Retropie on Khadas Edge 2 running Armbian can't get sound in games to work over HDMI

[thisisnotdave]

I've gotten just about everything to work well and sound works in emulationstation itself but not in any emulator.

Here is the output of aplay -L and -l

khadas-edge2:~:% aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
samplerate
    Rate Converter Plugin Using Samplerate Library
speexrate
    Rate Converter Plugin Using Speex Resampler
jack
    JACK Audio Connection Kit
oss
    Open Sound System
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
upmix
    Plugin for channel upmix (4,6,8)
vdownmix
    Plugin for channel downmix (stereo) with a simple spacialization
hw:CARD=rockchipdp0,DEV=0
    rockchip,dp0, rockchip,dp0 spdif-hifi-0
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=rockchipdp0,DEV=0
    rockchip,dp0, rockchip,dp0 spdif-hifi-0
    Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=rockchipdp0
    rockchip,dp0, rockchip,dp0 spdif-hifi-0
    Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=rockchipdp0,DEV=0
    rockchip,dp0, rockchip,dp0 spdif-hifi-0
    Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=rockchipdp0
    rockchip,dp0
    USB Stream Output
hw:CARD=rockchiphdmi0,DEV=0
    rockchip,hdmi0, fddf0000.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=rockchiphdmi0,DEV=0
    rockchip,hdmi0, fddf0000.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0
    Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=rockchiphdmi0
    rockchip,hdmi0, fddf0000.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0
    Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=rockchiphdmi0,DEV=0
    rockchip,hdmi0, fddf0000.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0
    Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=rockchiphdmi0
    rockchip,hdmi0
    USB Stream Output
usbstream:CARD=rockchipsoundmi
    rockchip,sound-micarray
    USB Stream Output
hw:CARD=rockchipes8316c,DEV=0
    rockchip,es8316-codec, fe470000.i2s-ES8316 HiFi ES8316 HiFi-0
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=rockchipes8316c,DEV=0
    rockchip,es8316-codec, fe470000.i2s-ES8316 HiFi ES8316 HiFi-0
    Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=rockchipes8316c
    rockchip,es8316-codec, fe470000.i2s-ES8316 HiFi ES8316 HiFi-0
    Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=rockchipes8316c,DEV=0
    rockchip,es8316-codec, fe470000.i2s-ES8316 HiFi ES8316 HiFi-0
    Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=rockchipes8316c
    rockchip,es8316-codec
    USB Stream Output
khadas-edge2:~:% aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: rockchipdp0 [rockchip,dp0], device 0: rockchip,dp0 spdif-hifi-0 [rockchip,dp0 spdif-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: rockchiphdmi0 [rockchip,hdmi0], device 0: fddf0000.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0 [fddf0000.i2s-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: rockchipes8316c [rockchip,es8316-codec], device 0: fe470000.i2s-ES8316 HiFi ES8316 HiFi-0 [fe470000.i2s-ES8316 HiFi ES8316 HiFi-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

khadas-edge2:~:% amixer scontrols -D sysdefault:CARD=rockchiphdmi0
Simple mixer control 'I2STDM Digital Loopback Mode',0
Simple mixer control 'ELD Bypass',0

I've tried several options in my es_settings.cfg but no luck so far. Does anyone have any ideas of what else I can try?

<string name="AudioCard" value="sysdefault:CARD=rockchiphdmi0" />
<string name="AudioDevice" value="ELD Bypass" />
<string name="CollectionSystemsAuto" value="" />
<string name="CollectionSystemsCustom" value="" />
<string name="GamelistViewStyle" value="automatic" />
<string name="LeadingArticles" value="a,an,the" />
<string name="OMXAudioDev" value="Both" />

[mitu]

The Audio settings in EmulationStation don't apply globally to any application. What you need is to set the right ALSA audio card as 'default' so any program using ALSAlib will pick it up automatically.

Since this is a relativelly powerful device, why don't you install Pipewire & Wireplumbler and let them route the audio automatically ?

[thisisnotdave]

@mitu

Thanks, I didn't know that was an option. Is there any documentation on retropie and pipewire/wireplumber?

EDIT

Got pipewire and wireplumber working, i have sound now in all my cores. Thanks!

Is there a way to supress the VolumeControl::getVolume() - Failed to get volume range! error I see every time I launch a game?

[mitu]

@thisisnotdave said in Retropie on Khadas Edge 2 running Armbian can't get sound in games to work over HDMI:

Is there a way to supress the VolumeControl::getVolume() - Failed to get volume range! error I see every time I launch a game?

Change the Audio Device setting in EmulationStation's Audio menu to Master or PCM and this should get rid of the warning.