Trying Sound Open Firmware yet again

May 24, 2026 — BarryK

Have been down this path a few times, see post last year:

"Testing Intel SOF drivers"
https://bkhome.org/news/202509/testing-intel-sof-drivers.html

What has enticed me to try again, is this forum post by NNI:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=170710#p170710

It turned out, enabling that "CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_SOUNDWIRE_SOF_MACH" was difficult. The online documentation does not properly explain what configuration options need to be enabled in the kernel to get that option to show up.

This page for example, "lead me down the garden path":

https://www.kernelconfig.io/CONFIG_SOUNDWIRE?q=&kernelversion=6.12.82&arch=x86

...no, "Device Tree and Open Firmware support" does not need to be enabled to enable "SoundWire support". The hierarchical tree is incorrect. Or, more likely, it is an optional path. Which is bad because the alternative path isn't shown.

Yes, soundwire has to be enabled, so we are back again hoping it will work. Right now compiling the 6.12.91 kernel. Here is what has been enabled compared with the 6.12.90 kernel in Easy 7.3.4:

CONFIG_MFD_CS42L43=m
CONFIG_MFD_CS42L43_SDW=m
CONFIG_MFD_INTEL_LPSS=y
CONFIG_MFD_INTEL_LPSS_ACPI=y
CONFIG_MFD_INTEL_LPSS_PCI=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_TOPOLOGY=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_USER_FRIENDLY_LONG_NAMES=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_HDA_DSP_COMMON=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_SOUNDWIRE_SOF_MACH=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_TOPLEVEL=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_PCI_DEV=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_PCI=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_ACPI=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_ACPI_DEV=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_DEBUG_PROBES=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_CLIENT=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_IPC3=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_IPC4=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_TOPLEVEL=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_HIFI_EP_IPC=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_ATOM_HIFI_EP=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_COMMON=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_BAYTRAIL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_BROADWELL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_MERRIFIELD=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_SKL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_SKYLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_KABYLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_APL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_APOLLOLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_GEMINILAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_CNL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_CANNONLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_COFFEELAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_COMETLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_ICL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_ICELAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_JASPERLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_TGL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_TIGERLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_ELKHARTLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_ALDERLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_MTL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_METEORLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_LNL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_LUNARLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_PTL=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_PANTHERLAKE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_HDA_COMMON=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_HDA_GENERIC=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_HDA_LINK_BASELINE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_HDA_PROBES=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_SOUNDWIRE_LINK_BASELINE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_SOUNDWIRE=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_XTENSA=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_CS42L43=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_CS42L43_SDW=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_RT1308=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SDW_UTILS=m
CONFIG_SOUNDWIRE=y

Changed relative to 6.12.90:

CONFIG_MFD_INTEL_LPSS=m
CONFIG_MFD_INTEL_LPSS_ACPI=m
CONFIG_MFD_INTEL_LPSS_PCI=m
CONFIG_SOUNDWIRE=m

Well, we shall see what happens. Note, the 'firmware-sof-signed' DEB package is required.

EDIT 2026-05-25:
Another attempt, see next blog post:

https://bkhome.org/news/202605/sof-fail-trying-again.html

...in summary, still failure.

Tags: easy