Vivobook 16 (X1607QA): audio codecs load but no ALSA card registers — WSA speaker route failures

[nothing77-ai]

Update: audio codec drivers loading, but no ALSA card registered (Vivobook 16, X1607QA)
Tested 7.1.2-jg-1-nostubble with x1p42100-asus-vivobook-s15.dtb manually forced via GRUB_DEVICE_TREE (stubble build hangs at systemd-udevd/regulator probing on my hardware — separate issue, can share logs).
aplay -l still shows no sound cards. However, dmesg shows real driver activity for the first time:
va_macro 6d44000.codec: qcom,dmic-sample-rate dt entry missing
wsa_macro 6b00000.codec: using zero-initialized flat cache, this may cause unexpected behavior
snd-x1e80100 sound: ASoC: Failed to add route WSA WSA_SPK1 OUT -> SpkrLeft IN()
snd-x1e80100 sound: ASoC: Failed to add route WSA WSA_SPK2 OUT -> SpkrRight IN()
qcom-soundwire 6ad0000.soundwire: qcom_swrm_irq_handler: SWR CMD error, fifo status 0x4e00c00f, flushing fifo
Looks like the failed WSA speaker routes prevent the card from registering at all — consistent with the 4-vs-2 speaker dtb mismatch you mentioned. speaker-test/amixer only show a generic software fallback mixer, not real hardware. Let me know when the Vivobook 14/16 dtb is ready — happy to test right away.

[jglathe]

I guess you're right, currently building 7.1.2-jg-2-nostubble for upload in ~1hour. It is important to also have the topology file loaded.

[nothing77-ai]

I guess you're right, currently building 7.1.2-jg-2-nostubble for upload in ~1hour. It is important to also have the topology file loaded.

Update: Vivobook 16 X1607QA audio testing — two DTBs compared

First test: Old Ubuntu Concept 7.0.0-32 DTB (x1p42100-asus-vivobook-s15.dtb)

Boot worked with your 7.1.2-jg-1 kernel but audio was completely broken. Aplay showed no sound cards at all. Dmesg had these exact errors: ASoC failed to add route WSA WSA_SPK1 OUT to SpkrLeft IN, and ASoC failed to add route WSA WSA_SPK2 OUT to SpkrRight IN. The sound card never registered. Speaker-test only showed a generic software fallback mixer with no real hardware.

Second test:  Jens DTB (x1p42100-asus-vivobook-s15.dtb from 7.1.2-jg-1 (no stubble one package)

Boot still works. Aplay now shows a real sound card named X1E80100-ASUS-Vivobook-S15 with two PCM devices MultiMedia1 Playback and MultiMedia2 Playback. The ASoC route failures are gone. But speaker-test still produces no actual sound from the speakers.
The dmesg shows wsa_macro 6aa0000 codec using zero-initialized flat cache which may cause unexpected behavior. Then snd-x1e80100 sound reports ASoC parent card not yet available and widget card binding deferred. Later the WSA2 SoundWire bus at 6ab0000 throws SWR CMD error with fifo status 0x4e00c00f and later another SWR CMD error with fifo status 0x4e00c101. These are the second amp trying to initialize and failing because my board does not have it.

Other hardware status with your DTB

Things that appear to work on the surface: WiFi connects, Bluetooth pairs, GPU initializes, touchpad responds, NVMe is accessible, thermal zones report numbers, battery shows percentage and USB-PD negotiates on both ports. But I cannot verify if any of these are actually running at full capability or correct configuration since this DTB is meant for a different laptop.
Things that are clearly broken: brightness control shows zero over zero in sysfs and brightness keys do nothing. Keyboard backlight is not detected at all. ALSA mixer controls are completely empty. These are missing DTB nodes.

My question

Your upcoming two-speaker fix — will it remove the WSA2 amp block entirely or only change the audio-routing strings? If WSA2 gets removed, my Vivobook 16 might work with the same DTB since both laptops apparently have two speakers and one amp. I also want to flag brightness and keyboard backlight as missing, in case those need a dedicated Vivobook 16 DTB. Happy to test any build immediately and share full logs. hope it helps.

[jglathe]

7.1.2-jg-2 is up now on the google drive. Vivobook S15 should be 2 speakers again.
If aplay -l shows the channels, that is good. It also means you're loadint the topology file. Remaining failure point can be alsa-ucm-config. I would recommend to use jg/master from my fork of the repo, rsync over the ucm2 directory to /usr/share/alsa/ucm2 .

You can restart the sound subsystem via systemctl --user restart wireplumber pipewire pipewire-pulse

Absolutely required prerequisite, though, is that the firmwares are loaded. Meaning adsp in this case. For fetching the firmware file from the Windows partition I recommend using my script, it copies them to the right place (also for this use case).