intel_debug: add suggestions for DMIC and ES8336 platforms

getting_started/intel_debug/suggestions.rst

@@ -140,3 +140,139 @@ to snd_sof module:
 .. code-block::
 
    options snd_sof sof_debug=1
+
+
+Digital mic issues
+******************
+
+The SOF driver and firmware have limited information related to the
+number of digital microphones and their physical location.
+
+On devices designed for Windows, the presence of the microphone is
+reported as an NHLT endpoint (ACPI table in the BIOS). The SOF Linux
+driver will report this information with a 'dmesg' log such as
+
+.. code-block::
+
+   [    4.301490] sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl 0000:00:1f.3: DMICs detected in NHLT tables: 2
+
+Recent versions of the ACPICA tools (acpica-tools package) can also be
+used to visualize the ACPI tables.
+
+In some instances the number of DMICs reported by the NHLT does not
+match the hardware layout. The SOF driver provides a means to alter
+the value with a kernel parameter which can be added in
+/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf (or any other configuration file with
+this .conf extension). A reboot is necessary after changing the value
+
+.. code-block::
+
+   options snd_sof_intel_hda_common dmic_num=4
+
+The following command can then be used to check if the microphones are active at the lowest level
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   arecord -Dhw:0,6 -c4 -r48000 -sS32_LE -d 10 test.wav
+
+In 99% of the cases, hardware designers connect the two microphones on
+the PDM0 controller. Some platforms use PDM1, which cannot really be
+detected by the OS. By capturing in 4ch mode, it's possible that
+channel3 and 4 capture data while channel0 and channel1 only show
+signs of transitions and DC-removal. Simply talking or recording music
+in this 10s test, then visualizing the recorded file with Audacity is
+often enough to diagnose the presence of 2 microphones on the 'wrong'
+PDM controller.
+
+In that case, a different topology file needs to be used, typically
+sof-hda-generic-2ch-pdm1.tplg. On older distributions, it will be
+necessary to override the file installed in
+/lib/firmware/intel/sof-tplg/sof-hda-generic-2ch.tplg. On kernels
+5.20+ a kernel parameter will be enough with no need to change and
+override installed topology files, e.g.
+
+.. code-block::
+
+   options snd-sof-pci tplg_filename=sof-hda-generic-2ch-pdm1.tplg
+
+These PDM1 issues are tracked in GitHub with the label 'DMIC-PDM1' in the
+`firmware issues <https://github.com/thesofproject/sof/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3ADMIC-PDM1>`_
+and in the `Linux issues <https://github.com/thesofproject/linux/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3ADMIC-PDM1>`_.
+
+Users running Linux distributions on Chromebooks routinely experience
+issues with digital microphones. In the Chrome environment, the
+topology always exposes 4 channels, and UCM files for specific
+platforms specify which of the 4 channels are valid. A plugin will
+then drop the useless/non-populated channels. This capability does not
+exist yet in upstream UCM/Linux. Capturing with the 'arecord; command
+above will help understand which channels are valid and configure UCM
+files.
+
+ES8336 support
+**************
+
+Since 2021, a number of OEMs relied on the ES8336 codec from Everest
+Audio on platforms as varied as AppoloLake, GeminiLake, JasperLake,
+CometLake, AlderLake.
+
+End-users can verify if the hardware uses this configuration by
+running the 'alsa-info' command and checking for the presence an ACPI
+_HID, e.g.
+
+.. code-block::
+
+   /sys/bus/acpi/devices/ESSX8336:00/status 	 15
+
+.. code-block::
+
+   /sys/bus/acpi/devices/ESSX8326:00/status 	 15
+
+Support for this platform only stated upstream with the kernel
+5.19-rc1. Any attempts with earlier kernels will require backports and
+experimental patches to be added.  In the case of the 8326, the codec
+vendor submitted a driver to the ALSA/ASoC maintainers, which was not
+merged as of July 2022. In this specific case end-users will be forced
+to compile their own kernel.
+
+The SOF driver implemented an automatic detection of the SSP/I2S port
+used by hardware and the presence of digital microphones based on
+platform firmware/NHLT.
+
+There are however a number of hardware configurations that cannot be
+detected from platform firmware. To work-around this limitation, the
+'sof-es8336' machine driver exposes a 'quirk' kernel parameter which
+can be used for modify GPIO and jack detection settings. Existing
+quirks are listed in the sound/soc/intel/boards/sof_es8336.c machine
+driver:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+   #define SOF_ES8336_SPEAKERS_EN_GPIO1_QUIRK	BIT(4)
+   #define SOF_ES8336_JD_INVERTED		BIT(6)
+   #define SOF_ES8336_HEADPHONE_GPIO		BIT(7)
+   #define SOC_ES8336_HEADSET_MIC1		BIT(8)
+
+
+The default quirk value for the platform can be read from
+/sys/module/snd_soc_sof_es8336/parameters/quirk (the value is reported
+as plain integer, not hexadecimal). Changes to the default can be
+added with the following option in
+e.g. /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf. Only the bits listed above can be
+modified, others need to be kept as is.
+
+.. code-block::
+
+   options snd_soc_sof_es8336 quirk=<value>
+
+Changing quirk values is an extremely experimental endeavor that
+should only attempted by users with working knowledge of the Linux
+audio subsystem and an understanding that playing with hardware
+settings MAY DAMAGE HARDWARE or generate extremely loud sounds that
+MAY DAMAGE YOUR HEARING.
+
+In rare cases, some platforms use the MCLK1 signal instead of
+MCLK0. As of July 2022, there is no turn-key solution for those
+platforms.
+
+These ES8336 issues are tracked in GitHub with the label 'codec
+ES8336' in the `Linux ES8336 issues <https://github.com/thesofproject/linux/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue++label%3A%22codec+ES8336%22>`_.