Dennis HilkLinux diagnosticsDE

Audio devices

Intel Cougar Point HDA controller

A PCI HDA controller identity from Intel’s Cougar Point family, with a separately enumerated audio codec.

Editorial source review: Share public profileOpen in the identification tool
On this page
  1. Overview & identity
  2. Driver & binding
  3. Firmware
  4. Read-only diagnostics
  5. Limitations & related issues
  6. References

Overview & identity

The HDA_CPT constant resolves to 1c20 for vendor 8086. The controller ID does not reveal whether the attached codec is Realtek, another vendor, or which motherboard jack is connected.

Curated identifiers
pci 8086:1c20

A numeric match establishes a candidate family within the reviewed evidence. Marketing names, board variants, subsystem conditions and successful operation remain separate questions.

Driver & binding

snd_hda_intel is the checked PCI controller candidate; codec drivers build the controls and PCM routes above it. First distinguish controller binding, codec enumeration, ALSA endpoints and desktop output selection.

  • snd_hda_intel — kernel driver/module candidate

Detected, bound, operational: learn the difference

Firmware

Conditional firmware path

The controller source supports an optional user-specified HDA patch file. No mandatory external firmware filename was established for this PCI identity.

Inspect firmware packaging on your distribution

Read-only diagnostics

Run one displayed command at a time. Replace uppercase placeholders with the affected device, interface or module from your own output. Commands are never executed here. Read-only output can still contain private identifiers.

Inspect the PCI function and binding

lspci -nnk -s BDF

Replace BDF with the complete address, for example 0000:00:14.0. This read-only query needs pciutils and normally no sudo. “Kernel driver in use” is observed binding; “Kernel modules” lists candidates.

Read HDA codec descriptions

cat /proc/asound/card*/codec*

Read available HDA codec proc files without changing mixer controls. Normally no sudo is required. Codec vendor/subsystem IDs are HDA identities and must not be interpreted as the PCI controller VID/DID; unavailable proc entries leave this layer unknown.

List kernel ALSA cards

cat /proc/asound/cards

Read the current ALSA card list without sudo. Card indexes can change after reboot; an existing card does not yet establish the selected desktop output or usable wiring. A missing file can also reflect unavailable procfs/ALSA support.

Limitations & related issues

The PCI match does not establish a working microphone or speaker route. The source supports optional administrator-selected HDA patch firmware, but no default patch filename is implied for this controller.

These guides are linked for relevant observations, not as known defects of every device in this family.

Choose a hardware diagnostic workflow · Inspect a log excerpt in Fix Lab

References

Source review records a checked implementation or document, not a reproduced hardware test. Version-specific tables do not establish a minimum kernel or guaranteed operation.