Hey !

I had the same troubles with my XPS 17 9700, both on Ubuntu 20.10 and 21.04. I did fix the problem on 20.10 by following the instructions in this thread, and it works on 20.04 as well.

Basically you have to install an in-development version of the Linux kernel that Canonical's teams are working hard on to integrate all the latest hardware of recent computers such as this one, work that Dell did not care to do when they developped this machine.

For Ubuntu 20.04

sudo apt-get install linux-oem-20.04b

For 20.10 (from this comment)

sed -e 's,groovy,focal,' /etc/apt/sources.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/focal.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-oem-20.04b

For 21.04

sed -e 's,hirsute,focal,' /etc/apt/sources.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/focal.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-oem-20.04b

1. If there is no problem with your computer's hardware and driver, the reason why the microphone cannot be used is probably in the software settings.

2. First, click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen, which is the start menu. Then click the set icon.

3. After the setting window opens, scroll to the bottom and select "Privacy".

4. After opening the privacy window, find the "Microphone" option in "App Permissions" on the left.

5. Then, scroll on the right side of the window, find "Allow desktop apps to access the microphone", and open the button below it.

I am using Ubuntu 21.04. Now is working as good as new machine!

https://www.instagram.com/p/COPtbkkgL0x/

I fixed it by recompiling the kernel and added the below two lines to the .config:
CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_USER_FRIENDLY_LONG_NAMES=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_SOUNDWIRE_SOF_MACH=m

Also modify the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf:
blacklist snd_hda_intel

Basically is the ubuntu latest kernel missed out some configuration. Then, just following the steps to recompile the kernel and install the firmware. If anyone needs help, let me know. I can try to help out here.

This is my whole solution that works for me and I had documented it. Hope to help someone out there like me having the same issue.

https://www.bluebert.info/?p=521

I'm on 21.04 and it didn't seem to work, see logs:

For 21.04

sed -e 's,hirsute,focal,' /etc/apt/sources.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/focal.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-oem-20.04b

 

---

Building module:
cleaning build area...
make -j16 KERNELRELEASE=5.10.0-1026-oem KVER=5.10.0-1026-oem...........(bad exit status: 2)
ERROR (dkms apport): binary package for soundwire: 1.4.0 not found
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.10.0-1026-oem (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/soundwire/1.4.0/build/make.log for more information.
...done.
Setting up linux-headers-oem-20.04b (5.10.0.1026.27) ...
Setting up linux-image-oem-20.04b (5.10.0.1026.27) ...
Setting up linux-oem-20.04b (5.10.0.1026.27) ...
Processing triggers for linux-image-5.10.0-1026-oem (5.10.0-1026.27) ...
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms:
* dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 5.10.0-1026-oem

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel. Skipping...

Building module:
cleaning build area...
make -j16 KERNELRELEASE=5.10.0-1026-oem KVER=5.10.0-1026-oem...........(bad exit status: 2)
ERROR (dkms apport): binary package for soundwire: 1.4.0 not found
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.10.0-1026-oem (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/soundwire/1.4.0/build/make.log for more information.
...done.
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-1026-oem
I: The initramfs will attempt to resume from /dev/dm-2
I: (/dev/mapper/vgubuntu-swap_1)
I: Set the RESUME variable to override this.
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub:
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.11.0-17-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.11.0-17-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-1026-oem
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-1026-oem
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-50-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.8.0-50-generic
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings
done

However I do have soundwire on my system so not sure why it didn't find it:

/usr/src/soundwire-1.4.0
/usr/src/soundwire-1.4.0/include/dkms/linux/soundwire
/usr/src/soundwire-1.4.0/soundwire-dkms
/usr/src/soundwire-1.4.0/soundwire-dkms/include/dkms/linux/soundwire
/usr/src/soundwire-1.4.0/soundwire-dkms/soundwire
/usr/src/soundwire-1.4.0/soundwire

Thanks a lot, that kernel build helped a lot. I found however that there was one part still missing (from the Launchpad issue):

git clone https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf.git
sudo apt remove alsa-ucm-conf
cd /usr/share/alsa/
sudo ln -s "$HOME/dev/alsa-ucm-conf/ucm2" ucm2
reboot

With that I got back sound. Thanks!!

PS: I'm trying to dual boot with Windows 10.

Sorry, this is not on-topic.  I have just taken delivery of a new XPS-17 9700 and have followed various links to install Ubuntu 20.04.  I'm stuck at the installation stage where it doesn't like RST.  I changed some register keys from 3 to zero and then changed the BIOS to from RST to AHCI.  This stopped booting.  Can you suggest where I might get better instructions please.

Im gettin error when building kernel, have you got any solution for that?

dpkg-source: info: using source format '1.0'

dpkg-source: warning: source directory 'linux-5.11.17' is not - 'linux-5.11.17-custom-5.11.17'
dpkg-source: warning: .orig directory name linux-5.11.17.orig is not - (wanted linux-5.11.17-custom-5.11.17.orig)
dpkg-source: info: building linux-5.11.17-custom using existing linux-5.11.17-custom_5.11.17.orig.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: building linux-5.11.17-custom in linux-5.11.17-custom_5.11.17-1.diff.gz
dpkg-source: warning: ignoring deletion of file .scmversion
dpkg-source: error: cannot represent change to ..config.swp: binary file contents changed
dpkg-source: warning: the diff modifies the following upstream files:  
.clang-format
.cocciconfig
.config.old
.get_maintainer.ignore
.mailmap
CREDITS
MAINTAINERS
README
dpkg-source: info: use the '3.0 (quilt)' format to have separate and documented changes to upstream files, see dpkg-source(1)
dpkg-source: error: unrepresentable changes to source
dpkg-buildpackage: error: dpkg-source -i.git -b . subprocess returned exit status 1
make[1]: *** [scripts/Makefile.package:77: deb-pkg] Error 1
make: *** [Makefile:1548: deb-pkg] Error 2