Can't install HWE on 24.04 due to dependency error

Hi!
Just recently installed 24.04.3 LTS on an HP Elitebook 1040 G11.

Everything works except for sound. Ubuntu Settings shows only a Dummy Output device unless I pair BT earbuds or something.

lspci shows the device:

00:1f.3 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller (rev 20)

Similarly, lsmod also shows the device:

snd_sof_pci_intel_mtl    12288  0

However, dmesg shows some interesting details:

[   10.385675] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
[   10.435039] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: DSP detected with PCI class/subclass/prog-if info 0x040100
[   10.435076] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: Digital mics found on Skylake+ platform, using SOF driver
[   10.435090] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   10.435437] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: DSP detected with PCI class/subclass/prog-if 0x040100
[   10.435538] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: bound 0000:00:02.0 (ops i915_audio_component_bind_ops [i915])
[   10.442578] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: use msi interrupt mode
[   10.497750] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: hda codecs found, mask 5
[   10.497759] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: using HDA machine driver skl_hda_dsp_generic now
[   10.497766] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: DMICs detected in NHLT tables: 2
[   10.498340] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: SOF firmware and/or topology file not found.
[   10.498778] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: Supported default profiles
[   10.498780] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: - ipc type 1 (Requested):
[   10.498783] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3:  Firmware file: intel/sof-ipc4/mtl/sof-mtl.ri
[   10.498786] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3:  Topology file: intel/sof-ace-tplg/sof-hda-generic-2ch.tplg
[   10.498788] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: Check if you have 'sof-firmware' package installed.
[   10.498790] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: Optionally it can be manually downloaded from:
[   10.498792] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3:    https://github.com/thesofproject/sof-bin/
[   10.500684] sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: error: sof_probe_work failed err: -2

Searching around on-line seems to indicate that this could be a kernel version problem, and updating to a more recent kernel could solve it.

The system seems to still be running 6.8 even though it was just installed off of the latest 24.04.3 install image, allegedly. (Wasn’t me)

$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS \n \l
$ uname -a
Linux elitebu 6.8.0-71-generic #71-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Jul 22 16:52:38 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The latest HWE for 24.04.3 should install 6.14, from what I’ve read. And indeed, apt shows those packages available.

However, when I attempt to install HWE kernel, I get an error about conflict dependencies:

$ apt-cache search linux-generic-hwe
linux-generic-hwe-24.04 - Complete Generic Linux kernel and headers
linux-generic-hwe-24.04-edge - Complete Generic Linux kernel and headers
$ sudo apt-get install linux-generic-hwe-24.04
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 boot-managed-by-snapd : Conflicts: linux-firmware but 20240318.git3b128b60-0ubuntu2.17 is to be installed
                         Conflicts: linux-image
 wireless-regdb : Conflicts: boot-managed-by-snapd (< 5~) but 4build1 is to be installed

Cannot install linux-firmware on system as boot is managed by snapd.
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

I’m not familiar with this type of issue. But I wonder if it has anything to do with Full Disk Encryption being selected during install.

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve manually installed HWE packages, so perhaps the process has changed, although not that I’ve seen searching on-line. But if there’s a new or preferred way to install HWE on an existing system, I’d love to try it.

Similary, if there’s instead another way to fix the audio issue that doesn’t require installing HWE kernel, I’ll willing to try that.

Thanks!

Looks like this system might have been installed with TPM based full disk encryption which installs the kernel as a snap package, check with snap list if you have the pc-kernel snap installed …

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Hi Ogra!

Checking…
Yep, that is indeed the case, it seems.

$ snap list
Name                       Version                         Rev    Tracking              Publisher   Notes
pc-kernel                  6.8.0-84.84                     2843   24/stable             canonicalâś“  kernel

Is there an equivalent method to install HWE for snap controlled/packaged kernel?

Take a look at snap info pc-kernel it has a ton of channels (though I’m not sure if all of them would work), you should be able to switch to the hwe one with:

sudo snap refresh --channel=24-hwe/stable pc-kernel

The manifest for Ubuntu 24.04.3 should have installed

linux-image-6.14.0-27-generic	6.14.0-27.27~24.04.1
linux-image-generic-hwe-24.04	6.14.0-27.27~24.04.1

Manifest Ubuntu 24.04.3

I’m sure that I have seen a similar topic that mentions HP 1040 G11 needs the 6.14 kernel.

" Wasn’t me" - Do you mean that another party installed Ubuntu for you?

Did you check the sound during your “Try Ubuntu” session?
Can you double check that the ISO is 24.04.3?

OK, yeah. I found a 24-hwe/stable with 6.14 in the PC-Kernel.

I’m attempting to switch to that channel now. The App Center appears to be struggling, but I’ll give it time to work.

Correct. It was installed by someone else in my org and then given to me.
And I’m not sure if they checked the sound or not. My guess is No.

I get the impression that your org installed an earlier version of Ubuntu 24.04 and then, possibly, an incomplete upgrade to 24.04.3

You can check installed kernels with

ls /boot | grep vmlinuz-

Will your organisation allow you to download and try a fresh ISO of Ubuntu 24.04.3?

OK, so I managed to switch to the 24-hwe channel in App Center, and now the system is running 6.14.

$ uname -a
Linux elitebu 6.14.0-32-generic #32~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Sep  2 14:21:04 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

However, there’s still no audio as the Settings panel still shows only Dummy Output.

To answer the previous question, there doesn’t seem to be any kernels in the root of /boot, but I suspect that has more to do with FDE and snap packaged kernels, something with which I’m still unfamiliar.

$ ls /boot | grep vmlinuz-
$ ls /boot
grub
$ ls -l /boot/grub/
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1952 Sep 24 16:30 grub.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Oct  2 07:58 grubenv
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   30 Oct  2 07:58 kernel.efi -> pc-kernel_2858.snap/kernel.efi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 22 04:54 pc-kernel_2843.snap
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 24 03:23 pc-kernel_2858.snap

They might let me reinstall the whole system, but not knowing enough about it, I’m concerned that selecting FDE will not include the HWE 6.14 kernel, although at this point, it’s no longer clear that would help anyway.

Perhaps, just start at the beginning of troubleshooting the audio problem. Any other suggestions?
Thanks!

OK, so I did find this sof- firmware package.

$ apt-cache search sof-
firmware-sof-signed - Intel SOF firmware - signed
$ sudo apt-get install firmware-sof-signed
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  firmware-sof-signed
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 7,377 kB of archives.
After this operation, 11.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 firmware-sof-signed all 2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.9 [7,377 kB]
Fetched 7,377 kB in 1s (10.9 MB/s)               
Selecting previously unselected package firmware-sof-signed.
(Reading database ... 102170 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../firmware-sof-signed_2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.9_all.deb ...
Unpacking firmware-sof-signed (2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.9) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/firmware-sof-signed_2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.9_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to create '/lib/firmware/intel/sof/community/sof-apl.ri.zst.dpkg-new' (while processing './lib/firmware/intel/sof/community/sof-apl.ri.zst'): Read-only file system
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 unable to remove newly-extracted version of '/lib/firmware/intel/sof/community/sof-apl.ri.zst': Read-only file system
dpkg-deb: error: paste subprocess was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/firmware-sof-signed_2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.9_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Again, looks like more problems with installing kernel related packages when the kernel is packaged by snap.
Is there a typical way to integrate traditional packages with snap kernels, or should I look for anything kernel related in snap form?
Thanks!

Please use ubuntu-bug linux to report this as a bug, the firmware needs to be added to the snap package I guess (please mention in the bug report that your system uses TPM backed full disk encryption and the snapped kernel package)

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