Retropie-setup: RetroPie v4.4 Cannot Control USB Sound Volume After Update/Upgrade

[tinkerBOY-git]

I want to post my issue at RetroPie forum but I couldn't. The site wont let me post. Must be an issue with AKISMET plugin.

I'm using a Game Boy Zero Controller with builtin C-Media USB audio on a Raspberry Pi Zero, 3 B, 3 B+, and 3 A+. Sound Settings under emulationstation menu works perfect with version 4.3 and stock 4.4 and I can control the sound volume level just fine. But after updating/upgrading RetroPie v4.4 I can no longer control the volume level. I can however move the slider under Sound Settings but the actual volume on the speaker is always the same at its loudest no matter what I do.

Here's how I updated the stock RetroPie v4.4:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I also tried updating RetroPie via the RetroPie-Setup but still the same issue. I have used 3 different sdcards installation but the issue is the same.

[hhromic]

Try updating EmulationStation using the developer channel emulationstation-dev package in the experimental section. There is a new option coming that allows you to choose the Audio Card/Device to use in EmulationStation. This is particularly necessary when using USB audio devices.

This feature is not yet in the stable branch but will be soon. In case you don't want to install the dev version, you have to just wait.

More Info: https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation/pull/460

[tinkerBOY-git]

I just tested the emulationstation-dev package but still the same issue no matter what settings i select on the "Sound Settings" the volume level on my speaker just won't change.

[hhromic]

Are you sure you can control the volume of your USB device for example using amixer?
You may need to provide a custom control device name to EmulationStation, check the PR I referenced in my previous post, in particular about customising the device name in es_settings.cfg.

SELECTING AUDIO ON LINUX AND RPi
You now select which ALSA Audio Card you want EmulationStation to use
by choosing the relevant AUDIO CARD option. If your one is not listed
then you can add a custom one in the es_settings file (see below).

You then select which ALSA Audio Mixer Control from that Audio Card
that you want EmulationStation to use, by choosing the relevant
AUDIO DEVICE option. (I kept the name AUDIO DEVICE as that what
EmulationStation previously recorded the Audio Mixer Name as.)
If your mixer name is not listed then you can add a custom one in
the es_settings file (see below).

ADDING A CUSTOM AUDIO CARD OR AUDIO DEVICE
In addition I added the ability to manually change the setting in
es_settings.cfg to add anything custom that you want. Any custom
"AudioCard" will be loaded into the GUI and shown as an option,
and any custom "AudioDevice" (actually the mixer) on that Audio
Card will be loaded into the GUI too. This will give advanced users
enough extra configuration ability that should avoid problems
with even the strangest setups.

[hhromic]

@tinkerBOY-git did you solve your problem? can this issue be closed? thanks

[tinkerBOY-git]

No that didn't solve my issue.

[Gemba]

Can confirm, that you can configure a USB audio device in ES. Just tested with ES 8878cb0, on a RetropieSetup 4.4 (cda9ffcb)
USB device configured according to these hints
Had to manually enter the device name from amixer -c 0, in my case 'Headphone' into /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_settings.cfg as AudioDevice.
Then the volume of the USB audio can be adjusted.

_However_ the volume setting does not survive reboot, the audio device setting does..
BTW: I noticed that SystemVolume is not persisted in the es_settings.cfg, is there a specific reason for this?

[hhromic]

_However_ the volume setting does not survive reboot, the audio device setting does..
BTW: I noticed that SystemVolume is not persisted in the es_settings.cfg, is there a specific reason for this?

@Gemba , thanks for testing! Can you migrate this issue to EmulationStation's repo instead? :)

[Gemba]

@hhromic and @tinkerBOY-git , can provide some good news.

I dug deeper and found that a systemd issue was responsible for not storing the alsa USB audio values. Something around /lib/systemd/system/alsa-restore.service and sound.target. Did not pinpoint the cause exactly. In general it makes sense that ES is not storing the volume, since it is a OS responsibility (in this case for systemd/ALSA).

After updating systemd / raspbian (aptitude update && aptitude -y safe-upgrade) and now with this systemd:

$ apt-cache policy systemd
systemd:
  Installiert:           232-25+deb9u9
  Installationskandidat: 232-25+deb9u9
  Versionstabelle:
 *** 232-25+deb9u9 500
        500 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian stretch/main armhf Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

the volume of USB audio volume setting entered in ES gets persisted between reboots. :beers:

@hhromic Still need to reference this in ES repo for the record?

[hhromic]

@Gemba, nice finding! Thanks for researching this.

Indeed as you say this seems to be a system-specific issue and nothing to do with ES. In this case then I think it is not necessary to migrate the issue to ES as it's not related.
Thanks again for confirming that setting audio devices in es_settings.cfg is working as intended and that persistence of USB devices volume requires updating the system.

@tinkerBOY-git if you still can't solve your issue, maybe you should give the forum another try to further debug what is going on with your setup.

@joolswills perhaps this issue can be closed now.