Lenovo 500e (Apollo Lake) Headphone Jack Silent under Lubuntu 22.04 SOF — Need Custom SOF(baxt-da7219 and max98357a)/Kernel Patch

I’m running Lubuntu 22.04 on a Lenovo 500e Chromebook (1st Gen, Apollo Lake Celeron N3450 . The audio hardware is driven by Intel SOF with a DA7219 codec + MAX98357A amplifier . While SOF firmware now loads and internal speakers work, the headphone jack is detected but silent , and unplugging doesn’t revert back to speakers.

What I’ve tried so far

  1. Kernel : Upgraded to Linux 6.8 — SOF modules (snd_sof_pci_intel_apl , etc.) load.
  2. Firmware/Topology : Installed firmware-sof-signed ; manually copied sof-apl.ri and sof-apl-rt298.tplg .
  3. Modprobe configs : Forced options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=3 , hda_model=da7219-max98357a .
  4. PulseAudio tweaks : Edited /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/... to mute/unmute speakers.
  5. UCM overrides : Created /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/sofbxtda7219max/ profiles.
  6. Scripts & services : udev + systemd + pactl subscribe listener to force port switching.

Despite all that, headphone audio remains routed to speakers only, auto‑revert to speakers doesn’t occur, and no bluetooth .

Specs :

  • Lubuntu 22.04 (LXQt) 64‑bit

  • Kernel 6.8.0-…

  • SOF firmware v1.8 (manually installed)(will change in required)

  • Codec: Realtek DA7219 + MAX98357A

Has anyone successfully enabled headphone audio on this hardware under Linux?
I suspect a custom SOF topology patch or kernel quirk is needed for the DA7219+MAX98357A mix used on this Chromebook.

Any guidance on a custom SOF topology(i cant build one) or applying a kernel quirk would be hugely appreciated.

I want a smooth working, lightweight chrultrabook. ready to change distro if there is something better

i just want to be able to use browsers with multiple tabs and some apps with two users

Anyone?

Audio Card Not Detected — Lenovo 500e Chromebook (1st Gen, SOF) on Linux Mint XFCE

Hi, I’m running into persistent audio issues on a Lenovo 500e Chromebook (1st Gen) using Linux Mint XFCE (based on Debian).
My Main Problem:
Audio card is not detected at all in Mint XFCE.
No audio profiles or output ports show up in pavucontrol, alsamixer, or alsaucm.
System is using SOF firmware with correct topology and UCM files already installed.

System Details:

Device Lenovo 500e Chromebook (1st Gen)
CPU Intel Celeron N3450 (Apollo Lake)
Audio chip DA7219 + MAX98357A (SOF-based audio)
Kernel Linux Mint XFCE 21.x base (Debian compatible)
Sound driver SOF (Sound Open Firmware)
Init system systemd
PipeWire Not installed (caused lag/system issues)
PulseAudio Removed

I Already Installed:
SOF firmware present in /lib/firmware/intel/sof/…
Topology file (e.g., sof-apl-da7219-max98357a.tplg) is present
UCM2 folder /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/sof-bxt-da7219-max98357a/ exists and contains:
HiFi.conf
sof-bxt-da7219-max98357a.conf

Diagnostic Commands I tried:

cat /proc/asound/cards → --- no soundcards ---
alsaucm listcards → nothing
alsaucm -c sof-bxt-da7219-max98357a → no output
pavucontrol → no ports or devices listed at all
dmesg → shows SOF firmware loads successfully (no major error)

I Already Tried:

Verified SOF firmware + topology + UCM2 files
Removed PulseAudio cleanly
Tried custom .asoundrc workaround (fails as card is missing)
Tried installing PipeWire (causes UI lag + broken audio system)
Manual modprobe of SOF modules (snd_sof_pci_intel_apl) — no cards detected
Tried restarting ALSA, reboots, alternate profiles — no help

What I Suspect(using GPT):
Either the kernel doesn’t bind to the audio device properly
Or the UCM2 profile isn’t being matched to the hardware ID
Or the topology/UCM data needs quirk patches or a newer kernel

so
Has anyone gotten sound working on this device (or similar Apollo Lake Chromebook)?
Do I need a custom kernel or SOF patch to make it work?
Can anyone share a working UCM2 or sof config for this specific chip: sof-bxt-da7219-max98357a?
Should I just switch to another distro like Fedora or Ubuntu 24.04(keep in mind that i am using 4GB ram & 28(32)GB ROM), which may support this out of the box?