PINE A64 | No sound with mainline kernel

[Sciamano72]

Creating a bug report/issue

Required Information

• DietPi version |
  G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE=7
  G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB=6
  G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC=2
  G_GITBRANCH='master'
  G_GITOWNER='MichaIng'
  G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[0]='not applicable'
  G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[1]='applied'
  G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[2]='applied'
  G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[3]='applied'
  G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[4]='not applicable'

• Distro version | buster

• Kernel version | Linux DietPineA64 5.10.60-sunxi64 #21.08.1 SMP Wed Aug 25 18:29:57 UTC 2021 aarch64 GNU/Linux

• SBC model | PINE A64 (aarch64)

• Power supply used | 5V 2A UGreen

• SDcard used | SanDisk ultra 32Gb

Additional Information (if applicable)

• Software title | squeezelite
• Freshly installed
• Can this issue be replicated on a fresh installation of DietPi? Yes
• Bug report ID | echo $G_HW_UUID

Steps to reproduce

1. Enable Audio Card (no matter which one) in dietpi-config
2. Install squeezeboxserver + squeezelite
3. command 'squeezelite -l' which shows available cards will respond "null - Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)"
4. playing any audio file from squeezeboxserver (or locally, does not matter) does not result in any hearable output

Expected behaviour

• command 'squeezelite -l' should list available sound cards
• audio should be heard from the output

[MichaIng]

Many thanks for your report. Is the sound card listed by ALSA?

aplay -l

[Sciamano72]

Nope:

aplay: device_list:272: no soundcards found...

[MichaIng]

So there is simply no sound device found. I checked the current A64 kernel and device tree overlays and there is at least no overlay to enable onboard sound, means that it "should" be enabled by default.

I checked the Armbian forum but couldn't find something related so far: https://forum.armbian.com/forum/27-allwinner-a64-h5-h6-and-h616/

Does the kernel report any errors that may be related?

dmesg -l emerg,alert,crit,err
dmesg | grep -E 'audio|sound|snd'

[Sciamano72]

These are the errors I found (there are many others but they are CIFS-related):

root@DietPineA64:~# dmesg -l emerg,alert,crit,err
[    2.083430] sun8i-dw-hdmi 1ee0000.hdmi: Couldn't get regulator
[    2.083874] sun4i-drm display-engine: Couldn't bind all pipelines components
[    2.120296] phy id_det change to host
[    2.329316] phy id_det change to host

and

root@DietPineA64:~# dmesg | grep -E 'audio|sound|snd'
[    2.549955]   No soundcards found.
[    5.693445] input: sun50i-a64-audio Headset Jack as /devices/platform/sound/sound/card0/input1
[21091.840486] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio

[MichaIng]

Was this on a fresh DietPi system or did it work before?

[Sciamano72]

Sorry, did not receive the notification for your reply.
It's a fresh DietPi system.

[MichaIng]

You tried a reboot, didn't you?

To me it looks like a related kernel module isn't loaded. Does this one load?

modprobe sunxi_codec

or this one:

modprobe snd-soc-simple-card

Interesting is that input: sun50i-a64-audio Headset Jack was detected, but only the input device, no output device.

[Sciamano72]

Yes, I've rebooted many times already.

root@DietPineA64:~# modprobe sunxi_codec
modprobe: FATAL: Module sunxi_codec not found in directory /lib/modules/5.10.60-sunxi64

root@DietPineA64: # modprobe snd-soc-simple-card
root@DietPineA64:~#

(No output on the last one)

[Sciamano72]

Ok, I don't know what I did, but now the soundcards show up (but still no sound):

root@DietPineA64:~# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sun50ia64audio [sun50i-a64-audio], device 0: 1c22c00.dai-sun8i-codec-aif1 sun8i-codec-aif1-0 [1c22c00.dai-sun8i-codec-aif1 sun8i-codec-aif1-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: sun50ia64hdmi [sun50i-a64-hdmi], device 0: 1c22800.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0 [1c22800.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

root@DietPineA64:~# squeezelite -l
Output devices:
  null                           - Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
  sysdefault:CARD=sun50ia64audio - sun50i-a64-audio, 1c22c00.dai-sun8i-codec-aif1 sun8i-codec-aif1-0 - Default Audio Device
  dmix:CARD=sun50ia64audio,DEV=0 - sun50i-a64-audio, 1c22c00.dai-sun8i-codec-aif1 sun8i-codec-aif1-0 - Direct sample mixing device
  dsnoop:CARD=sun50ia64audio,DEV=0 - sun50i-a64-audio, 1c22c00.dai-sun8i-codec-aif1 sun8i-codec-aif1-0 - Direct sample snooping device
  hw:CARD=sun50ia64audio,DEV=0   - sun50i-a64-audio, 1c22c00.dai-sun8i-codec-aif1 sun8i-codec-aif1-0 - Direct hardware device without any conversions
  plughw:CARD=sun50ia64audio,DEV=0 - sun50i-a64-audio, 1c22c00.dai-sun8i-codec-aif1 sun8i-codec-aif1-0 - Hardware device with all software conversions
  sysdefault:CARD=sun50ia64hdmi  - sun50i-a64-hdmi, 1c22800.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0 - Default Audio Device
  dmix:CARD=sun50ia64hdmi,DEV=0  - sun50i-a64-hdmi, 1c22800.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0 - Direct sample mixing device
  dsnoop:CARD=sun50ia64hdmi,DEV=0 - sun50i-a64-hdmi, 1c22800.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0 - Direct sample snooping device
  hw:CARD=sun50ia64hdmi,DEV=0    - sun50i-a64-hdmi, 1c22800.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0 - Direct hardware device without any conversions
  plughw:CARD=sun50ia64hdmi,DEV=0 - sun50i-a64-hdmi, 1c22800.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0 - Hardware device with all software conversions

I have also tried editing the squeezelite service to specify the output card ("-o hw:CARD=sun50ia64audio,DEV=0") but still can't hear any sounds :(

[MichaIng]

Good so far. Can you please try to re-select the right card via dietpi-config now? I guess sun50i-a64-audio is the 3.5mm jack while sun50i-a64-hdmi is HDMI audio. If there is still no sound, check if you find some muted volume toggles in alsamixer.

[Sciamano72]

I've re-selected sun50i-a64-audio in dietpi-config and checked in alsamixer that nothing is muted. Still no sound from the 3.5mm jack.
I've also tried selecting the HDMI option, but then I couldn't find any way to verify whether sound worked or not as I can't plug the A64 to any HDMI-equipped device :-D

[MichaIng]

Can you show the available controls with values:

amixer -c 0 scontents