New Realtek Audio Support, VirtIO Sound Driver Ready To Play On Linux 5.13

While PipeWire continues garnering interest this year for improving Linux sound in user-space, the kernel's sound drivers continue to be improved upon as well and tacking on support for new devices.

On Friday the Linux 5.13 sound updates were sent out and subsequently merged to mainline. For this next kernel version there is the introduction of a VirtIO Sound driver that complies with the new VirtIO sound device specification that is part of this I/O virtualization standard. The VirtIO sound is intended for use-cases where audio is needed but device pass-through or emulation is not available or preferred.

Also notable on the sound support front is the Realtek RT1019, RT1316, RT711 and RT715 all being supported by Linux 5.13.

The sound pull also has updates to existing support like headphone and headset microphone volume control now wired up for the Cirrus driver, continued work on Intel Sound Open Firmware, a common mute LED framework was introduced, better support for Pioneer and Roland/BOSS USB audio devices, and more.

See the full list of sound feature changes for Linux 5.13 via this pull request.