Keeps coming back - Failed to find Mixer Elements

acons017

Hi All,
This is my first post so sorry if there are some key details missing.

I keep getting the Failed to find Mixer Elements bug. I’m able to fix it, but it just keeps coming back.

When I get this error message, they are accompanied by 3 symptoms:

Game volume muted
Video previews will not load/play
Emulationstation audio settings sets system volume to 0%.

I can easily fix all 3 issues by navigating to Audio menu in Retopie and also Raspi-Config and setting outputs to Headphones. Regardless, after turning off/on the machine, the issue comes back. But it does not come back if I choose "Restart System" in ES.

Few things to note, my retropie boots into a game at start up. The autostart.sh file contains the following:

/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ arcade ~/RetroPie/roms/arcade/tmnt2.zip --no-splash && emulationstation --no-splash

#emulationstation #auto

Things I have done to resolve this issue:

I followed a series steps from this comment from user JNunes as it was the most encompassing.

I determined the card# for the 3.5 mm headphone jack by going into terminal and typing aplay -l. Headphones reside on Card 1, Device 0.

Navigate to sudo nano /boot/config.txt and added the following 4 strings to the bottom:
dtoverlay=pwm-2chan,pin=18,func=2,pin2=13,func2=4
snd_bcm2835.enable_compat_alsa=1
hdmi_ignore_edid_audio=1
audio_pwm_mode=2

Sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_settings.cfg and ensure strings are as follows:
<string name="AudioCard" value="default" />
<string name="AudioDevice" value="Headphone" />
<string name="OMXAudioDev" value="alsa" />

Run sudo raspi-config and change audio to Headphones.

Run sudo nano /home/po/.asound and added the following parameters
defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.ctl.card 1

Run sudo nano /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf and edited the file to match the card number from step #6.
defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.ctl.card 1

Once I did all the above, the issue was fixed. If I choose "restart system" from emulationstation, the issue appears to remain fixed. But if I power off my machine and then start it up, the issue comes back.

When I power on and it boots directly to TMNT and there is no in game audio. Then if I go back to ES, there is still no menu audio, no video previews and the retched Failed to Find Mixer Elements bug comes back. It's as if a clean boot doesn't load the drivers properly (?)

Important note: 'aplay -l' is now showing the headphones are listed as Card 2 and Device 0 (?). Not sure why it moved. So I edited the above steps to take this change into account. It fixed it, then after a few reboots it broke again and now headphones are sitting on card 1 again. Ahhhhhhhh!

This is what pops up if I then runamixer command in Terminal:

Simple mixer control 'Mic' ,0
Capabilities: cvolume cvolume- joined cswitch cswitch- joined
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: Capture 0 - 147
Mono: Capture 140 [95%1 [-2.25dB1 [on)
Simple mixer control 'Auto Gain Control' ,0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch- joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]

EmulationStation Version: v2.12.0RP-Dev
I'm really scratching my head with this weird issue. Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

Pi Model or other hardware: Pi 4 4GB
Power Supply used: Unknown
RetroPie Version Used: 4.8.3
Built From: (Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website, Berryboot, or on top of existing OS etc.. - Linux 5.10.103.v71+ armv71
USB Devices connected: Twin USB gamepad + 2xDragonRise Inc. Generic
Controller used: Unknown
Error messages received: Failed to find Mixer Elements
Verbose log (if relevant): N/A
Guide used: Followed a comibination of guides from here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26628/audio-issues-after-latest-raspbian-updates-june-2020/89
File: N/A
Emulator: N/A
Attachment of config files: N/A
How to replicate the problem: Turn off/on machine

Thorr69

@acons017 Please tell me that you are doing a proper shutdown of the machine and not just 'turning it off'. If so, that may be the reason your fix isn't sticking.

mitu

@acons017 said in Keeps coming back - Failed to find Mixer Elements:

Guide used: Followed a comibination of guides from here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26628/audio-issues-after-latest-raspbian-updates-june-2020/89

This is a 3 years old post which no longer applies to current RetroPie releases. Various 'advices'/'tutorials' from the users in the topic, to restore the previous behavior, should safely be ignored.
No manual modifications of configuration files should be necessary in order to make the audio work over the analog output - just select Headphones in the Audio menu and in EmulationStation and that should be it.

7ank0v1c

@mitu

Heya, I noticed you replied recently to this so was hoping for a little info on a similar issue for me.

For me all the audio seems to work, but I am getting this error:

VolumeControl==init() - Failed to find mixer elements!

How can I resolve this from appearing when loading any games?