Volume resets to 0

[SunGautam]

Re: [System Volume Resets to 0](Using HDMI to TV for Audio)

lvl0: VolumeControl::init() - Failed to find mixer elements

So, I'm having the same issue detailed here and in other similar posts. I can't set my volume higher than zero. Anytime I try, the error above is returned

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: vc4hdmi0 [vc4-hdmi-0], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: vc4hdmi1 [vc4-hdmi-1], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

amixer
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 234 [92%] [-4.20dB]
Front Right: Playback 234 [92%] [-4.20dB]

My settings have Audio Card : Default and Audio Device HDMI

The retropie menus still make sound when clicking through, but the roms have no sound.

Any Ideas?

[mitu]

Please add the info about your setup requested in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

Did you configure the Audio output from the RetroPie system's Audio menu entry ?

[sirhenrythe5th]

just to mention: i had and still have this issue that the volume is set to 0 in the ES-GUI since i started with my Pi5.
In the end it has no effect on the "real" volume: Navigation-sounds and inGame-Music play totally normal (?).

[SunGautam]

@mitu
Pi Model or other hardware:Pi 5
Power Supply used: stock pi 5 power supply
RetroPie Version Used (eg 3.6, 3.8.1, 4.1 - do not write latest): 4.8.8
Built From: Manual install from https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Manual-Installation/
USB Devices connected: Keyboard and mouse dongles
Controller used: GuliKit kk3max
Error messages received: lvl0: VolumeControl::init() - Failed to find mixer elements!
Verbose log (if relevant):xkbcommon: ERROR: /usr/share/X11/locale/iso8859-1/Compose:49:29: too many errors
xkbcommon: ERROR: /usr/share/X11/locale/iso8859-1/Compose:49:29: failed to parse file
Aug 22 21:41:24 lvl0: VolumeControl::init() - Failed to find mixer elements!
warning: queue 0x5555c22fa800 destroyed while proxies still attached:
wl_callback@42 still attached
wl_surface@31 still attached

Guide used: (Mention if you followed a guide)
File: (File with issue - with FULL path)
Emulator: N/A applies to all emulators
Attachment of config files: Not sure which config files are needed
How to replicate the problem:
I had audio working on retropie since install. I don't know what the inciting incident was.

Now, within emulationstation if I try to increase the volume, then leave the screen and return it will be at 0.
If I put the audio device to PCM the volume level doesn't drop, but I get no audio.
Within retropie menus I do get audio for the clicks when scrolling through roms.
Once I'm in the game there is no audio.

I also tried using the option to remove unneeded packages, but still the problem remains.

[SunGautam]

@SunGautam
I was able to recreate the problem.

So I fully uninstalled retropie on my machine, except for my roms.

I rebooted, then followed the manual installation listed above to install on top of raspbian.

After doing the full install and rebooting I was getting the following error when trying to boot emulationstation from the terminal in raspbian

“error initializing SDL! Wayland not available”
Renderer failed to initialize!
Window failed to initialize!

exactly as called out in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/34951/error-initializing-sdl-wayland-not-available

I ensured through raspi-config that I was using wayland, but no avail.

I tried pressing ctl+alt+f1 to go to the command line interface then booting into emulation station, which worked. Also my games had audio.

I also noticed that I had the same error mentioned in the post above:
I had an update available but it keeps failing with this error:

libsdl2-dev: Depends: libsdl2-2.0-0 (=2.26.3+1rpi) but 2.26.5+dfsg-1 is to be installed

so I went into the terminal sudo apt update and then sudo apt upgrade libsdl2-dev

I could then get into emulation station from the terminal and from the CLI. But audio was gone either way I booted it up.

I did something similar last time before the audio stopped working. But last time I had no issue booting into emulationstation from the terminal. .....so still something a little weird.

[sugarfree]

@SunGautam Did you install RetroPie on top of Pi OS Lite or the Desktop?

[sugarfree]

@sirhenrythe5th Same here since the first time I installed RetroPie months ago, it looks like there's a bug somewhere. At least this issue doesn't affect the sound in games.

[mitu]

@SunGautam said in Volume resets to 0:

Built From: Manual install from https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Manual-Installation/

Doesn't look like it, since you're clearly using the Full RaspiOS installation image/environment and you're starting EmulationStation from the desktop. The document page you mentioned state that - on the PI - the Lite version of the RaspiOS is supported by RetroPie and EmulationStation should not be started from the desktop env.

The 'reset to 0' behavior is caused by EmulationStation not finding the Audio Devce chosen in the settings - which is actually the name of the Mixer control in ALSA for the default audio card. If you use the Audio menu in RetroPie and choose your audio output, then you can select in EmulationStation HDMI as the Audio Card and things should work.

Of course, if you have installed the full RaspiOS with PipeWire/PulseAudio, things are a bit different and will not match the settings I've mentioned above.

[SunGautam]

@mitu
The steps were the same, but it was with the full desktop environment.
I will say that prior to the steps mentioned above, retropie did work fully audio and all.

Is there no interest in having retropie run as a service on top of a full desktop environment?

[mitu]

Is there no interest in having retropie run as a service on top of a full desktop environment?

Not on the Raspberry Pi.
RetroPie (ES + emulators) works fine on a PC platform from the desktop, but the audio configuration is handled by the system/desktop environment and there's not much that RetroPie configures at this point, it just used the default audio device that's register in the system (i.e. in PipeWire/PulseAudio).

EDIT: as explained before, you need to find the right Audio Card setting which works for you. Try using PCM/Master instead of HDMI, it should work.