No sound retroflag gpi case with pi zero w 2 (Solved)

Philcomm

I spent a good amount of time now on trying to figure out what is the problem. I don't think it's the overlays, since when you use a video splash screen, it gives out sound. It's probable that the splashscreen package uses pulseaudio while everything RetroArch related doesn't.

mitu

@philcomm said in No sound retroflag gpi case with pi zero w 2:

It's probable that the splashscreen package uses pulseaudio while everything RetroArch related doesn't.

No, it's not the splashscreen. The errors come from ES, which is not related to the splashscreen at all.

mitu

@retropieuser555 said in No sound retroflag gpi case with pi zero w 2:

aplay: device_list:272: no soundcards found...

Do you have an $HOME/.asoundrc or /etc/asound.confg file ?

retropieuser555

@philcomm okay that's interesting, I didn't notice that. I just tested a splashscreen with audio and it did play the sound for me too, no errors.

I tested out the beta of the recalbox image they have and it played audio as well, so it does seem workable somehow, there config file is quite different though, I always thought the config.txt is universal to the raspberry pi itself, rather than the OS etc?

retropieuser555

@mitu the files aren't there. I guess need to install something?

pi@retropie:~ $ cd ..
pi@retropie:/home $ ls
pi
pi@retropie:/home $ cd /etc
pi@retropie:/etc $ ls
adduser.conf            group            modprobe.d        rpc
alternatives            group-           modules           rpi-issue
apparmor.d              gshadow          modules.bak       rsyslog.conf
apt                     gshadow-         modules-load.d    rsyslog.d
avahi                   gss              motd              samba
bash.bashrc             host.conf        mtab              securetty
bash_completion         hostname         nanorc            security
bash_completion.d       hosts            netconfig         selinux
bindresvport.blacklist  hosts.allow      network           sensors3.conf
binfmt.d                hosts.deny       networks          sensors.d
bluetooth               idmapd.conf      nsswitch.conf     services
ca-certificates         ifplugd          openal            shadow
ca-certificates.conf    init             opt               shadow-
calendar                init.d           os-release        shells
cifs-utils              initramfs-tools  pam.conf          skel
console-setup           inputrc          pam.d             splashscreen.list
cowpoke.conf            insserv          passwd            ssh
cron.d                  insserv.conf     passwd-           ssl
cron.daily              insserv.conf.d   paxctld.conf      subgid
cron.hourly             iproute2         perl              subuid
cron.monthly            issue            pmount.allow      subversion
crontab                 issue.net        polkit-1          sudoers
cron.weekly             kernel           ppp               sudoers.d
dbus-1                  ldap             profile           sysctl.conf
debconf.conf            ld.so.cache      profile.d         sysctl.d
debian_version          ld.so.conf       protocols         systemd
default                 ld.so.conf.d     pulse             terminfo
deluser.conf            ld.so.preload    python            timezone
devscripts.conf         libaudit.conf    python2.7         tmpfiles.d
dhcp                    libnl-3          python3           triggerhappy
dhcpcd.conf             locale.alias     python3.7         ucf.conf
dkms                    locale.gen       rc0.d             udev
dphys-swapfile          localtime        rc1.d             ufw
dpkg                    logcheck         rc2.d             update-motd.d
emacs                   login.defs       rc3.d             usb_modeswitch.conf
emulationstation        logrotate.conf   rc4.d             usb_modeswitch.d
environment             logrotate.d      rc5.d             usbmount
fake-hwclock.data       machine-id       rc6.d             vdpau_wrapper.cfg
fb.modes                magic            rc.local          vim
fonts                   magic.mime       rcS.d             vulkan
fstab                   mailcap          request-key.conf  wgetrc
fuse.conf               mailcap.order    request-key.d     wpa_supplicant
gai.conf                manpath.config   resolv.conf       X11
gdb                     mc               resolv.conf.bak   xattr.conf
glvnd                   mime.types       resolvconf.conf   xdg
groff                   mke2fs.conf      rmt

mitu

@retropieuser555 Is this before adding the RetroFlag's drivers/scripts or after ?
Normally, on a clean install, none of the files are present. Since aplay doesn't list any sound cards, the error you get in ES is normal, but I'm wondering if the GPIO connection on the RetroFlag case don't need additional configuration.

The splashscreen uses omxplayer to play sound, which bypasses any ALSA configuration, but EmulationStation (and most of the emulators) need a working ALSA config.

I always thought the config.txt is universal to the raspberry pi itself, rather than the OS etc?

No, it's specific to the RPI bootloader, but there are other boot methods (U-Boot perhaps) that don't use the file.

retropieuser555

@mitu This is after adding the config.txt and overlays that the retroflag gpi. I can test it with the stock config.txt and original dpi24 overlay if that helps?

Philcomm

After further testing, I can't get either alsa nor pulse to work as sound drivers.
alsa doesn't find any sound card, thus is not able to play.
pulse can find the virtual sound card, but cannot output sound for some reason.

@mitu you are right, sound plays just fine with omxplayer.

I don't think it's the GPi cases' fault, but rather the drivers not able to play over GPIOs?

mitu

@retropieuser555 said in No sound retroflag gpi case with pi zero w 2:

I can test it with the stock config.txt and original dpi24 overlay if that helps?

You can do that, but - at best - you'll get sound only on the HDMI port, which is not what you want. But this configuration should get rid of the ALSA error and you'd have at least one card listed by aplay.

Philcomm

@mitu you think it's worth a shot trying to manually create the asound.conf file?

Philcomm

@retropieuser555 said in No sound retroflag gpi case with pi zero w 2:

@philcomm okay that's interesting, I didn't notice that. I just tested a splashscreen with audio and it did play the sound for me too, no errors.

I tested out the beta of the recalbox image they have and it played audio as well, so it does seem workable somehow, there config file is quite different though, I always thought the config.txt is universal to the raspberry pi itself, rather than the OS etc?

Do you still have that image? My download is super slow, it takes another two hours to finish (around 60kb/s)

retropieuser555

@philcomm the recalbox beta? Yeah I've got it here, should I post their config or something from it?

Philcomm

@retropieuser555 I wonder if there is any difference in the /boot/config.txt file compared to RetroPie. Also, is the md5 hash of /boot/overlays/pwm-audio-pi-zero.dtbo the same?

retropieuser555

@philcomm Here's there config file:-

############################################################################
# Boot loader configuration                                                #
# Warning: do not edit this file as it will be overwritten when upgrading! #
############################################################################

# Using /etc/modules is deprecated and no longer supported on 4.4 kernel
# So manually enable audio
dtparam=audio=on

# if you plug your tv at the same time as your rpi and that the rpi switches from the hdmi or
# give a low resolution because tv had no enough time to initialize it
boot_delay=3

# disable boot rainbow
disable_splash=1

# default CEC name
cec_osd_name=recalbox

avoid_safe_mode=1

kernel=boot/linux
initramfs boot/initrd.gz

# force hdmi while the tv can take time before sending the signal on the hdmi output
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# total amount of GPU memory
gpu_mem_256=128
gpu_mem_512=128
gpu_mem_1024=448

# your settings can be set in /boot/recalbox-user-config.txt
include recalbox-user-config.txt

# overclocking settings are automatically managed in this file
# do not remove this line, nor edit the file
include recalbox-oc-config.txt

# Raise the first security limit up to 70° instead of 60° for pi3 and pi4
[pi3]
temp_soft_limit=70
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
include recalbox-crt-config.txt

[pi4]
temp_soft_limit=70
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
include recalbox-crt-config.txt

# disable 4k resolution
hdmi_pixel_freq_limit:0=200000000
hdmi_pixel_freq_limit:1=200000000

[board-type=0x12]
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d

# custom config
[all]

They don't seem to be using the pwm-audio-pi-zero.dtbo overlay in the config and it isn't in the overlay folders at all. Any ideas how they got this working? Guess can go onto their forum and ask them

Philcomm

@retropieuser555 Does the /etc/asound.conf file exists? If yes, what's the content?

retropieuser555

@philcomm

pcm.monocard{
	slave.pcm "hw:0"
	slave.channels 2
	type route
	ttable {
		# Copy both input channels to output channel 1 (Right).
		0.1 1
		1.1 1
		# Copy both input channels to output channel 0 (Left).
		0.0 1
		1.0 1
		}
}

pcm.!default monocard

Thing is though, I don't know a great deal about recalbox, but it's not built on raspbian? Think if I used this in the retropie build it'll work?

Philcomm

@retropieuser555 said in No sound retroflag gpi case with pi zero w 2:

@philcomm
pcm.monocard{
	slave.pcm "hw:0"
	slave.channels 2
	type route
	ttable {
		# Copy both input channels to output channel 1 (Right).
		0.1 1
		1.1 1
		# Copy both input channels to output channel 0 (Left).
		0.0 1
		1.0 1
		}
}

pcm.!default monocard
Thing is though, I don't know a great deal about recalbox, but it's not built on raspbian? Think if I used this in the retropie build it'll work?

I will have to try later if that works

Slime1982

Hi, I have been struggling with the same issue, and have managed to solve it.

The issue is that by default the latest version of Raspbian disables the audio if nothing is connected to HDMI.

Use this one line entry in config.txt to fix it:

dtoverlay=audremap,pins_18_19,enable_jack=on

You don't need the pwm-audio-pi-zero.dtbo file and you can remove all the custom audio entries from Retroflag's config.txt and use this one line instead. (leave all the entries for the LCD in obviously).

The custom asound.conf file in recalbox is used to downmix stereo audio to mono, as the built in speaker on the GPi only outputs the right channel.

retropieuser555

@slime1982 Hey that's great news can you post your config.txt file please? I think I'm deleting the wrong lines out

Slime1982

@retropieuser555

Start with the stock config.txt and add this at the end:

#Pi Zero 2 W GPi Config
dtoverlay=audremap,pins_18_19,enable_jack=on
display_rotate=1
dtoverlay=dpi24
overscan_left=0
overscan_right=0
overscan_top=0
overscan_bottom=0
framebuffer_width=320
framebuffer_height=240
enable_dpi_lcd=1
display_default_lcd=1
dpi_group=2
dpi_mode=87
dpi_output_format=0x6016
#hdmi_timings=320 0 28 18 28 480 0 2 2 4 0 0 0 60 0 32000000 6
hdmi_timings=240 1 38 10 20 320 1 20 4 4 0 0 0 60 0 6400000 1

you still need Retroflag's dpi24.dtbo, but you don't need to copy the pwm audio overlay file.

The custom asound.conf file doesn't work, I suspect because the sound device is now referred to as headphones instead of pcm, but I'm working on it now.

Also, go into raspi-config, system options and in audio select 'headphones'. it should be the only option, but select it to ensure it is the default device.