No Audio Device Detected on HP EliteBook 840 14" G11 Running Ubuntu 24.04

Support and Help
1

I am using an HP EliteBook 840 14" G11 (SKU: 8M4W7AV) laptop running Ubuntu 24.04.1. However, no audio output or input devices are detected.

In the audio settings, only “Dummy Output” appears in the Output Device selection menu, and no input devices are detected at all. Here is a screenshot of my audio settings:

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Ubuntu was installed using the TPM+Full Disk Encryption (FDE) option, so the system is running the snap kernel. I’m not sure if this might affect audio device detection.

Here is the output of the snap list pc-kernel command:

$ snap list pc-kernel
Name       Version      Rev   Tracking   Publisher   Notes
pc-kernel  6.8.0-50.51  2072  24/stable  canonical✓  kernel

Additionally, the lspci command shows that the audio device is registered and the necessary drivers are loaded:

$ lspci -nnk | grep -A2 Audio
00:1f.3 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller [8086:7e28] (rev 20)
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller [103c:8c26]
    Kernel driver in use: sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl
    Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_sof_pci_intel_mtl

For reference, here are links to the HP support pages for the model I am using:

2

Was this device released late 2024?
If so, I suggest that you download Ubuntu 24.10 (or even a 25.04 Daily Build) and launch a “Try Ubuntu” live session.
Generally, recently released PCs require a later kernel.

Your device has Audio by Poly Studio, I did a quick internet search but couldn’t find anything related to Ubuntu (yet)?

3

I don’t believe so; I think it’s older. Additionally, the device is certified for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with an older kernel version: HP EliteBook 840 14 inch G11 Notebook PC certified with Ubuntu. | Ubuntu

The reference to Audio by Poly Studio likely pertains to the built-in laptop speakers, not the audio device it self. Based on lspci and the hardware details listed on the certified page, the actual audio device appears to be the Intel Corporation Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller.

4

Did you try Ubuntu 22.04 LTS?

5

No, I have not tried that yet, as I haven’t had the chance to. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, I am using an FDE+TPM setup, which isn’t supported in Ubuntu 22.04.

Regarding your suggestion to try a newer version of Ubuntu, I noticed that the 6.11 kernel is available for the pc-kernel snap. I updated my Ubuntu 24.04 installation to the 6.11 kernel using the following command:

sudo snap refresh pc-kernel --channel=24.10/stable

But unfortunately, I still don’t have audio, even with 6.11, so I did a bit more research:

I came across this page: Installing Debian on HP EliteBook 860 G11, which describes a similar laptop model with the same audio device and mentions that firmware-sof-signed is necessary, so I suspect that non-free third-party firmware drivers from the firmware-sof-signed package might be required for my laptop as well.

I tried installing the package with the following command:

$ sudo apt 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 14 not upgraded.
Need to get 7,170 kB of archives.
After this operation, 10.1 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 firmware-sof-signed all 2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.2 [7,170 kB]
Fetched 7,170 kB in 2s (4,748 kB/s)              
Selecting previously unselected package firmware-sof-signed.
(Reading database ... 117322 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../firmware-sof-signed_2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.2_all.deb ...
Unpacking firmware-sof-signed (2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.2) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/firmware-sof-signed_2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.2_all.deb (--unpack):
 error creating directory './lib/firmware/intel/sof': Read-only file system
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 unable to remove newly-extracted version of '/lib/firmware/intel/sof': 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_2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

However, I don’t think it’s possible to use this package with a TPM+FDE setup and the snap kernel, as adding additional kernel modules isn’t supported, as mentioned in this comment: TPM-backed Full Disk Encryption is coming to Ubuntu - Discussion - #4 by jamesps.

So I guess it’s either live with no audio or stop using the TPM+FDE feature and type two passwords when I boot my laptop. It’s a disappointing trade-off…

6

FYI, I just tried booting the laptop into a Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS live session. The audio works there and shows up as “Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller” in the Audio settings.

So now I’m pretty sure the issue is related to the pc-kernel snap / TPM-FDE setup.

Thanks for the tip!

7

you should file a bug against the linux package (which is the proper place for bugs of the pc-kernel snap) to get firmware-sof-signed included in the snap …

8

Thank you for your reply. Do you know if the package is indeed missing for the pc-kernel snap?

I tried using the Ubuntu Bug tool (ubuntu-bug pc-kernel), but it gave an error stating that I need to report issues by email to snaps@canonical.com, so I sent an email there.

I wrote the report to snaps@canonical.com before reading your comment, but what I should have done was instead ubuntu-bug linux, correct ?

9

I dont know if the package is actually missing but the behavior kind of seems to shows it is … and since the firmware lives inside the snap it has to be added by the maintainers …

To reach the kernel team, who maintain the pc-kernel snap (which is actually only a re-packed version of all the kernel (and firmware) deb packages) ubuntu-bug linux is the appropriate way, mention pc-kernel in the description or summary so they know about it …

10

Thank you very much.

Reported: Bug #2092363 “No Audio Device Detected on HP EliteBook 840 G11 w...” : Bugs : linux package : Ubuntu

1 Like
11

Note that Canonical has shot down for end of year vacation already, so it might take a while til you get a reply …

12

That’s all right - same here :christmas_tree:. Thanks for the helpful guidance on reporting the issue! Now I’ll just sit tight and wait patiently, like a little kid waiting for Santa.

Wishing everyone a joyful holiday season! I hope you all get a chance to relax and enjoy some well-deserved time off.