The topic Linux 7.1 finally fixes a 2-year-old Steam Deck OLED audio issue is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
If you’ve owned a Steam Deck OLED for a few years, you may have noticed that the Linux 6.8 kernel messed with its audio probe. It happened late in 2023, and for years, people were waiting for a patch to be released for it. As it turns out, the lack of any updates wasn’t due to nobody caring, but because the problem required some delicate care to ensure it didn’t break everything else in the process.
Well, the Steam Deck OLED audio issue has now been fixed, and the patch has been merged into the Linux 7.1-rc2 build. And if testing goes smoothly, Steam Deck OLED owners should get their audio probes back in a few weeks.
The hardware is nice, but the label is what finally makes it usable.
As spotted by Phoronix, a new patch has been merged into Linux 7.1. Titled “ASoC: amd: acp: Add DMI quirk for Valve Steam Deck OLED” and authored by Guilherme G. Piccoli, the patch aims to fix the Steam Deck OLED’s audio probe that stopped working two years ago. The problem didn’t affect the LCD model; it was just the OLED version that got hit.
However, as Piccoli states, to say that the feature “broke” is an overstatement:
Commit 671dd2ffbd8b introduced a change that “broke” Steam Deck’s audio probe, in the OLED model
Notice the quotes in “broke”: it’s not really a bug in such commit, but instead a problem with a topology file from Steam Deck OLED. This was discussed to great extent in, and Cristian proposed a pretty simple and functional change that resolved the issue for the Deck’s issue. That change, though, would break other devices, so it wasn’t accepted upstream. And the proper suggested solution (fix the topology) was never implemented, so Valve’s kernel (and anyone that wants to boot the mainline on Steam Deck OLED) is carrying that fix downstream.
Piccoli’s proposed solution was to use a “DMI quirk” to ensure the audio issue gets fixed with the Steam Deck OLED, without the changes in the code affecting any other devices. That way, the patch will only affect Steam Deck OLEDs and won’t break things on other computers. It seems the solution was sound, as the patch has since been merged into the Linux 7.1-rc2 release, which should be released pretty soon for testing.
Valve wants to make it possible for gamers to play anywhere.