[Solved] No sound on Dell XPS 13 2015 (9343) with BIOS A03

Question

I have been unable to get sound to work on my new 2015 Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition running kernel 4.0.1-1-ARCH.  Arch is the only OS installed.
I have checked the wiki page and this forum post, which seems to indicate it should work with this configuration out of the box.
However, audio does not play through the speakers (the speakers were working in the original Ubuntu 14.04 installation) and when I tried to un-mute the volume, as described in the ALSA wiki page I received the following message:
$ amixer sset Master unmute
amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Master',0
I am not sure what other pertinent information to post, please forgive my ignorance and let me know. Thank you for your assistance.
Last edited by lkarunan (2015-05-17 13:42:47)

Answer 1

I have installed the patched kernel and rebooted twice but am still encountering the same problem. The only difference to altercation's instructions is that the aur package has been updated:
$ uname -r
4.0.2-1-xps13-alt
The output of amixer is identical to before. However, there are now two headphone channels visible in alsamixer, which were not present under the stock kernel.
┌─────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.0.29 ────────────────────────┐
│ Card: HDA Intel PCH F1: Help │
│ Chip: Realtek ALC3263 F2: System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Headphone Mic [dB gain: -16.50, -16Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ ├──┤ ├──┤ ├──┤ └──┘ ├──┤ └──┘ ├──┤ │
│ │OO│ │OO│ │OO│ │OO│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ └──┘ └──┘ └──┘ └──┘ │
│ 100 100<>100 20<>20 100<>100 100<>100 100<>100 100<>100 │
│ Master Headphon<Headphon>Headphon Speaker PCM Beep │
│ │
│ │
│
The channel which is set at 20 gives a continuous "beep" (sine tone?) through headphones, when they are plugged into the jack.
This is the other sound card visible in alsamixer (and the one that is displayed by default):
┌─────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.0.29 ────────────────────────┐
│ Card: HDA Intel HDMI F1: Help │
│ Chip: Intel Broadwell HDMI F2: System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: S/PDIF Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ ┌───── Sound Card ──────┐ │
│ │- (default) │ │
│ │0 HDA Intel HDMI │ │
│ │1 HDA Intel PCH │ │
│ │ enter device name...│ │
│ └───────────────────────┘ │
│ < S/PDIF >S/PDIF 1 S/PDIF 2 │
│ │
│ │
─────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.0.29 ────────────────────────┐
│ Card: HDA Intel HDMI F1: Help │
│ Chip: Intel Broadwell HDMI F2: System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: S/PDIF Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ │
│ │OO│ │OO│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ └──┘ └──┘ │
│ < S/PDIF >S/PDIF 1 S/PDIF 2 │
│ │
The only other thing I have noticed in ~20 minutes of use are some graphical artefacts and flickering that occur with this kernel.  I have previously set the Intel graphics acceleration to uxa, as described in the wiki, because of issues with virtual terminals and resuming from suspend. The graphical issues I am currently encountering are very minor, however.
Update:
Thanks to fumlead for this post. The problem seems to have been that the wrong card was set as default. Creating /etc/asound.conf and adding this:
pcm.!default {
type hw
card 1
has solved the problem under both the stock and aur kernels. I am going to stick with the stock kernel because of the graphical issues encountered with the alternate kernel. I am not currently using the audio jack for a microphone, which I believe should work for the alternate kernel but not the stock one.
There is a small bug with the speakers not automatically being silenced when headphones are plugged in, but hopefully that will be fixed in kernel 4.1.
Thank you to everyone who viewed and commented in this thread and special thanks to fumlead.
Last edited by lkarunan (2015-05-17 13:41:23)