Talk:Sound system

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Latest comment: 12 February by Lahwaacz in topic Mention a not-so-niche issue

Reverted changes on sof-firmware

Ok, I got a revision reverted on sof-firmware related data because "it is not driver nor interface"

What should I do then? Create a firmware section for this article?

It is a valuable information for those that build PCs "from ground" since this information is only available on specific pages for specific laptop models where this problem was mapped. Consumer grade PCs that are not assembled from a specific brand may need this info, and some minor variations of laptops not yet on this wiki as well...

--Risthel (talk) 12:08, 13 July 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]

sof-firmware is mentioned in Advanced Linux Sound Architecture#ALSA firmware and Installation guide#Install essential packages. — Lahwaacz (talk) 19:39, 13 July 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Mention a not-so-niche issue

There seems to a bug in the firmware that prevents the embedded sound card from working after a reboot from Windows. I've detailed the information here for my specific model, but I know the problem is not specific to Arch as I've experienced it with Ubuntu too. I'm not sure if the problem is specific to the Linux firmware, or to my laptop model, or something else, or a combination, but it gave me headaches for weeks and I tried everything in the top 50+ Google search results, everything related to ALSA, PulseAudio, PipeWire, etc. before finally stumbling across that one niche article.

Because the problem is prevalent (other models and distributions have this problem too), and causes huge headaches and the solution was barely listed in a very niche article (that I linked above), I think it's really important to mention this on a more general and more accessible page. Because this article is the first one that users will go to when researching sound, and this is also the article that the search term "sound" redirects to, this information should be listed here, in, say, a heading like "Troubleshooting". Krove (talk) 16:51, 22 December 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]

ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530 is not a "niche" article, but a logical place where to describe the issue. How can it be described on a general page like Sound system when you don't know which specific hardware or software it applies to? — Lahwaacz (talk) 11:55, 26 December 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]
You basically answered your own question. We don't know what hardware is affected by this issue, which means a general page like this is exactly where this should be mentioned. If this feels wrong to you, let me remind you that about a quarter of the Arch wiki "landing" articles have things mentioned like this (from my reading experience), where a "small" issue, whose source and/or affected system(s) are unknown, which is why it's mentioned in the "main" page for that feature/subsystem/topic/etc.
Also, yes, the article you say is niche. If someone that doesn't have that model tries to research that issue, they'll never go to that page because it's supposed to contain information for that specific model. They expect that if they also have that issue, it's not model specific, and should be mentioned on a more general page. If you still argue that that's how it should be, then I suppose a major part of this wiki needs a rewrite and future users need to read articles regardless of whether they have the hardware mentioned in it, because that's the only way they'll find what they're looking for.
This wiki is supposed to be an information repository, one that future users can use to learn and diagnose their problems. None of this information matters if it's not made sensibly accessible. I, as a power user, didn't know for a long time that there was an article for my model, other, probably casual, users will only have it worse. Krove (talk) 13:00, 8 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]
The wiki is not meant to provide a bunch of "try this, if you have a problem" and "try that, if this does not work" advices. Every "solution" must be attributed to a specific problem in a way that identifies the smallest group of affected people. If you want to move it to this page, you need to identify the hardware/firmware and conditions for which the solution is applicable.
If you notice other places where a general solution is not adequately attributed to a problem, please let us know so we can fix that. The current state is not an excuse to make it worse.
Lahwaacz (talk) 17:01, 12 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]