Need help with sound on Lenovo T440p

Support Sound
1

Hi, I’m a new Manjaro user. I had used Linux Mint before and been wanting to try Manjaro for a while. Finally I took the step but I’m having issues with the sound.
In terms of my setup, I’m using Cinnamon and I’m dualbooting with Windows 10 (work reasons). My laptop is a Lenovo T440p which I got recently (before I had a Lenovo T430 in which I had zero issues).
Unfortunately the sound in my Manjaro installation is pretty. It clips, saturates and distorts in loud volumes. I hate to say this, but the sound in my Windows 10 install works fine, so the issue doesn’t seem to be hardware related.
I read tons of blogs and posts, but the reality is I’m not a very technical user and I don’t know too much about what I’m doing. I tried a number of different approaches, but nothing seems to completely solve the issue.
What I’ve tried so far:

  • I tried a live usb with Linux Mint. The sound gets better, but still not great. I can still hear some clipping and saturation
  • I tried going into Alsamixer. It looked like the device being selected was the HDMI (device 0). After switching it to device 1, I could see more controls, but the PCM one and the Speaker controls are in red and at full. But when I lower them, the sound quality improves. However, if I increase the volume past 60% the clipping and distortion come back
  • In Pulsaudio Volume Control → Configuration I selected Analog Stereo Output
  • I edited the file /etc/pulse/daemon and changed some values to the ones suggested in a blog, but that didn’t seem to make a difference

I really don’t know enough about Alsa and Pulse and how to configure them and I can’t seem to find a solution, so if anyone can help, it would be great, so I don’t have to log into Windows 10 for watching videos or listening to music.

Thanks in advance

2

Hello,

You have to change the default audio via ALSA
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/Lenovo#ThinkPad_T440p

3

Hi Bogdan,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I tried this, but unfortunately there’s still lots of clipping and saturation even after removing the file and restarting. Any other suggestions or ideas?

4

I edited the file /etc/pulse/daemon and changed some values to the ones suggested in a blog

Please post more information about PulseAudio configuration

pacmd dump;pulseaudio --dump-conf

there’s still lots of clipping and saturation even after removing the file and restarting

If you check in alsamixer -c0 are ALSA audio settings for PCM or Speaker being reset to 100% to cause audio clipping?
If so, turn settings down to stop any clipping/distortion and save changes to ALSA settings with this command

sudo alsactl store

Keep alsamixer open and check if adjusting audio levels in PulseAudio GUI controls affects audio levels in alsamixer
If level controls in alsamixer are changed, this command should restore audio levels

sudo alsactl restore

If audio is still not working as expected use this command to get ALSA settings in text format to post here

amixer -c0
1 Like
5

Hi Nik,
Thanks for taking the time to look into this and try to help me.

pacmd dump;pulseaudio --dump-conf returns the following:

### Configuration dump generated at Sat Sep 10 10:15:17 2022

load-module module-device-restore
load-module module-stream-restore
load-module module-card-restore
load-module module-augment-properties
load-module module-switch-on-port-available
load-module module-udev-detect
load-module module-alsa-card device_id="0" name="pci-0000_00_03.0" card_name="alsa_card.pci-0000_00_03.0" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1"
load-module module-alsa-card device_id="1" name="pci-0000_00_1b.0" card_name="alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1"
load-module module-bluetooth-policy
load-module module-bluetooth-discover
load-module module-bluez5-discover
load-module module-dbus-protocol
load-module module-native-protocol-unix
load-module module-gsettings
load-module module-default-device-restore
load-module module-always-sink
load-module module-intended-roles
load-module module-suspend-on-idle
load-module module-console-kit
load-module module-systemd-login
load-module module-position-event-sounds
load-module module-role-cork
load-module module-filter-heuristics
load-module module-filter-apply
load-module module-x11-publish display=:0 xauthority=/home/tosh/.Xauthority
load-module module-x11-xsmp display=:0 xauthority=/home/tosh/.Xauthority session_manager=local/tosh-t440p:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/1150,unix/tosh-t440p:/tmp/.ICE-unix/1150
load-module module-cli-protocol-unix

set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo 0xa275
set-sink-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo no
suspend-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo yes

set-source-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor 0x10000
set-source-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor no
suspend-source alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor yes

set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_03.0 off
set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0 output:analog-stereo

set-default-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
set-default-source alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor

### EOF
E: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: pa_pid_file_create() failed.

Yes, PCM and Speaker are reset to 100. I have moved them to below red levels, but as soon as I touch the volume, they go back to 100. Either pressing the key in the keyboard or with PulseAudio GUI, the effect is the same, they go to 100.

amixer -c0 returns this:

Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',2
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',3
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',4
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]

However, 0 is the HDMI audio and 1 is the audio card. If I run it for c1 this is what I get:

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono: Playback 79 [91%] [-6.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',1
  Capabilities: pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback [off]
  Front Right: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 82 [94%] [-3.75dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 82 [94%] [-3.75dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 237 [93%] [-3.60dB]
  Front Right: Playback 237 [93%] [-3.60dB]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 63
  Front Left: Capture 63 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 63 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Disabled'
Simple mixer control 'Dock Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Dock Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 1
  Front Left: 1 [100%] [12.00dB]
  Front Right: 1 [100%] [12.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Loopback Mixing',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Disabled'

Any help will be appreciated

6