This particular Audio Hardware Realtek ALC3226 High-Definition audio codec is used in 4Q2013/2014/2015 Dell machines Specifically Latitude Exx40, and Precision M4800/M6800. It is safe to say as a previous E5440 owner I had no issues with the sound. the ALSA drivers for the Built in speakers worked and produced adequate sound. The part I am not sure of is what version of kali was originally installed. I want to say I installed kali 2.0 prior before the 2016.1 the rolling releases. I do remember going through the 900+ updates and updating the rolling repositories source.list on the 5440 months after the install. Since the 5440 no longer in my possession and in the hands of an idiot, I have upgraded to a Latitude 7404.
The Latitude extreme 14 7404 uses the same audio hardware Realtek ALC3226 and after the install of Kali Rolling 2016.1 & 2016.2 Audio DOES Work. Headphones work when plugged in infact ask me for an option if its a headset or headphone. HDMI had some issues in rolling 2016.1 I had to pulseaudio kill, purge and apt-get install pulseaudio and ALSA and somehow I just ended up opening VLC and selecting HDMI and HDMI was now in PulseAudio so go figure unsure how i fixed that one but HDMI works.
So Headphones and HDMI sound is adequate. It is the Speakers-Built-in audio that is having the issue. at first you would think that sound was not working at all however if you bump up the over drive past 100% to max and test left speaker and Right speaker and put your ear real close to the speaker you get to hear a extremely faint "front Left" "front right" noise. So it works.. just not loud enough.
so I thought maybe it was the speaker is bad.. I installed windows, WindeX version and BOOM the speaker is by far the most amazing speaker for a laptop I ever heard WOW // Dr dre BEATS got nothing on this mag coil Shoot. I am impressed
the only thing special about the 7404 is that there is only one Speaker in the front. Would Mono/Stereo have something to do with this and how can I test when I don't have a drop down option in pulseaudio?
Thoughts comments suggestions are welcome.
Thanks.