Analog Audio out not working (25.2.1 / 6.1 kernel / KDE Neon)

[deskwizard]

Hi,

I recently got my hands on a used unit of those, quite faster than my old SBC!

 

Only issue I currently have is that I can't seem to get audio output on the 3.5mm jack.

(Well the other issue is unrelated .. )

 

Anyone have an idea on what I should be hunting?

I did the obvious cable, etc.. checks. There's always the possibility that it's damaged, hell if I know.

 

Armbian 25.2.1

6.1 kernel

KDE Neon  (Why use a beta version btw? just wondering)

 

Thanks!

DW.

[Werner]

7 hours ago, deskwizard said:

Anyone have an idea on what I should be hunting?

I'd say start with the device tree. Maybe it is just not enabled?

 

7 hours ago, deskwizard said:

Why use a beta version btw?

KDE 6 DE was introduce when it still was beta and I assume this never changed. Feel free to send a PR to make it stable.

[eselarm]

15 hours ago, deskwizard said:

Anyone have an idea on what I should be hunting?

From Bullseye to Bookworm Debian went from pulseaudio to pipewire. I spent a lot of time to remove/disable pipewire as the pipewire-pulse emulation was/is? not doing networked pulseaudio properly and I use that extensively. Opensuse Tumbleweed as rolling release does not have this issue, it keeps working. It also keeps working if you do in-place upgrade from Bullseye to Bookworm (what I normally do), but I started with fresh Armbian Bookworm downloaded image and can't get networked audio working (a must on a NanoPi-R6C with no audio HW).

 

Now I would not be surprised at all if the combination of Armbian (Debian) Bookworm with added new KDE (beta) repo external to Debian introduces another complex issue w.r.t. audio, even locally. If Armbian (Ubuntu) Noble, then challenge is even bigger. I had too many Ubuntu issues, so went back to Debian. I have not tested 3.5mm audio when I tested KDE Neon image on my ROCK3A (ran it only for 15 minutes as planned use-case was/is headless server), but in a week I will get a ROCK5B and I will use that as Desktop for some time I guess. Plan is to just take the Samsung NVMe (10 partitions, multiple OSses) out of my NanoPi-R6C and basically only change .DTB loaded (i use extlinux.conf own scripted) and some U-Boot binary on otherwise blank SD-card and then bump that in-place to Testing/Trixie (using Btrfs snapshots as safety fallback). That has KDE Plasma 6.3 AFAIR from my tablet/laptop and it won't change much I guess (Tumbleweed is 6.3.4 currently).

 

Then it is matter of using/checking alsa and/or pulseaudio and/or pipewire tooling what is going on. As indicated, existing pulse-servers (e.g. NanoPi-NEO with SPDIF to my amplifier) work and are found and can be selected via pulseaudio tray icon, including also local USB-audio on my N100 for example.

 

So I personally would likely remove all external package repos and make it clean Armbian Trixie. If you want to contribute to KDE development, then keep KDE Neon I guess.

[deskwizard]

Thanks for all the info!

 

As I can see the device fine, I'm assuming my DT is alright.

 

I think I'm going to try some other images (ie. debian, main kernel, etc...) and see where it leads me, maybe I can get a hint of what's happening.

 

I can change devices fine in KDE, the jack detect works as I see it toggle, but I don't get anything out. HDMI audio works fine though.

I've seen some weird audio stuff a long time ago, I'll see what little I can remember since it doesn't seem to be something blatantly obvious.

I have a hunch or two but unlikely to make any difference

 

Ubuntu making it worse doesn't sound good to me... hehehe (pun intended)

 

I'm planning to use it as a 2nd desktop/media player, most of the time I don't need the "power" of the "workstation" so running the opi works great (well, will hopefully)

I went with KDE since that's what I'm using on the "workstation".

 

To be honest, there's very high probabilities I'm going to buy a USB sound card and be done with it, but it feels like a waste.