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After scanning hardware drivers, I see hda driver with dkms , and it asks if I want to activate it. I Googled it, but I can only find a generic description having to do with audio. Can anyone tell me what specifically it's for, and if I should activate?

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The folowing text is mostly copied from:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/UpgradingAlsa/DKMS

HDA driver is the driver for internal "HDA Intel" sound cards (if your computer is from 2005 or newer, you almost certainly have a "HDA Intel" sound card for handling internal speakers, headphone jacks and microphones). USB or Bluetooth sound will not be affected.

DKMS is a method to recompile kernel modules locally whenever the rest of the kernel changes. This means that you do not add a ppa: instead you download the package once and install it, confirm that it fixes your problem, and you're done. When you install a new kernel, as you regularly do if you have the updates repository enabled (this is recommended), DKMS will automatically recompile your existing DKMS package to fit the new kernel.

You can use this method if the latest ALSA snapshot works for you currently, and you just want the what's currently the latest (without having to stay updated with newer snapshots).

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  • It also fixes a lot of bugs and replaces the old driver for the same pre-2005 cards.
    – Richard
    Nov 4, 2013 at 22:17
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The snd-hda-intel module (or just hda) is for modern onboard sound cards. If you plan on using your onboard audio controller, you should activate the driver. Otherwise, it is not desirable to.

From the kernel docs:

HD-audio is the new standard on-board audio component on modern PCs after AC97. Although Linux has been supporting HD-audio since long time ago, there are often problems with new machines. A part of the problem is broken BIOS, and the rest is the driver implementation. This document explains the brief trouble-shooting and debugging methods for the HD-audio hardware.

Furthermore:

Although the driver name contains a word of a well-known hardware vendor, it's not specific to it but for all controller chips by other companies. Since the HD-audio controllers are supposed to be compatible, the single snd-hda-driver should work in most cases.

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