Headphones sporadically not working

I have recently my Manjaro system to 5.15.81-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT, x86_64 GNU/Linux system. Almost immediately after the update, the sound is having problems. The laptop speaker and the headphone jack (using a heaphone) is not working, or works sometimes sporadically and then stops.

Some commands and their outputs are:

lspci | grep
00:1f.3 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Technology Audio Controller (rev 20)

inxi -A
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
  Sound API: ALSA v: k5.15.81-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.61 running: yes

pactl info | grep -i "server name"
Server Name: pulseaudio

systemctl --user restart pulseaudio
Failed to connect to bus: Operation not permitted

systemctl enable pulseaudio
Failed to enable unit: Unit file pulseaudio.service does not exist.


systemctl start pulseaudio.service
Failed to start pulseaudio.service: Unit pulseaudio.service not found.

systemctl --user status pulseaudio
● pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; disabled; preset>
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2022-12-06 10:54:01 CET; 14min ago
TriggeredBy: ● pulseaudio.socket
   Main PID: 1247 (pulseaudio)
      Tasks: 11 (limit: 18694)
     Memory: 21.2M
        CPU: 1.342s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pulsea>
             ├─1247 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no --log-target=journal
             └─1403 /usr/lib/pulse/gsettings-helper

Dec 06 10:54:00 arjun-lifebooku7411 systemd[1153]: Starting Sound Service...
Dec 06 10:54:01 arjun-lifebooku7411 pulseaudio[1247]: Path Capture is not a vol>
Dec 06 10:54:01 arjun-lifebooku7411 pulseaudio[1247]: stat('/etc/pulse/default.>
Dec 06 10:54:01 arjun-lifebooku7411 systemd[1153]: Started Sound Service.
Dec 06 10:54:01 arjun-lifebooku7411 pulseaudio[1247]: Could not find org.bluez.>

systemctl -l --no-pager --user status pulseaudio.{socket,service}
● pulseaudio.socket - Sound System
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.socket; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2022-12-06 10:53:59 CET; 15min ago
      Until: Tue 2022-12-06 10:53:59 CET; 15min ago
   Triggers: ● pulseaudio.service
     Listen: /run/user/1000/pulse/native (Stream)
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/app.slice/pulseaudio.socket

Dec 06 10:53:59 arjun-lifebooku7411 systemd[1153]: Listening on Sound System.

● pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2022-12-06 10:54:01 CET; 15min ago
TriggeredBy: ● pulseaudio.socket
   Main PID: 1247 (pulseaudio)
      Tasks: 11 (limit: 18694)
     Memory: 21.2M
        CPU: 1.342s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pulseaudio.service
             ├─1247 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no --log-target=journal
             └─1403 /usr/lib/pulse/gsettings-helper

Dec 06 10:54:00 arjun-lifebooku7411 systemd[1153]: Starting Sound Service...
Dec 06 10:54:01 arjun-lifebooku7411 pulseaudio[1247]: Path Capture is not a volume or mute control
Dec 06 10:54:01 arjun-lifebooku7411 pulseaudio[1247]: stat('/etc/pulse/default.pa.d'): No such file or directory
Dec 06 10:54:01 arjun-lifebooku7411 systemd[1153]: Started Sound Service.
Dec 06 10:54:01 arjun-lifebooku7411 pulseaudio[1247]: Could not find org.bluez.BatteryProviderManager1.RegisterBatteryProvider(), is bluetoothd started with experimental features enabled (-E flag)?

I have switched from pulseaudio to pipewire:

sudo pacman -Rdd pulseaudio

sudo pacman -S pipewire-{jack,alsa,pulse}

systemctl --user enable --now pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-media-session

systemctl --user status pipewire
● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; preset: e>
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2022-12-06 11:41:08 CET; 1h 35min ago
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
   Main PID: 1342 (pipewire)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 18694)
     Memory: 19.2M
        CPU: 565ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewi>
             └─1342 /usr/bin/pipewire

Dec 06 11:41:08 arjun-lifebooku7411 systemd[1333]: Started PipeWire Multimedia >
Dec 06 11:41:08 arjun-lifebooku7411 pipewire[1342]: mod.rt: Can't find xdg-port>
Dec 06 11:41:08 arjun-lifebooku7411 pipewire[1342]: mod.rt: found session bus b>

I also tried installing “manjaro-pipewire” with:
pacman -Syu manjaro-pipeline

But still, the audio does not work as intended. What happens is say I watch a video on YouTube, and when I switch to a different video, the noise goes away and I need to run this command:
systemctl --user restart pipewire.service pipewire.socket pipewire-pulse.service pipewire-pulse.socket pipewire-media-session.service

which seems to bring back the sound temporarily. Each time I pause, the sound goes away and I need to rerun the command above. This is a horrible hack.

Any idea(s) on how to fix it?

There have been a lot of similar reports in the last few days about audio problems after latest stable branch updates. The issue affects ALSA audio for Intel Skylake (6th gen) to TigerLake (11th gen) systems with LTS kernels v5.10 and v5.15.
Software sound servers PulseAudio and PipeWire run above ALSA and are both affected in the same way

A lot of users have confirmed that the best, simple solution for this is to install kernel v6.0 using either Manjaro Settings Manager GUI tool, or copy/paste this to terminal

sudo mhwd-kernel -i linux60