Describe the bug
On a Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (Intel, Alder Lake, model 21AHCTO1WW) running Ubuntu 24.04, whenever the SOF driver is active (dsp_driver=3), audio playback is audible but the reported playback position never advances past 0. Because video players sync video to the audio clock, all video playback system-wide freezes on the first frame (browser, mpv, everything) while the audio track plays normally. Progress bars stay at 0:00.
The internal DMIC works correctly under SOF. The bug is only in playback position reporting.
With the legacy HDA driver (snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1) everything works except the internal DMIC (expected, since it requires the DSP path).
To Reproduce
Boot with SOF active (default on this hardware, or options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=3).
Play any file with an audio track, e.g. mpv -v test.mp4.
Audio is audible; video frame and OSD timeline never advance.
mpv verbose log shows the status line frozen for the entire duration, yet playback "completes":
[statusline] AV: 00:00:00 / 00:00:10 (0%) A-V: 0.013 (repeated for the whole file)
[cplayer] EOF code: 5
[cplayer] finished playback, success (reason 3)
Occasionally, immediately after restarting the PipeWire stack (systemctl --user restart wireplumber pipewire pipewire-pulse), a freshly started stream advances briefly (~1 s) before the position stops again.
Reproduction Rate
100% on every player and browser tested.
Expected behavior
Playback position advances normally under SOF, as it does under the legacy HDA driver, so A/V sync works.
Environment
- Branch/commit:
- Kernel: distro kernels, not git builds — Ubuntu 6.8.0-136-generic and 7.0.0-28-generic (HWE); bug identical on both
- SOF: release binaries, not git builds — firmware-sof-signed 2023.12.1-1ubuntu1.11 (Ubuntu) and sof-bin-2025.12.2 release tarball (IPC3 v2.2-stable line and IPC4 v2.12 line both tested); bug identical on all
- Topology: sof-hda-generic-2ch.tplg
- Platform: Intel Alder Lake (ADL-P), driver binds as sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl — Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (21AHCTO1WW), ALC257 + DMIC
Screenshots or console output
Attached full logs, collected while SOF was active and the bug reproducing:
alsa-info.txt
sof-dmesg.txt
sof-logger trace not available (distro install); happy to collect additional logs on request.
Workarounds tried (none fixed it)
api.alsa.disable-mmap = true + api.alsa.headroom = 1024 (WirePlumber rule)
Pinning the sink rate: audio.rate = 44100, audio.allowed-rates = [ 44100 ]; also pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-rate 44100 (bug occurs at both 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz)
session.suspend-timeout-seconds = 0 (no device suspend)
snd_hda_intel power_save=0
Full PipeWire/WirePlumber restarts; fully restarted client apps
Only effective workaround: options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1 (legacy HDA) — restores video/audio sync but loses the internal DMIC.
Describe the bug
On a Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (Intel, Alder Lake, model 21AHCTO1WW) running Ubuntu 24.04, whenever the SOF driver is active (dsp_driver=3), audio playback is audible but the reported playback position never advances past 0. Because video players sync video to the audio clock, all video playback system-wide freezes on the first frame (browser, mpv, everything) while the audio track plays normally. Progress bars stay at 0:00.
The internal DMIC works correctly under SOF. The bug is only in playback position reporting.
With the legacy HDA driver (snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1) everything works except the internal DMIC (expected, since it requires the DSP path).
To Reproduce
Boot with SOF active (default on this hardware, or options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=3).
Play any file with an audio track, e.g. mpv -v test.mp4.
Audio is audible; video frame and OSD timeline never advance.
mpv verbose log shows the status line frozen for the entire duration, yet playback "completes":
Occasionally, immediately after restarting the PipeWire stack (systemctl --user restart wireplumber pipewire pipewire-pulse), a freshly started stream advances briefly (~1 s) before the position stops again.
Reproduction Rate
100% on every player and browser tested.
Expected behavior
Playback position advances normally under SOF, as it does under the legacy HDA driver, so A/V sync works.
Environment
Screenshots or console output
Attached full logs, collected while SOF was active and the bug reproducing:
alsa-info.txt
sof-dmesg.txt
sof-logger trace not available (distro install); happy to collect additional logs on request.
Workarounds tried (none fixed it)
api.alsa.disable-mmap = true + api.alsa.headroom = 1024 (WirePlumber rule)
Pinning the sink rate: audio.rate = 44100, audio.allowed-rates = [ 44100 ]; also pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-rate 44100 (bug occurs at both 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz)
session.suspend-timeout-seconds = 0 (no device suspend)
snd_hda_intel power_save=0
Full PipeWire/WirePlumber restarts; fully restarted client apps
Only effective workaround: options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1 (legacy HDA) — restores video/audio sync but loses the internal DMIC.