Update kernel 6.14 -> 6.17 results in missing audio

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Yesterday, after the usual update/upgrade, audio no longer worked on one of my laptops.

I checked mate-volume-control to check for the device settings and lo and behold: No devices detected at all.

I rebooted (same kernel, 6.17) -> same result
I rebooted the previous kernel (6.14) -> Yes, sound was back.

It was solved rather quickly:
Removing kernel 6.17 and the kernel HWE meta package fixed it within minutes.

So, if you happen to experience the same, this is the easiest way to solve it :slight_smile:

By the way, this seems to be a well known problem.
It also seems that the bug has been resolved in kernel 6.19 so there is no need for submitting bugreports as far as I can tell.

EDIT: After some (DuckAI-assisted) search I found that kernel 6.17 had many issues reported which were all resolved by using a different kernel:

  • kernel panics
  • spontaneous freezes
  • networking problems (realtek, broadcom)
  • audio problems
  • video driver problems (especially with nVidia)
  • multi monitor setup fails.

So if this sounds familiar, it's not you, it's "them" :wink:

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Issues with the 6.17 kernel are documented in several threads on the Ubuntu Discourse also.

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Yeah 6.17 seems to have broken a few things.

As I have mentioned elsewhere I'm stuck on NVIDIA 550 and the DKMS doesnt build on 6.17.

I've attempted a patch but I got stuck due to some changes in the kernel that are harder to resolve (or perhaps a compiler bug - actually, no, it _was_ a change in the kernel: nvidia-utils: Add fix 6.15 closed source module · CachyOS/CachyOS-PKGBUILDS@b859535 · GitHub and someone figured out a workaround!)

I was planning on a short post about this - but a work-in-progress NVIDIA 550 patch is here.

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I feel I missed this one. Currently on 6.18.7 and been through 6.17 and not had issues on my desktop. :desktop_computer: :angel:

I had experienced that pain before when Intel virtualisation stopped working properly years ago. Glad a future release fixed it eventually so I didn't need a kernel parameter workaround.

When the kernel causes regressions, for some reason, I just think of when Linus Torvalds famously once said:

We do not break userspace!

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That is a beefy patch you created. Kudos !!

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I guess he meant "not on purpose" :joy:

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*except for the countless times we've broken, are currently breaking, and will break user space.

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Thanks! I’ll fully accept the kudos when i figure out how to damn well stop the module from importing (inlining) GPL licensed code - which prevents it from building :-/

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