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Is there an official source of Realtek Audio Drivers, that can be installed on 20.04 (a NUC, if that matters)? And what are the installation instructions?

I have installed Ubuntu 20.04 on an Intel NUC nuc10i7fnh box, with no problem. I have updated the BIOS to the latest, and enabled "HD Audio". Everything is good, except I have been unable to get audio working. (The only output-source is "dummy", which is what I feel like).

I think it's the lack of Realtek drivers, and this is the only thing I've seen in questions, that I haven't yet tried. All of the official Realtek and Intel docs, seem to point to Windows drivers. After a lot of searching, I've found some Linux drivers:

Which are two years old, and I can't get to make correctly. (It does say it's only for a much older kernel).

One reason I'm looking for the drivers to install (or re-install), is based on Intel's docs at Troubleshooting Intel NUC, which, for

Front panel 3.5mm audio jack isn't working.

says to "re-install the drivers". Of course, it also says to "enable audio" in the BIOS - the only thing I found in the BIOS was "HD Audio", which was checked - maybe there's a setting missing.

More generally, can Ubuntu be installed on an Intel NUC, and audio configured to work at all? I've seen lots of recommendations for the Intel NUC as a good Linux-box - I can't believe everyone else would have missed audio being broken.

John C
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  • well, `lsmod | grep 'snd-hdmi' shows nothing. And the kernel is whatever stock kernel comes with 20.04 - ah, it's 5.4. So how do you manually load the module? – John C Jul 13 '20 at 01:24
  • Nothing's showing - did an lsmod+grep, nothing. When did sudo-modprobe, got modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'snd_hdmi_lpe_audio': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter. However, I have confirmed that there is some kind of audio - turned on Bluetooth, and with a Bluetoooth headset, got a connection. So it's just the 3.5mm audio-jack that's not working. I'm assuming that requires the Realtek drivers, but who knows? – John C Jul 13 '20 at 22:33
  • grep the dmesg output for snd Also look for FW or firmware loading failures. What exact audio hardware does the NUC have? I guess it's not HDMI sound at all, (only one without "Windows" in the description of the list at your link). – ubfan1 Jul 13 '20 at 23:10
  • @ubfan1 so you're looking for hardware/BIOS failures? I don't think it's broken, I can get audio out of the box - just not from the 3.5mm audio-jack. As for the type of audio-hardware, it's whatever is at NUC10i357FN_TechProdSpec. I'll try grepping when I get "home" from work, see what it says. – John C Jul 14 '20 at 13:47
  • Most likely missing firmware, which should show up as a complaint in the dmesg output. The audio output has four connectors, since it includes a microphone. A stereo earphone would have three, so maybe there might be a "hardware" problem. – ubfan1 Jul 14 '20 at 15:21
  • @ubfan1 I re-ran both commands, checked dmesg for anything - nothing at all related. And the full modprobe error was "modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:191 kmod_module_parse_depline() ctx=0x559d8c4d32a0 path=/lib/modules/5.4.0-40-generic/kernel/sound/core/snd-pcm.ko error=No such file or directory ". – John C Jul 14 '20 at 22:08
  • Reinstall the linux-modules-5.4.0-40-generic package, that snd-pcm.ko is a standard module. Maybe from grub, select an older kernel which may have the complete/working set of modules. – ubfan1 Jul 14 '20 at 22:47
  • The linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-40-generic is another package which might help with sound problems. See https://askubuntu.com/questions/1258510/only-dummy-output-sound-in-ubuntu-20-04-after-reboot-broken-driver-modul – ubfan1 Jul 17 '20 at 18:29
  • You ever get it working? I have the same problem. – Chad Sep 13 '20 at 03:41
  • @Chad, sorry, no. Messing with tons of low-level modules is more work than it's worth ("re-install from an earlier kernel?"). I have been meaning to ping RealTek about Linux audio drivers, but haven't gotten around to it. – John C Sep 13 '20 at 19:24

2 Answers2

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I finally made it work. Even if it's not DELL, the fix in this post on Intel community forum magically works!

add

options snd-hda-intel model=dell-headset-multi

to the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Then reboot. Works like a charm.

Zanna
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smrt28
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  • Works!!!! Thanks a lot – dvillaj Apr 06 '21 at 10:45
  • It doesn't answer the basic question (because of all the non-solutions I found, I was trying to get drivers), but it might be a solution for my box. Next time I boot up, may try it. At least it's a minor config change, not installing old libraries, etc. – John C Jul 17 '21 at 13:53
  • Worked like a charm for me on the NUC11PAHi7 with 21.04 - thank you so much!...it shows on the settings as a headphone....but, hey, I can live with that! What a relief! – dunbrokin Aug 29 '21 at 00:59
  • bash: cd: /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf: Not a directory – Jamie Hutber Dec 06 '23 at 17:50
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This is in response to dunbrokin's post. I have a NUC11PAHi5 (which I assume is the same as the NUC11PAHi7 except for CPU) running Ubuntu 21.04 and am able to get the HDMI audio working by locking the screen (using Super-L or Windows-L), wait a few seconds for the screen to go black, and then unlocking the screen.

The HDMI/Display Port - Built-in Audio output device will then appear in the audio settings. You'll need to do it every time you reboot.

It's not perfect, but it's a work-around until we work out why it doesn't appear automatically on reboot. Please let me know if you see similar behaviour with your NUC.

Interestingly when I boot-up with the Ubuntu 21.04 live USB, the HDMI audio works fine without needing to do the screen lock trick. I've also noticed that Ubuntu 20.04.3 and Fedora 34 have the same problem.

gonk23
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  • It looks like this answer worked for dunbrokin. Since their post wasn't an answer to the question I'm going to delete it. I think your post actually is an answer to this question, even without the context of dunbrokin's post, but I am writing this comment so that people who can't see the deleted post can have some idea of what happened and also to suggest that smrt28's answer might work for you as well. – Zanna Aug 29 '21 at 05:22