WM8960-Soundcard Service Failure on Raspberry Pi with Kernel 6.12.2

[zytegalaxy]

Raspberry Pi has release the new kernel version 6.12.2 (a bump from 6.6.74) in March 2025. This has broken the WM8960 audio / sound card.

I get the following error when running aplay: unable to install hw params

[AndyW999]

I have submitted a request via tech support for this.

WM8960 HAT.txt

[zytegalaxy]

@AndyW999 Thanks for the quick response on this. I have been investigating this a bit further. I was able to get the audio working on kernel 6.12.20 by installing seeed studio driver from here:

https://github.com/HinTak/seeed-voicecard/tree/v6.12

I tried to diff files between this repo and seeed driver repo to find out what has changed but was not able to pin point the change.

One thing to notice that I am getting No MCLK configured error in dmeg logs on 6.12.20

---

I have another question. I noticed that Waveshare wm8960 soundcard already has its overlay in Raspberry Pi overlays and was wondering if this would mean we can avoid driver installation and use the codec in sound/soc/codecs/wm8960.c?

https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/master/boot/overlays

Name:   wm8960-soundcard
Info:   Overlay for the Waveshare wm8960 soundcard
Load:   dtoverlay=wm8960-soundcard,<param>=<val>
Params: alsaname                Changes the card name in ALSA
        compatible              Changes the codec compatibility

[AndyW999]

I just tried the Seeed one on a new Pi install and upgrade but it did not work for me -

andy@raspberrypi:~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: vc4hdmi0 [vc4-hdmi-0], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: vc4hdmi1 [vc4-hdmi-1], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: seeed2micvoicec [seeed-2mic-voicecard], device 0: bcm2835-i2s-wm8960-hifi wm8960-hifi-0 [bcm2835-i2s-wm8960-hifi wm8960-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
andy@raspberrypi:~ $ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 2: seeed2micvoicec [seeed-2mic-voicecard], device 0: bcm2835-i2s-wm8960-hifi wm8960-hifi-0 [bcm2835-i2s-wm8960-hifi wm8960-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
andy@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo arecord -f cd -Dhw:2 | aplay -Dhw:2
Recording WAVE 'stdin' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
arecord: set_params:1416: Unable to install hw params:
ACCESS: RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT: S16_LE
SUBFORMAT: STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 16
FRAME_BITS: 32
CHANNELS: 2
RATE: 44100
PERIOD_TIME: (125011 125012)
PERIOD_SIZE: 5513
PERIOD_BYTES: 22052
PERIODS: 4
BUFFER_TIME: (500045 500046)
BUFFER_SIZE: 22052
BUFFER_BYTES: 88208
TICK_TIME: 0
aplay: read_header:2912: read error
andy@raspberrypi:~ $

[zytegalaxy]

@AndyW999 Did you make sure to checkout v6.12 branch from HinTak seeed repo? (git checkout v6.12)?

Also, I upgrade kernel first (sudo apt upgrade) before installing the driver.

[AndyW999]

Did all that and also out the dts file in my config.txt but it did not work

andy@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 6.12.20+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.20-1+rpt1~bpo12+1 (2025-03-19) aarch64 GNU/Linux

andy@raspberrypi:~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: seeed2micvoicec [seeed-2mic-voicecard], device 0: bcm2835-i2s-wm8960-hifi wm8960-hifi-0 [bcm2835-i2s-wm8960-hifi wm8960-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: vc4hdmi0 [vc4-hdmi-0], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: vc4hdmi1 [vc4-hdmi-1], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
andy@raspberrypi:~ $ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: seeed2micvoicec [seeed-2mic-voicecard], device 0: bcm2835-i2s-wm8960-hifi wm8960-hifi-0 [bcm2835-i2s-wm8960-hifi wm8960-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
andy@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo arecord -f cd -Dhw:0 | aplay -Dhw:0
Recording WAVE 'stdin' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
arecord: set_params:1416: Unable to install hw params:
ACCESS: RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT: S16_LE
SUBFORMAT: STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 16
FRAME_BITS: 32
CHANNELS: 2
RATE: 44100
PERIOD_TIME: (125011 125012)
PERIOD_SIZE: 5513
PERIOD_BYTES: 22052
PERIODS: 4
BUFFER_TIME: (500045 500046)
BUFFER_SIZE: 22052
BUFFER_BYTES: 88208
TICK_TIME: 0
aplay: read_header:2912: read error
andy@raspberrypi:~ $

[zytegalaxy]

@AndyW999 I tried installing seeed driver again and it worked for me. Are you sure you checked out the v6.12 branch and installed from that?

[AndyW999]

Possibly not.
I went to https://github.com/HinTak/seeed-voicecard/tree/v6.12 and downloaded the zip and used that - is this not correct?

[zytegalaxy]

@AndyW999 please clone the repo (git clone https://github.com/HinTak/seeed-voicecard) and inside the repo run git checkout v6.12 to make sure you are on that branch. I am not sure if the zip file will contain the branch code or the whole repo code. You can run git branch to make sure you are on the correct branch.

[AndyW999]

Yes, it works!

But... this kernel update seems to have broken other things...

Click the Rpi Icon, then shutdown and the shutdown menu does not appear.

I also use GPOI3 for shutdown -
dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown
And that has stopped working too!

I did try an apt-mark hold on the kernel but when I did an update it ignored it and updated the kernel anyway.

[AndyW999]

Looks like there has been an update that fixes the Shutdown problems...

I wonder what else was not checked properly ;)

[AndyW999]

I used the seeed-2mic-voicecard overlay.

My problem now is that the RPi volume control in the menu bar controls the speaker rather than the headphones - any suggestions?

[elgringoYan]

I am having this same exact problem with Pi Zero 2W

[zytegalaxy]

I fixed the issue. Seems like some API names have changed in Kernel 6.12.20 and wm8960-soundcard.c needed to get updated. I will create a PR momentarily and the maintainer will hopefully accept and merge it quickly

[elgringoYan]

Great News ! Thank you

…

On Wed, Apr 2, 2025 at 8:28 PM Zyte ***@***.***> wrote: I fixed the issue. Seems like some API names have changed in Kernel 6.12.20 and wm8960-soundcard.c needed to get updated. I will create a PR momentarily and the maintainer will hopefully accept and merge it quickly — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#68 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AYDTIAUGCNUBB3WCZOBYLA32XR6CLAVCNFSM6AAAAAB2IEQN2WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDONZUGAZTSMRYGU> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***> [image: zytegalaxy]*zytegalaxy* left a comment (waveshareteam/WM8960-Audio-HAT#68) <#68 (comment)> I fixed the issue. Seems like some API names have changed in Kernel 6.12.20 and wm8960-soundcard.c needed to get updated. I will create a PR momentarily and the maintainer will hopefully accept and merge it quickly — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#68 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AYDTIAUGCNUBB3WCZOBYLA32XR6CLAVCNFSM6AAAAAB2IEQN2WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDONZUGAZTSMRYGU> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>