[BUG] No sound on internal speakers - Samsung 960XGL (Meteor Lake-P, Realtek ALC298, SOF ABI mismatch 3:29:1 vs kernel 6.17 ABI 3:23:1)

[cabaseira]

System information

• Model: Samsung Electronics 960XGL (NP960XGL-XG2ES)
• BIOS: P09ALX.430.251002.05 (October 2025)
• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (Meteor Lake-P)
• Audio chip: Realtek ALC298
• Kernel: 6.17.0-20-generic
• Distribution: Zorin OS 18 Pro (Ubuntu 24.04 base)
• Audio subsystem: PipeWire 1.0.5 + WirePlumber
• firmware-sof-signed: 2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.10
• linux-firmware: 20240318.git3b128b60-0ubuntu2.25

Description

Internal speakers produce no sound on Samsung Galaxy Book 960XGL running Linux. Audio hardware is detected correctly but no sound output works. Hardware functions correctly on Windows.

Key error in dmesg

sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: Topology: ABI 3:29:1 Kernel ABI 3:23:1
sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: Topology file: intel/sof-ace-tplg/sof-hda-generic-2ch.tplg
sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: using HDA machine driver skl_hda_dsp_generic now
snd_hda_codec_alc269 ehdaudio0D0: autoconfig for ALC298: line_outs=1 (0x17/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:speaker

Symptoms

• aplay -l shows sof-hda-dsp with device 0 (HDA Analog) correctly
• wpctl status shows Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller Speaker + Headphones as default sink
• Volume levels correct in alsamixer (Master/Headphone/Speaker all unmuted at 100)
• Test button in GNOME Sound Settings produces no output
• hda-verb script (TO912.sh from Manjaro forum for Galaxy Book FLEX/ION) executed without errors but no effect

Related issue

Similar ABI mismatch on kernel 6.17 reported in #10635 (Tiger Lake ALC257). This appears to be the same root cause on Meteor Lake platform.

Additional notes

• SOF firmware ABI mismatch (3:29:1 vs 3:23:1) is likely the root cause
• A newer SOF firmware compatible with kernel 6.17 or an updated topology file is needed
• Hardware works correctly on Windows

[ujfalusi]

can this be related to thesofproject/linux#5616 ?

[cabaseira]

can this be related to thesofproject/linux#5616 ?

Yes, it is related to thesofproject/linux#5616.

Tested on Samsung Galaxy Book 960XGL (NP960XGL-XG2ES), Zorin OS 18 Pro (Ubuntu 24.04), kernel 6.17.0-20-generic, Subsystem ID 0x144dc1d8.

The SOF ABI mismatch (topology 3:29:1 vs kernel ABI 3:23:1) is present, but internal speaker sound was fixed using the DKMS installer from @Andycodeman which builds the MAX98390 HDA side-codec driver out-of-tree:
https://github.com/Andycodeman/samsung-galaxy-book-linux-fixes

3 MAX98390 amplifiers detected and working correctly.

Thank you @ujfalusi for pointing to #5616 — that was the key to finding the solution. This issue can be closed.