TGL (Tiger Lake) ALC257 ABI mismatch: firmware 3:22:1 vs kernel 6.17 ABI 3:23:1 - rain noise on DMIC

System Information:

Machine: Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14ITL05 (LNVNB161216)
Subsystem ID: 17aa38a3
Codec: Realtek ALC257 (10ec0257)
DSP: Intel Tiger Lake (TGL)
OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Kernel: 6.17.0-19-generic (#19~24.04.2-Ubuntu)
firmware-sof-signed: 2025.12.2-1
PipeWire: 1.0.5
WirePlumber: 0.4.17

Problem Description:
Internal DMIC microphone produces only white noise (rain-like sound) when recording. The issue is a SOF firmware ABI mismatch between the installed firmware (3:22:1) and what kernel 6.17 expects (3:23:1).
Kernel log shows:
sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl: Firmware: ABI 3:22:1 Kernel ABI 3:23:1
sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl: Topology: ABI 3:22:1 Kernel ABI 3:23:1
sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl: DMICs detected in NHLT tables: 2
sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl: using HDA machine driver skl_hda_dsp_generic
With IPC4 mode (snd_sof.ipc_type=1):
sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl: Topology: ABI 3:29:1 Kernel ABI 3:23:1
DMIC is visible but produces no audio output.
Expected behavior:
Internal DMIC should record audio cleanly without noise.
Actual behavior:

IPC3 mode: DMIC records only white noise/rain sound
IPC4 mode: DMIC is visible but silent

Workaround:
Currently using Bluetooth headset as temporary microphone workaround.

@10gajendra

@10gajendra its probably not ABI as its backwards compatible, do you know how many DMICs you have (as this can impact config and is not always known by driver) ?
Btw, with IPC4 mode do you capture silence i.e. 0s for the duration of capture.
@singalsu any inputs ?

@10gajendra

@10gajendra Please attach here the report generated by alsa-info.

@10gajendra its probably not ABI as its backwards compatible, do you know how many DMICs you have (as this can impact config and is not always known by driver) ? Btw, with IPC4 mode do you capture silence i.e. 0s for the duration of capture. @singalsu any inputs ?

I have 2 DMICs (as detected by NHLT tables).
With IPC4 mode, the capture device is visible but records silence (0s throughout the recording), not actual audio.

@10gajendra Please attach here the report generated by alsa-info.

Here is my ALSA info report:
http://alsa-project.org/db/?f=ab39eba6a6706d5ff898e67125df85ac82e1982e

Let me know if any additional logs are needed.

@10gajendra Please attach here the report generated by alsa-info.

Here is my ALSA info report: http://alsa-project.org/db/?f=ab39eba6a6706d5ff898e67125df85ac82e1982e

Let me know if any additional logs are needed.

control.41 {
	iface MIXER
	name 'Dmic0 Capture Volume'
	value.0 70
	value.1 70
	comment {
		access 'read write'
		type INTEGER
		count 2
		range '0 - 70'
		dbmin -9999999
		dbmax 2000
		dbvalue.0 2000
		dbvalue.1 2000
	}
}
control.42 {
	iface MIXER
	name 'Dmic0 Capture Switch'
	value.0 true
	value.1 true
	comment {
		access 'read write'
		type BOOLEAN
		count 2
	}
}

It looks like you have max. volume and capture switches are enabled so it looks OK. I can't see from alsa-info which topology you are using, but I'm guessing it is this IPC3 sof-hda-generic-2ch.tplg. Can you confirm it from dmesg or journalctl -k.

One thing to check is the EQIIR10.0 in capture pipeline from DMIC0.IN. Do you have sof-ctl tool available?

Find the full control name of the IIR with command "amixer -c0 controls". Then do "sof-ctl -c name='x' where x is the full control name. I can check from the words values if the config blob that the IIR is using is sane. If the IIR and the gain are right then it is a lower level issue than firmware.

Are the by chance some mic mute or privacy switches in the PC?

Ah,I saw now that you've tried both IPC3 and IPC4. It's really strange that you get rain with IPC3 and silence with IPC4. With IPC4 the topology would look like this:

With IPC4 would be useful to see control values for gain (alsa-info), eqiir, tdfb, drc (sof-ctl).

But that possible mute/privacy switch is best to check first. And do the check with low-level arecord command line instead of pulse/pipewire, e.g. "arecord -Dhw:0,6 -f S32_LE -c 2 -r 48000 -d 10 rec.wav".

Ah,I saw now that you've tried both IPC3 and IPC4. It's really strange that you get rain with IPC3 and silence with IPC4. With IPC4 the topology would look like this:
With IPC4 would be useful to see control values for gain (alsa-info), eqiir, tdfb, drc (sof-ctl).
But that possible mute/privacy switch is best to check first. And do the check with low-level arecord command line instead of pulse/pipewire, e.g. "arecord -Dhw:0,6 -f S32_LE -c 2 -r 48000 -d 10 rec.wav".

DMIC Capture Issue on Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (Tiger Lake)

System Info:

OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS, Kernel 6.17.0-19-generic
Codec: Realtek ALC257, DSP: Intel Tiger Lake
Firmware: firmware-sof-signed 2025.12.2-1
PipeWire: 1.0.5 / WirePlumber: 0.4.17

Topology:

sudo dmesg | grep -i tplg

Output:

sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: Topology file: intel/sof-tplg/sof-hda-generic-2ch.tplg
2 DMICs detected

Mixer / Capture Controls:

Dmic0 Capture Volume: 70 / 70 (max)
Dmic0 Capture Switch: on

Raw DMIC Capture Test (IPC4):

arecord -Dhw:0,6 -f S32_LE -c 2 -r 48000 -d 10 rec.raw
head -c 200 rec.raw | hd

Output (all zeros):

00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000000c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |........|

Observations:

DMIC detected and enabled
IPC4 capture visible but records silence
IPC3 capture produces white noise
Mixer settings correct (max volume, capture on)
sof-ctl could not be built on Ubuntu 24.04 due to xtensa toolchain

Conclusion: Likely a low-level DSP/IPC4 routing or firmware issue, not a volume/mixer problem.

This issue has been marked as stale because it has been open (more than) 60 days with no activity. Remove the stale label or add a comment saying that you would like to have the label removed otherwise this issue will automatically be closed in 14 days. Note, that you can always re-open a closed issue at any time.

arecord -Dhw:0,6 -f S32_LE -c 2 -r 48000 -d 10 rec.raw head -c 200 rec.raw | hd

Output (all zeros):

00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| * 000000c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |........|

Observations:

This usually means that no data is coming from the DMIC, things that can cause this include wrong DMIC config being selected in topology or the pinmux not enabling the DMIC pins.

IPC4 uses a binary blob of the DMIC settings from the topology, you could try some changes to the DMIC topology settings, rebuild and reinstall topology to see what helps for your hardware. I'm afraid its a bit of trial and error since some hardware has differences in the DMIC pins, clocking etc that may not be known to the community for upstreaming.

This issue has been marked as stale because it has been open (more than) 60 days with no activity. Remove the stale label or add a comment saying that you would like to have the label removed otherwise this issue will automatically be closed in 14 days. Note, that you can always re-open a closed issue at any time.

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TGL (Tiger Lake) ALC257 ABI mismatch: firmware 3:22:1 vs kernel 6.17 ABI 3:23:1 - rain noise on DMIC #10635

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TGL (Tiger Lake) ALC257 ABI mismatch: firmware 3:22:1 vs kernel 6.17 ABI 3:23:1 - rain noise on DMIC #10635

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lgirdwood commented on Mar 20, 2026

singalsu commented on Mar 24, 2026

10gajendra commented on Mar 24, 2026

10gajendra commented on Mar 24, 2026

singalsu commented on Mar 26, 2026

singalsu commented on Mar 26, 2026

10gajendra commented on Mar 27, 2026

github-actions commented on May 27, 2026

lgirdwood commented on May 27, 2026

github-actions commented on Jul 28, 2026

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