoldStar) ULTRAGEAR res: 1920x1080 dpi: 93
    diag: 604mm (23.8")
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 595.71.05 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
    display-ID: :0.0
  API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
  Info: Tools: api: glxinfo de: kscreen-doctor
    gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GB203 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 32 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:22e9
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 79:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640
  Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Ryzen HD Audio
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 79:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
  Device-4: Micro Star USB Audio driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-12:2
    chip-ID: 0db0:cd0e
  API: ALSA v: k7.0.9-205.fc44.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.6.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8126 5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 07:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8126
  IF: enp7s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: MEDIATEK MT7927 802.11be 320MHz 2x2 PCIe Wireless Network
    Adapter [Filogic 380] vendor: Foxconn driver: N/A pcie: speed: 8 GT/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:7927
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Foxconn / Hon Hai Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-12:5 chip-ID: 0489:e110
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: N/A
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 3.64 TiB used: 850.75 GiB (22.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WD BLACK SN850X 4000GB
    size: 3.64 TiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> temp: 35.9 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 3.63 TiB used: 850.74 GiB (22.9%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 2 GiB used: 7.9 MiB (0.4%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 51.8 C mobo: 50.5 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 45.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 60 GiB note: est. available: 60.1 GiB used: 6.05 GiB (10.1%)
  Processes: 513 Power: uptime: 13m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 259
    default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 24
    Compilers: gcc: 16.1.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.9 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.40

I believe I have all Fedora/vendor firmware updates applicable. When you say USB dongles, what do you mean?

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0db0:cd0e Micro Star International USB Audio
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c53f Logitech, Inc. USB Receiver
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 2dc8:5201 8BitDo 8BitDo Retro Keyboard Receiver
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0db0:0076 Micro Star International MYSTIC LIGHT
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0489:e110 Foxconn / Hon Hai Wireless_Device
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 010 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 011 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

A usb device that is the wifi adapter.

Oh, can Fedora updates mess with ethernet ports?

I see only one usb audio devices listed and that seems to be the on board audio device and not the DAC.

Yea, to give an update it seems like my PC isn’t recognizing any USB-C inputs or outputs at all (even though USB-C ports still work for power like charging my phone, and USB-A ports are fine with data). I made sure to force enable USB4 to prevent possible lane sharing (even though I don’t have a second M2 device), and that still didn’t work.

If I try the 40G USB-C ports instead of the 10G one I’ve been trying, I get a louder whine and this message: pci_bus 0000:16: Allocating resources. Still no audio though. The front USB-C port has a higher frequency tone instead of the whine, and also has no audio.

Are you confident that you’re using a proper USB-C cable for data and not some silly power only cable?
Any chance to connect it to an USB-A port?

Yea, it’s a data-only USB-C to USB-C. All my USB-A ports are working fine like I mentioned

??? Does that mean that the DAC worked if connected to an USB-A port?

I haven’t tried my DAC since I need a longer cable, but every other device has worked via USB-A. Of course, there could be separate audio issues on TOP of USB-C issues, but I’ll cross that bridge when we get there haha

I have USB dongles for sound, BlueTooth, and WiFi (for ethernet I borrow one from my wife) and all 4 have been needed at various times.

Certainly. If your ethernet requires an out-of-kernel driver that is available as source from a copr repo, github, etc. then it may require patching for new kernels. When that happens you have to hope someone familiar with the code has time to make required changes and that they are propagated to the repo you are using.