Couldn't configure X5500 audio card

[stiakooo]

Re: Volume control not working HiFiBerry MINI-AMP + Retropi 4.4 + RaspberryPi 3B - lvl0: Volume control::inint() - Failed to find mixer elements

Hello!

I am building my own arcade machine. I decided that I want a hardware potentiometer to control the volume. After a quick research I found that Geekworm X5500 should do the job. So I purchased that device and put it on top of my Raspberry Pi 4B. Unfortunately I couldn't properly configure the sound in Emulation station. I don't have sound in the games. I also don't have navigation sounds. I've read the retropie documentation related to sound issues but I couldn't find a solution.

First I tried all the possible combinations in ES Sound settings.

Then I made the following changes in config.txt:

#dtparam=audio=on
dtparam=audio=off
dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac

Based on the manufacturer wiki I should use hifiberry-dac for dtoverlay. More info here:
https://raspberrypiwiki.com/X450/X5500_Software_Configuration

If I run aplay -L I have the following list:

null
     Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
output
sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0
     Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0
     Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0
     Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0
     Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0
     Hardware device with all software conversions

As you can see above, I don't have a default card. However It seems I have sysdefault.

And If I run amixer scontrols -D default I receive:

amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory

And here is something interesting. If I run amixer scontrols -D sysdefault It doesn't return anything! No error this time but also no list of devices (mixers). So it seems there is a sound card but there aren't any audio devices (mixers) on it.

Then I decided to go back in ES and I selected sysdefault in ES sound settings and I tried with all of the listed possibilities for Audio Device without any success.

Additionally I tried aplay -l and it gives me the following:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac], device 0: HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0 [HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0]
     Subdevices: 1/1
     Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

If I run amixer scontrols -D sndrpihifiberry I receive the following error:

ALSA lib control.c:1375:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL sndrpihifiberry
amixer: Mixer attach sndrpihifiberry error: No such file or directory

And finally i made the speaker-test. if run speaker-test -D sndrpihifiberry -t wav -l 20 & I receive:

Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

But if I run speaker-test -D sysdefault -t wav -l 20 & the test is successful and I can hear a voice calling "Front Left" 20 times with the corresponding logs in the terminal. Which means the audio card itself is working correctly but I can not properly configure it in EmulationStation!

Sorry for the very long description but I wanted to mention everything I tried.
Thank you in advance!

[mitu]

@stiakooo said in Couldn't configure X5500 audio card:

If I run amixer scontrols -D sndrpihifiberry I receive the following error:

What does

amixer -c 0 scontrols

or just

amixer scontrols

show ? It should be the name of the (simple) mixer attached to the card.

[stiakooo]

@mitu Thank you for your post!
The first command returns nothing:

amixer -c 0 scontrols

And just amixer scontrols returns an error:

amixer scontrols
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory

[mitu]

@stiakooo Do you have anything in $HOME/.asoundrc ?
Is alsamixer working ?

[stiakooo]

@mitu

cat $HOME/.asoundrc
pcm.!default {
     type asym
     playback.pcm {
          type plug
          slave.pcm "output"
     }
     capture.pcm {
          type plug
          slave.pcm "input"
     }
}
 
pcm.output {
     type hw
     card 1
}
 
ctl.!default {
     type hw
     card 1
}

Runnung alsamixer without any parameters it returns error:

alsamixer
cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

If I try with sysdefault

alsamixer -D sysdefault

I have the alsamixer UI but there is only the message "This sound device does not have any controls." in the center of the screen.

[mitu]

@stiakooo Remove your $HOME/.asoundrc and try again to see if you still get an error with alsamixer.

[stiakooo]

@mitu Thanks a lot for all the advices! I finally found a solution that is working for me.

Just deleting .asoundrc wasn't enough. What is important in my case is to enable the softvol ALSA plugin.

To summarise what I needed in order to have sound in the games and also in the EmulationStation menu for my Geekworm X5500 ( I guess it should be the same also for X450).

1. /boot/config.txt

# dtparam=audio=on
dtparam=audio=off
dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac

2. /home/pi/.asoundrc
   You need to enable softvol ALSA plugin. For more info visit https://alsa.opensrc.org/Softvol
   Delete everything and put the following:

pcm.newdevice {
    type softvol
    slave.pcm "default"
    control.name "Softmaster"
    control.card  0
}

3. /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_settings.cfg

<string name="AudioCard" value="default" />
<string name="AudioDevice" value="Softmaster" />

Note: The volume control inside EmulationStation is useless after those changes. The only way to control the volume is using the hardware potentiometer (which is exactly what I need).

Thanks again!

[mitu]

So, in other words, the card doesn't have a software volume control and you had to add a fake one to keep ES (or other ALSA based mixers) happy. That doesn't seem too practical if your Pi is not easily accessible.

Glad you got this sorted out, it's a good use case to have in mind.