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I use an external audio card (Focusrite Scarlet 2i2) for listening to music which is by default plug and play in Ubuntu 20.04 (been using it for more than a year and had no problems until today).

I updated my kernel to 5.13.0-37-generic through apt and now every sound coming out of my monitors is heavily distorted and also slowed down.

When switching to laptop's build in speakers everything plays fine. Also when selecting a previous kernel from grub, i.e. 5.13.0-35-generic everything is fine too.

Any ideas?

UPDATE: bug is reported by multiple users and Confirmed https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-signed-hwe-5.13/+bug/1966066

vanias
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    Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. It looks like you have found a kernel bug. Bugs are off-topic here. Please file a bug report. – user68186 Mar 21 '22 at 23:08
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    I can confirm I am having the same problem after updating to 5.13.0-37-generic, and switching back to 5.13.0-35-generic also alleviates the problem. In my case, I'm using the normal 3.5mm line out on my MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi mobo. Searching around a bit, it appears there are more reports rolling out from a variety of places. I suspect the workaround for now will be to use the older kernel until this is fixed. – lrussell123 Mar 23 '22 at 04:29
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    Can also confirm poor sound quality with Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 external USB audio interface and update to 5.13.0-37. Booting into 5.13.0-35 from GRUB menu is a workaround. Audio works fine still with 5.13.0-35 – Steve Mar 23 '22 at 15:11
  • same issue here with Focusrite Scarlett 2i4. This solution worked for me. – Wolfson Apr 15 '22 at 17:49

1 Answers1

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Have you seen this reddit post? It looks like you are describing the same problem:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/tkvjwu/this_is_why_i_love_linux_how_a_kernel_upgrade/

In /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, try to set

default-sample-rate = 48000

Then restart pulseaudio:

systemctl --user restart pulseaudio
gjolly
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    Tried it on two instances (20.04 and 21.10) and didn't change anything. – minyves Mar 25 '22 at 07:10
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    Fixed for me in 20.04. Many thanks! – Alfonso Nishikawa Mar 26 '22 at 01:19
  • As many user mention in the original bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-signed-hwe-5.13/+bug/1966066 this doesn't work reliably. – minyves Mar 30 '22 at 12:00
  • This fixed the issue for me. Thank you SO much! That was driving me insane, and the folks in #ubuntu are Libera were poking fun at me for asking rather than trying to help me. – Michael Apr 02 '22 at 17:04