Bug#985696: debian-installer: Speech synthesis and Intel SOF firmware

[Samuel Thibault]

Hello,

some recent Intel sound cards require a firmware to work. This firmware
is packaged under 'firmware-sof-signed'. For reference, you might want
to look at the ITP [1].
I tried it with my laptop. What happens is that the installer gets stuck
straight from the beginning, prior it can show any kind of GUI. All I
Please wait while we probe your sound card(s)...

Could you try with the following image:

https://people.debian.org/~sthibault/tmp/debian-sid-amd64-NETINST-1.iso

It's supposed to have the firmware available for loading before speech
starts.

Samuel

[Samuel Thibault]

Hello,

Asking debian-kernel about firmwares: is the firmware-intel-sound
package needed for getting sound on some hardware?

Do you know if arm64 has some platforms which require such kind of sound
firmwares?

Samuel

Post by Samuel Thibault

some recent Intel sound cards require a firmware to work. This firmware
is packaged under 'firmware-sof-signed'. For reference, you might want
to look at the ITP [1].
I tried it with my laptop. What happens is that the installer gets stuck
straight from the beginning, prior it can show any kind of GUI. All I
Please wait while we probe your sound card(s)...

https://people.debian.org/~sthibault/tmp/debian-sid-amd64-NETINST-1.iso
It's supposed to have the firmware available for loading before speech
starts.
Samuel

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

Post by Samuel Thibault
Hello,
Asking debian-kernel about firmwares: is the firmware-intel-sound
package needed for getting sound on some hardware?

It looks as if it's needed on some newer Intel laptops and desktops at least,
yes

Post by Samuel Thibault
Do you know if arm64 has some platforms which require such kind of sound
firmwares?

Almost all arm64 platforms don't have sound inbuilt: on a Raspberry Pi,
the drivers needed are in the Raspberry Pi firmware package which is
required for the Raspberry Pi to boot. On others, it would be in a
.dtb file, I think.

Raspberry Pis have a concept of hardware as an add on board called a Hat
- the drivers for these could be anything.

All the very best, as ever,

Andy Cater

Post by Samuel Thibault
Samuel

Post by Samuel Thibault

some recent Intel sound cards require a firmware to work. This firmware
is packaged under 'firmware-sof-signed'. For reference, you might want
to look at the ITP [1].
I tried it with my laptop. What happens is that the installer gets stuck
straight from the beginning, prior it can show any kind of GUI. All I
Please wait while we probe your sound card(s)...

https://people.debian.org/~sthibault/tmp/debian-sid-amd64-NETINST-1.iso
It's supposed to have the firmware available for loading before speech
starts.
Samuel

[Arnaud Rebillout]

Hi Samuel,

Post by Samuel Thibault
https://people.debian.org/~sthibault/tmp/debian-sid-amd64-NETINST-1.iso
It's supposed to have the firmware available for loading before speech
starts.

Just tried it, and it works! The sound card is detected and the speech
synthesis is functional.

Tested on laptop Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 8.

  $ sudo lspci | grep -Ei '(sound|audio)'
  00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP cAVS

Thanks!

[Samuel Thibault]

Post by Arnaud Rebillout

Post by Samuel Thibault
https://people.debian.org/~sthibault/tmp/debian-sid-amd64-NETINST-1.iso
It's supposed to have the firmware available for loading before speech
starts.

Just tried it, and it works! The sound card is detected and the speech
synthesis is functional.

\o/

Thanks for testing!
Samuel