kernel 5.6 with Sound Wire Mint 20.2Solved

[stevengarland]

Some time back I was able, with a lot of forum help, to get my sound back, Dell XPS 9700, by using kernel 5.6 with SoundWire. I thought that this was locked in; however a very recent update of Mint 20.2 did some changes to kernels 5.11 and 5.4 that shut off my sound. I recovered using TimeShift, ran all updates except the one noted to kernels 5.11 and 5.4, and my sound is fine.
What happened? I run updates all the time and haven't lost my sound before. How can I tell if 5.6 is really still locked? or other suggestions?
Thanks

[SMG]

How can I tell if 5.6 is really still locked?

I believe 5.6-oem went end of life with regards to support a while back. That is why your computer automatically upgraded you to the 5.10-oem. I recall you posted about that happening.

Do you have a 5.11 kernel installed now? You can run uname -r to see which kernel is active.

Or you can go into Update Manager and select View > Linux kernels and click Continue to see what kernels are currently installed on your computer and which one is Active. I suggest clicking 5.10 on the left panel first as I would guess that is what you have installed (unless you changed something).

[stevengarland]

SMG,

I have been using primarily 5.11 for some time; however other kernels, such as 5.4 are also involved. It is my understanding that more than one kernel may be involved even if one is primary. As I said above, 5.6 had been fine with the sound until the recent kernel update. A long time ago I was given instructions by Mr. EEN, or someone in that group, as to how to lock in 5.6 for sound. Apparently that stopped working.

I hate to stop future updates of 5.11. also I know of no other solution for my sound issue. Starting from scratch after what I went through does not sound good.

[SMG]

It is my understanding that more than one kernel may be involved even if one is primary.

There can only be one Active kernel for a boot session. There is never a combination of kernels working. Only one can work at a time. There is not a primary and secondaries. There is only one.

If you click 5.10 on the left, are there any kernels listed as installed? What is the "supported until" date for it?

[stevengarland]

5.10, when clicked on, shows support until Apr 2025

I looked using Synaptic and that shows all or part of 5.10, 5.11, 5.4, and 5.6 INSTALLED. My sound shows that I am using Soundwire and that is part of 5.6.

As the update notes say,

Things are different when it comes to kernels. When you apply a "kernel update", you don't actually update the kernel, you install a new kernel alongside the existing one.
Every time you apply a kernel update, you install a new kernel on the system, without removing the old ones.

[stevengarland]

SMG

I ruled out that the recent 5.4 update affected my sound, so it was either the 5.10 or 5.11. I think that the 5.11 was most likely. Do you agree?

[SMG]

I think that the 5.11 was most likely. Do you agree?

You are currently running the 5.11 kernel, so I would conclude that is the one causing a problem.

My suggestion would be to go back to using the 5.10-oem kernel because I thought that worked for you.

To do that, you would boot into grub and go to the Advanced Options. That will give you a list of all the installed kernels and you would select the highest version 5.10-oem without (recovery mode) after it and continue booting. That boots your system with that specific 5.10-oem kernel.

If you get sound with it, then you can go into Update Manager and remove all the 5.11 kernels you have installed. (When you click on the 5.11 version number a Remove button appears.) Then the next time you boot your system it will automatically boot into the highest number 5.10-oem kernel.

[stevengarland]

5.10 never worked as my sound source. Perhaps because 5.6 was locked in as my sound source.
The 5.11 was not put in by me. It came in as a regular Mint update. I read that SoundBlaster was enabled in 5.10; however I also read about a lot of sound problems with 5.10.
5.11 was just fine until the last update????

[SMG]

5.10 never worked as my sound source. Perhaps because 5.6 was locked in as my sound source.

I'm sorry, but I do not understand these statements. You can not "lock" 5.6 as your sound source. You are either using the 5.6-oem kernel or you are using a different kernel.

Think of it this way. Suppose you have a classic car collection in a big garage that has four different cars in it. You, as a driver, can only drive one car at a time. So even though all four cars are "installed" in your garage, you can only drive one car at a time--the "Active" car. Same with kernels. You may have many kernels installed on your computer (garage), but Mint can only "drive" one at a time.

The 5.11 was not put in by me. It came in as a regular Mint update. I read that SoundBlaster was enabled in 5.10; however I also read about a lot of sound problems with 5.10.5.11 was just fine until the last update????

I am not aware that Mint automatically would update you from an oem kernel to a non-oem kernel, so I have no explanation for that.

If the last 5.11 kernel was working for you, you can go back to using it. Use the directions I gave in my prior post and select the 5.11 kernel version which was working when you boot. Then go into Update Manager and delete the newest 5.11 kernel which is not giving you sound.

[stevengarland]

The problem was definitely the update of 5.11. It did something to my 5.6 sound source. My solution, for now, is to refuse the 5.11 update.

It is possible to lock in a kernel feature. I have been doing it for some time. There was an 8 page item some time ago with Mr Een and company where we did this. I will look for it. Meanwhile any other ideas. I have had so much trouble that I hesitate to try to get sound with 5.11 or 5.10. I see too many complaints posted.

Any thoughts on this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/ ... u_2004_on/

[SMG]

Any thoughts on this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/ ... u_2004_on/

That thread is now a year old, so with the realm of your computer model it is old news. As I already mentioned, the 5.6-oem kernel went end of life and is no longer receiving support. You would want to use a kernel that is actively being supported.

[stevengarland]

Thanks but I don't care if 5.6 is ever updated, I just want the sof-SoundWire to remain in place.

[SMG]

Thanks but I don't care if 5.6 is ever updated, I just want the sof-SoundWire to remain in place.

I'm sorry, but I do not understand what advice you want.

You installed the 5.6-oem kernel and sound worked. Then that kernel went end of life and in this thread from mid-June you indicated, "I am 100% Mint 20.1 with kernel 5.10 operating very nicely. I received the 5.10 directly from update manager and it has already been updated twice since."

The only 5.10 kernel available through Update Manager is the 5.10-oem kernel. Thus, it appears when the 5.6-oem kernel went end of life you were automatically offered the 5.10-oem kernel and was working for you. I never installed an oem kernel, so the 5.10-oem was not offered to me through Update Manager.

However, in late June in this post you indicated "kernel 5.11 is now released for Mint 20.1. I got it through the regular update manager by looking for released kernels. Everything works fine."

That indicates instead of using the 5.10-oem kernel, you decided to switch to using the 5.11 kernel which is not an OEM kernel. The 5.11 kernel is offered to me in Update Manager, but I did not switch to it because my system is working well with the 5.4 kernel.

I do not know if the 5.11 kernel has the sound patches which both the 5.6-oem and 5.10-oem kernels had. I do not know if it is better for your sound to use the 5.10-oem kernel or the 5.11 kernel. I would guess the 5.10-oem kernel might be better, but that is a guess on my part.

Both the 5.11 kernel and the 5.10-oem kernel are currently receiving support. You can boot into grub and select any of the kernels you have installed to use. It is your computer and your choice as to what you want to use. If you still have 5.6-oem kernels installed, then you can boot with one of them.