Pi5 audio mixer elements error

Nash

Pi5 Model B Rev 1.0, 8GB
Retropie 4.8.9 on Bookworm OS lite

Hi guys,

I am working on the Pi5 since few days, with the "lv10 Volume Control: Failed to find mixer elements!" error since the beginning. There was sound in the menu and in games, without being able to adjust it in emulationstation. I followed the advice found by ignoring the problem as long as the sound works.

But now I have no sound at all. I installed pipewire, but it freeze the Pi every time a sound should be played, in the menu or in a game.

I also installed wireplumber, but I don't know what to do with it. I don't find anything about it in retropie menu, ES menu, or raspi-config.

I also installed emulationstation-dev from the Retropie script, but I don't see any change.

Did the sound works well on yours experimentals Retropie Pi5 ?

Nash

@Nash

In RetroPie Setup - configuration tools - audiosettings, I have :

Mixer - Adjust output volume
Reset to default
Disable PulseAudio

In Raspi-config - 6 Advanced Options - A7 Audio Config :

1 PulseAudio
2 Pipewire

When PulseAudio is activated, Raspi-config - 1 System Options - S2 Audio
does nothing, go back to main menu raspi-config.

When Pipewire is activated, sometimes there is two otpions in Raspi-config - 1 System Options - S2 Audio :

hdmi 0
hdmi 1

But nothing work, pi5 freeze when sound should play with Pipewire.

In EmulationStation menu, it is always Audiocard : Default and Device : HDMI.

Nash

Does anyone have working sound and ES volume bar on Pi5 Retropie-Bookworm lite ? I wonder if it can be fixed or not.

Lolonois

Usually all is needed by RetroPie is ALSA.
With pulseaudio et al. things get more complicated.

From the distance, some hints.

Check /boot/firmware/config.txt if dtparam=audio=on is set

As you are using on-board audio jack the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf should contain:

options snd_bcm2835 index=0
options snd slots=snd-bcm2835

After reboot you should see similar output like below when running cat /proc/asound/cards:

 0 [vc4hdmi0       ]: vc4-hdmi - vc4-hdmi-0
                      vc4-hdmi-0
 1 [vc4hdmi1       ]: vc4-hdmi - vc4-hdmi-1
                      vc4-hdmi-1

You should get some audio by now with aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav.

For ES:

aplay -l (lower L) provides the available cards. Back in ES then select as card Default or Sysdefault.

The trick to have the volume slider not "reset" to 0 is to pick the right audio device. Issue amixer for that. Look for the device that contains "Playback channels", this is your device, for example:

Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0                   # <-- use this device in ES
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right      # <-- watch this
  Limits: Playback 0 - 30
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 18 [60%] [-18.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 18 [60%] [-18.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined cvolume cvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 14 Capture 0 - 30
  Mono: Playback 1 [7%] [-10.50dB] [off] Capture 8 [27%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Auto Gain Control',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]

Also consider that you don't have a /home/pi/.asoundrc which may override settings.

HTH

Nash

@Lolonois Thanks for your help.

There is no audio jack on Pi5.

dtparam=audio=on

output ok

0 [vc4hdmi0       ]: vc4-hdmi - vc4-hdmi-0
                     vc4-hdmi-0
1 [vc4hdmi1       ]: vc4-hdmi - vc4-hdmi-1
                     vc4-hdmi-1

But no sound when playing Front_Left.wav, and no error output.

Nash

@Lolonois I try the ES solution on an old backup where sound works everywhere but with ES slider stuck at 0.

Here is my output with 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

EDIT :

I don't know why but it works with ES sound setting : audio card DEFAULT and audio device MASTER. The volume bar seems to works well.

But I would still like to understand the problem of the broken SD card, because this problem will come back when I will reinstall the thing that completely broke sound.

Lolonois

@Nash said in Pi5 audio mixer elements error:

There is no audio jack on Pi5.

Right. I was adapting the notes from my Pi4 setup with an USB audio device.

Lolonois

@Nash said in Pi5 audio mixer elements error:

audio device MASTER

If 'Master' shows up in amixer it makes perfectly sense.

@Nash said in Pi5 audio mixer elements error:

But I would still like to understand the problem of the broken SD card

It is only a guess, but removing pulseadio / pipewire would be a start and reduces the complexity of the issue.

Nash

@Lolonois Yes, I see it with "amixer". I never used this command. I will remember to check that everytime.

Now i'm working on the fully broken system :

I removed pulseaudio and pipewire. Now I can select vc4-hdmi-0 or vc4-hdmi-1 in Retropie audio menu and in raspi-config menu.

here is the amixer output :

Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'HDMI',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]

Sound still not working, with hdmi-0 or hdmi-1 and PCM or HDMI in ES menu. sliders working but no sound. This time "MASTER" is stuck at 0%. I understand why now.

When I go in audio Retropie-setup Menu I can see an error during one second :

lvl0: Audio manager error: unable to open SDL audio : Alsa Couldn't open audio device: Device or ressource busy.

After there is the two hdmi choices and the working "Mixer - adjust output volume" Option.
I try to "Reset to default", reboot, nothing changes.

In raspi-config, 6-Advanced Options, A7-Audio Config, there is "No audio systems installed".

vc4-hdmi-0 and vc4-hdmi-1 are still availlable in 1-System Options, S2 Audio.

I updated SDL1 and SDL2 dependency packages in RetroPie Setup. Nothing changes.