Stereo audio output lost after Dr46onized update on Lenovo Thinkpad (usually running hardened)

Audio output went mono (right only) from stereo after kernel updating; it might be an imagined coincidence but the result was perceived to occur after a bunch of Haskell pkgs came into the usual Garuda Assistant System Update batch stream.

I use Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input to keep mic available.

In the past I have had success solving audio issues by turning Pulse Audio off and keeping Pipewire, but it has not helped in this case.

I tried to apply a solution from the forum from May using the jamesDSP audio settings but package manager is failing to download from both AUR and ChaoticAur returning fail message "Error: Failed to prepare transaction invalid or corrupted database."

Any suggestions are appreciated, thx!

╰─λ garuda-inxi
System:
Kernel: 6.4.10-hardened1-1-hardened arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
v: 13.2.1 clocksource: tsc available: hpet,acpi_pm parameters: pti=on
page_alloc.shuffle=1 BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-hardened
root=UUID=321c5cef-bd09-4999-9d16-79b9c9e0a513 rw rootflags=subvol=@
rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0
resume=UUID=54cfc0b3-0cca-4092-99bd-537dea8573e1 loglevel=3 quiet ibt=off
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.7 tk: Qt v: 5.15.10 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2
dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20CMS06V00 v: ThinkPad X250
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: LENOVO model: 20CMS06V00 v: SDK0E50510 WIN
serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: N10ET54W (1.33 )
date: 09/18/2018
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 16.0 Wh (94.7%) condition: 16.9/23.2 Wh (72.9%)
volts: 11.9 min: 11.1 model: SANYO 45N1773 type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
status: not charging
ID-2: BAT1 charge: 16.7 Wh (94.9%) condition: 17.6/23.2 Wh (75.9%)
volts: 11.5 min: 11.1 model: SANYO 45N1775 type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
status: not charging
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i5-5300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Broadwell
gen: core 5 level: v3 note: check built: 2015-18 process: Intel 14nm
family: 6 model-id: 0x3D (61) stepping: 4 microcode: 0x2F
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 128 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB
L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1548 high: 2900 min/max: 500/2900 scaling:
driver: intel_cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 2900 2: 500 3: 500
4: 2295 bogomips: 18367
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel
arch: Gen-8 process: Intel 14nm built: 2014-15 ports: active: eDP-1
empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1616
class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Bison Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 2-8:5 chip-ID: 5986:0366
class-ID: 0e02
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.0
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,intel,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99")
s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: LG Display 0x03ed built: 2012 res: 1366x768 hz: 60
dpi: 125 gamma: 1.2 size: 277x156mm (10.91x6.14") diag: 318mm (12.5")
ratio: 16:9 modes: 1366x768
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.1.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW
GT2) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:160c class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9ca0
class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.4.10-hardened1-1-hardened status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off tools: aucat,midicat,sndioctl
Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.77 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pw-jack type: plugin
tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I218-LM vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel
port: 3080 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:15a2 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:095b class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: ipv6leakintrf0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A
mac: <filter>
IF-ID-2: proton0 state: unknown speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A
IF-ID-3: pvpnksintrf0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
IF-ID-4: wwp0s20u4 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 42.32 GiB (8.9%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Apacer model: AS350 512GB
size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 3PE0 scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 467.84 GiB size: 467.84 GiB (100.00%)
used: 42.32 GiB (9.0%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 576 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 467.84 GiB size: 467.84 GiB (100.00%)
used: 42.32 GiB (9.0%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 467.84 GiB size: 467.84 GiB (100.00%)
used: 42.32 GiB (9.0%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 467.84 GiB size: 467.84 GiB (100.00%)
used: 42.32 GiB (9.0%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 7.65 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
comp: zstd avail: lzo,lzo-rle,lz4,lz4hc,842 max-streams: 4 dev: /dev/zram0
ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C pch: 45.5 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): fan-1: 3059
Info:
Processes: 207 Uptime: 1h 46m wakeups: 1 Memory: total: 8 GiB
available: 7.65 GiB used: 3.21 GiB (42.0%) Init: systemd v: 254
default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 clang: 15.0.7
Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1615 libs: 363 tools: octopi,pamac,paru
Shell: fish v: 3.6.1 default: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: konsole
inxi: 3.3.29
error: blackarch: signature from "Levon 'noptrix' Kayan (BlackArch Developer) <noptrix@nullsecurity.net>" is invalid
Garuda (2.6.16-1):
System install date:     2023-02-17
Last full system update: 2023-08-19
Is partially upgraded:   No
Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager mkinitcpio
Windows dual boot:       No/Undetected
Failed units:

Edit:
Please wrap your future terminal output texts like this
~~~
Terminal text here
~~~
Makes it easier to read. I did it for you for now.

To me it looks like your pipewire is not installed correctly as in pipewire-alsa is definitely missing here but that might not be the only thing wrong here. Try to reinstall pipewire following this post.

Also, I would recommend removing sndio having two sound servers might be one of the reasons why you suddenly have no sound. Infact try removing this first and then go for reinstalling pipewire.

sudo pacman -Rns sndio
4 Likes

Thanks for these tips! I disabled pulse audio in settings but it comes automatically in my kernel updates. Your suggestion to remove it and install pipewire properly is also most welcome. Thanks!

P.s. Thanks very much for the hints on the CLI commands!

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