Sound card seems to be found but there is only Dummy Output in settings on Dell Xps 17 9730 Realtek alc711-cg

Ask Fedora
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1

I have installed fedora 38 and the audio input/output is not registered. I’m planning to use this laptop on the go and I need the sound to work on fedora. I don’t know what information I need to give as I’m relatively new to linux, but here’s the output of a few commands:

[skynet@fedora sof-bin-1.6.1]$ inxi -SMA
System:
  Host: fedora Kernel: 6.4.6-200.fc38.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: GNOME v: 44.3 Distro: Fedora release 38 (Thirty Eight)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 17 9730 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0WGCJ7 v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
    v: 1.2.2 date: 03/23/2023
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
  Device-2: NVIDIA driver: snd_hda_intel
  API: ALSA v: k6.4.6-200.fc38.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.76 status: active
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active

[skynet@fedora sof-bin-1.6.1]$ lspci -nnk | grep -A2 Audio
0000:01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:22bc] (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0bdb]
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

[skynet@fedora sof-bin-1.6.1]$ lsmod | grep snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_intel          61440  3
snd_intel_dspcfg       32768  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_sof,snd_sof_intel_hda_common
snd_hda_codec         212992  6 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_soc_intel_hda_dsp_common,snd_soc_hdac_hda,snd_sof_intel_hda,snd_soc_skl_hda_dsp
snd_hda_core          139264  9 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_ext_core,snd_hda_codec,snd_soc_intel_hda_dsp_common,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hdmi,snd_soc_hdac_hda,snd_sof_intel_hda
snd_pcm               180224  15 snd_soc_rt715_sdca,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_soc_rt1316_sdw,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,soundwire_intel,snd_sof,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hdmi,snd_compress,snd_soc_rt711_sdca,snd_soc_core,snd_sof_utils,snd_hda_core,snd_pcm_dmaengine
snd                   143360  26 snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_sof,snd_timer,snd_soc_hdac_hdmi,snd_compress,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm

[skynet@fedora sof-bin-1.6.1]$ lsmod | grep snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl    12288  0
snd_sof_intel_hda_common   229376  1 snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
snd_sof_pci            24576  2 snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
snd_soc_acpi_intel_match    81920  2 snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl

[skynet@fedora sof-bin-1.6.1]$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xad000000 irq 17
 1 [sofhdadsp      ]: sof-hda-dsp - sof-hda-dsp
                      DellInc.-XPS179730--0WGCJ7

[skynet@fedora sof-bin-1.6.1]$ sudo aplay -l
[sudo] password for skynet: 
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 1: HDMI1 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 2: HDMI2 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 3: HDMI3 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
2

It seems you’re not the only one encountering this issue with Dell Xps 17 9730 based on the number of people complaining about sound. One possible debugging step is to plug in headphones or the like and see if that works. Trying out Bluetooth audio might also be useful in debugging.

If these devices work, then its possible that the problem lies with Intel’s drivers for the built in sound card. If that is the case, trying out a different kernel might help.

3

Bluetooth audio seems to work great, as well as a usb microphone. I’d still much rather be able to use the internal speakers/mic, and I don’t want to switch to windows. I don’t have any devices that have an aux cable though, so I can’t check that. What linux kernel would work better?

4

I’m not sure what other kernel would work better since the kernel pretty new. Could be that intel simply has not fixed bugs yet.

Some solutions that might work

  1. Update your bios if there are available updates

  2. Try and force a legacy driver using the instructions. Not a good solution but it may work as a temporary workaround until the bug is fixed. Remember to revert the grub entry if it does not work.
    Sound not working after update to Manjaro 21.1 - Sound - Manjaro Linux Forum

  3. Try live booting into a different distro. Fedora Rawhide, Kubuntu (some claim that kubuntu works but Ubuntu has issues), or something arch based like Garuda. If something else works, you don’t necessarily have to switch to it, just mention it here and someone may figure something out.

Note that if you’re trying different distros, Ventoy would probably help.

5

Thanks! I’m gonna flash ventoy and like 4 or 5 distros to a usb stick and test it out tomorrow. I do really like GNOME though

6

It’s not necessarily a Gnome issue. Another thread I found in askubuntu that claimed that the kernel on the Kubuntu live iso works, but the updated LTS kernel does not. Not sure what’s going on, but figure I’ll put it here in case it helps anyone figure it out.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1468091/no-audio-dell-xps-9730-while-the-audio-works-just-fine-in-the-live-usb-kubundu

7

I have a Dell XPS 9320 with the same issue. When I boot kernel 6.4, sound works for me. Sound is Dummy output when booting Fedora 38 with kernel 6.5.5

8

my dell xps block ventoy instantly just to warn since 2 days ago i wanted to install F39 beta and booted from ventoy USB got Shim policy violation and then usb was blocked and not usable

9

Is secure boot and TPM active in bios?

This sounds like TPM may have acted to protect from an unidentified boot OS.

Some time back I had one system that I could not even disable secure boot while the tpm was enabled. Had to disable tpm then disable secure boot in that order.

10

Yes secure boot is on and TPM 2 is on and other stuff is on bios 1.24 after that policy violation my bios secure boot settings changed and so did manually added key signatures activated so something was not right had to delete all keys and disable again manually assigned keys and put secure boot back to where it was.

This never had issue on 1.23 bios or then ventoy had something fishy but same iso flashed to difrent usb and it works just fine after adding all back to normal on bios