Setting up audio qube - qube fails to start with PCI device(s) attached

User Support
1

I am trying to setup a audio qube but run into issues attaching the PCI audio device(s) to the qube. Once I assign a PCI audio device to the qube, it fails to start. The qvm-start command freezes and seemingly everything that uses qubes rpc freezes as well. Qube Manager becomes unresponsive for example. No log files for the audio qube are created under /var/log/xen/.

PCI devices overview:

dom0:00_00.0          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Root Complex                                               
dom0:00_00.2          IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan IOMMU                                                           
dom0:00_01.0          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_01.1          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_01.2          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_02.0          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_02.1          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_02.1-00_00.0  Storage: Micron Technology Inc 3500 NVMe SSD                                                                      
dom0:00_02.3          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_02.3-00_00.0  Network: MEDIATEK Corp. unknown pci device                                                                        sys-net (attached)
dom0:00_02.4          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_02.4-00_00.0  Network: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller           sys-net (attached)
dom0:00_03.0          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_08.0          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                 
dom0:00_08.1          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to Bus A                        
dom0:00_08.1-00_00.0  Display: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Krackan [Radeon 840M / 860M Graphics]                             
dom0:00_08.1-00_00.1  Audio: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio Controller [Rembrandt/Strix]           
dom0:00_08.1-00_00.2  Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Strix/Krackan/Strix Halo CCP/ASP                        
dom0:00_08.1-00_00.4  PCI_USB: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                    sys-usb (attached: no-strict-reset=True)
dom0:00_08.1-00_00.5  Multimedia: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Audio Coprocessor                                                  
dom0:00_08.1-00_00.6  Audio: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio Controller                                  
dom0:00_08.2          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to Bus B                        
dom0:00_08.2-00_00.0  Non-Essential Instrumentation: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan PCIe Dummy Function                     
dom0:00_08.2-00_00.1  Signal processing controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Strix/Krackan/Strix Halo Neural Processing Unit  
dom0:00_08.3          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to Bus C                        
dom0:00_08.3-00_00.0  PCI_USB: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                    sys-usb (attached: no-strict-reset=True)
dom0:00_08.3-00_00.3  PCI_USB: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                    sys-usb (attached: no-strict-reset=True)
dom0:00_08.3-00_00.4  PCI_USB: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                    sys-usb (attached: no-strict-reset=True)
dom0:00_08.3-00_00.5  PCI_USB: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                    sys-usb (attached: no-strict-reset=True)
dom0:00_08.3-00_00.6  PCI_USB: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] unknown pci device                                                    sys-usb (attached: no-strict-reset=True)
dom0:00_14.0          PCI_Serial_Bus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller                                           
dom0:00_14.3          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge                                                     
dom0:00_18.0          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Data Fabric; Function 0                                    
dom0:00_18.1          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Data Fabric; Function 1                                    
dom0:00_18.2          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Data Fabric; Function 2                                    
dom0:00_18.3          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Data Fabric; Function 3                                    
dom0:00_18.4          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Data Fabric; Function 4                                    
dom0:00_18.5          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Data Fabric; Function 5                                    
dom0:00_18.6          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Data Fabric; Function 6                                    
dom0:00_18.7          PCI_Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Krackan Data Fabric; Function 7

I identified 3 audio devices:

dom0:00_08.1-00_00.1  Audio: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio Controller [Rembrandt/Strix]           
dom0:00_08.1-00_00.5  Multimedia: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Audio Coprocessor                                                  
dom0:00_08.1-00_00.6  Audio: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio Controller

Attaching one or all of the devices above give me the same result. I have tried the permissive option with qvm assign as well.

Hardware: Lenovo Thinkpad P16 Gen 4 AMD Ryzen AI Pro 7.
QubesOS: 4.3-rc2

Not sure where to go from here to be honest. Any pointers on next steps or what to look for are much appreciated.

2

Are your audio qube is in HVM mode?

3

Did you try to attach only this device?

Check the logs in these files:

/var/log/libvirt/libxl/libxl-driver.log
/var/log/xen/console/guest-QUBENAME-dm.log
/var/log/xen/console/hypervisor.*

You can also check the dom0 log using journalctl command.

4

Yes it is.

Added qvm-prefs output below.

audiovm             D  sys-audio-2
auto_cleanup        D  False
autostart           D  False
backup_timestamp    U
bootmode            D  default
debug               D  False
default_dispvm      -  None
default_user        D  user
devices_denied      D  
dispid              -  9170
dns                 D  
gateway             D  
gateway6            D  
guivm               D  dom0
icon                D  dispvm-red
include_in_backups  D  True
installed_by_rpm    D  False
ip                  D  
ip6                 D  
is_preload          D  False
kernel              -  6.12.47-1.fc41
kernelopts          D  
keyboard_layout     D  us+dvorak-alt-intl+
klass               D  DispVM
label               -  red
mac                 D  00:16:3e:5e:6c:00
management_dispvm   D  default-mgmt-dvm
maxmem              -  0
memory              -  1000
name                -  sys-audio-2
netvm               -  None
provides_network    -  False
qid                 -  24
qrexec_timeout      D  60
shutdown_timeout    D  60
start_time          D  
stubdom_mem         U
stubdom_uuid        D  
stubdom_xid         D  -1
template            -  sys-audio-dvm
updateable          D  False
uuid                -  9de34b95-f078-4ab6-8e60-d92244b1edea
vcpus               D  2
virt_mode           -  hvm
visible_gateway     D  
visible_gateway6    D  
visible_ip          D  
visible_ip6         D  
visible_netmask     D  
xid                 D  -1
5

Only attaching the Audio Coprocessor gives the same behavior.

The journal in dom0 gives nothing interesting:

Sep 29 20:37:16 dom0 systemd[5258]: Started vte-spawn-ccb632b1-ba6d-4a5c-a230-633ebb134960.scope - VTE child process 6111 launched by xfce4-terminal process 6099.
Sep 29 20:37:26 dom0 qubesd[2480]: INFO: vm.sys-audio-2: Starting qube sys-audio-2
Sep 29 20:40:28 dom0 systemd[5258]: Started vte-spawn-f65f8e13-fdce-41f8-a95c-3c2bf7724bbb.scope - VTE child process 6159 launched by xfce4-terminal process 6099.

checked /var/log/libvirt/libxl/libxl-driver.log not relevant I think, timestamps don’t add up.

2025-09-29 17:37:33.588+0000: libxl: libxl_pci.c:2308:pci_remove_detached: Domain 2:xc_physdev_unmap_pirq irq=47: Invalid argument
2025-09-29 17:38:31.218+0000: libxl: libxl_event.c:855:libxl__ev_xswatch_deregister: remove watch for path @releaseDomain: Bad file descriptor
2025-09-29 18:42:41.714+0000: libxl: libxl_pci.c:2308:pci_remove_detached: Domain 4:xc_physdev_unmap_pirq irq=47: Invalid argument
2025-09-29 18:42:47.255+0000: libxl: libxl_event.c:855:libxl__ev_xswatch_deregister: remove watch for path @releaseDomain: Bad file descriptor

Nothing in /var/log/xen/console/hypervisor around that time and /var/log/xen/console/guest-sys-audio-2-dm.log is not created.

6

Check the IOMMU groups and try to hide the audio devices from dom0 like this: