LibreELEC-RR 9.x [ Emulationstation | Retroarch | Pegasus | DolphinQT | Moonlight | Chrome | Spotify ]

  • with kodifreeze the volume drop to 44% and stays there after unfreeze (pulseaudio as backend). With alsa backend it stays always at 100% (that's the reason why we use pulse as backend: the emulators volume is too high)

    Another way could be to provide a volume selector for alsa backend in rr config, as you developed for pulse backend. In this way with both backends everyone can set a backend volume.

    Thank you again

    ALSA is basically useless & only needed for some special snowflake software like PCSX2. My TV uses HDMI and changing the ALSA Master volume does not even effect the audio output so it does not make sense to add any functions for this backend while PA normally works fine & is mandatory for video previews for example.

  • ALSA is basically useless & only needed for some special snowflake software like PCSX2. My TV uses HDMI and changing the ALSA Master volume does not even effect the audio output so it does not make sense to add any functions for this backend while PA normally works fine & is mandatory for video previews for example.

    Sure. I agree to select pulseaudio as backend. So, maybe the code is not working for all the folks using analog outputs.

    I would select pulse audio in kodi too, but it's not selectable for me :( I only have bluetooth audio output for pulseaudio section in kodi audio devices.

  • Sure. I agree to select pulseaudio as backend. So, maybe the code is not working for all the folks using analog outputs.

    I would select pulse audio in kodi too, but it's not selectable for me :( I only have bluetooth audio output for pulseaudio section in kodi audio devices.

    Because it's not needed. PulseAudio is only used for BT audio because basically Kodi works fine with ALSA.

  • Aw, okay. I misunderstood... I thought you were using pulseaudio even in kodi for digital output.

    So, if you're using alsa in kodi like me, the only difference is analog or digital output? With digital audio your scripts work fine but with analog don't?

    I'll wait for your fix now that it's identified. Thanks a lot for your work.

  • Aw, okay. I misunderstood... I thought you were using pulseaudio even in kodi for digital output.

    So, if you're using alsa in kodi like me, the only difference is analog or digital output? With digital audio your scripts work fine but with analog don't?

    I'll wait for your fix now that it's identified. Thanks a lot for your work.

    I guess they use PA because it's able to detect & configure bt devices on the fly. In the past PA had some issues and so they did not fully made the step to use PA for everything.
    My workstation has some analog speakers attached but it's a while since I used it. Maybe the sound output changes there too but I guess only a small minority don't uses a digital audio system ://shrug

  • In the past I used alsa as audio backend because I didnt manage to run pulseaudio. Now I gave it another try because this volume difference between dolphin and the rest annoys me too and just noticed that everything I had to do was unchecking "Use module-udev-detect to autodetect PulseAudio device". So the sound is working now and also decreasing the volume in the rr config tool works fine.

    However only with Emulationstation 5schatten you maybe remember that Im using a different script in Rom Collection Browser and I dont get it working with pulse. Currently I have no sound in dolphin if I start it via RCB. Can you please take a look and tell me what I have to change? Is it even possible to use pulse on this setup because I dont freeze kodi and I use alsa in kodi?

    I just tried to change =alsa to =pulseaudio but that doesnt work.

  • In the past I used alsa as audio backend because I didnt manage to run pulseaudio. Now I gave it another try because this volume difference between dolphin and the rest annoys me too and just noticed that everything I had to do was unchecking "Use module-udev-detect to autodetect PulseAudio device". So the sound is working now and also decreasing the volume in the rr config tool works fine.

    However only with Emulationstation 5schatten you maybe remember that Im using a different script in Rom Collection Browser and I dont get it working with pulse. Currently I have no sound in dolphin if I start it via RCB. Can you please take a look and tell me what I have to change? Is it even possible to use pulse on this setup because I dont freeze kodi and I use alsa in kodi?

    I just tried to change =alsa to =pulseaudio but that doesnt work.

    In short? No. As long as Kodi is running the ALSA device is locked and PulseAudio can't create the sink. So unless Libreelec itself won't rework the whole audio subsystem to use PulseAudio this is not an option.

  • In the past I used alsa as audio backend because I didnt manage to run pulseaudio. Now I gave it another try because this volume difference between dolphin and the rest annoys me too and just noticed that everything I had to do was unchecking "Use module-udev-detect to autodetect PulseAudio device". So the sound is working now and also decreasing the volume in the rr config tool works fine.

    However only with Emulationstation 5schatten you maybe remember that Im using a different script in Rom Collection Browser and I dont get it working with pulse. Currently I have no sound in dolphin if I start it via RCB. Can you please take a look and tell me what I have to change? Is it even possible to use pulse on this setup because I dont freeze kodi and I use alsa in kodi?

    I just tried to change =alsa to =pulseaudio but that doesnt work.

    You could try to insert "amixer set Master 25% unmute" at some point of the script that launches the game... But I don't know if there's a "close script" where you can insert the same code to roll back alsa master volume to 100%.

    Hope this gives you the start point for your solution.

  • You could try to insert "amixer set Master 25% unmute" at some point of the script that launches the game... But I don't know if there's a "close script" where you can insert the same code to roll back alsa master volume to 100%.

    Hope this gives you the start point for your solution.

    This could work if he uses analog audio too, but at least on my systems the master volume did not change the volume of my HDMI audio output.

    So something like amixer -q set Master,0 75% unmute in front of the dolphin start command could work.

  • Ye the command didnt change the volume of my hdmi audio output. However it was worth a try, thank you

    I think you can find the right command to obtain it. 5schatten, for example, wrote a different command... if changing the master volume doesn't affect your HDMI output volume, maybe you can specify another channel to change the volume. If you're using alsa I think there must be a way to control the HDMI output with alsamixer.

    Try to change the different channels volume in alsamixer through ssh while playing something to find out which channel affects your HDMI output, and finally change the channel name in the amixer command.

    I can't try what you're experiencing cause my nuc has not HDMI out (only DVI), so I have to use analog or spdif (digital optical output).

  • Build RR-20190423-716b9f8 | is mostly online | C2 uploading

    • updated copyright & license in package files
    • added basic Rockchip project for RockPro64 RK3399 -> WIP
    • updated to latest LE 9.x
    • updated to Kodi 18.2
    • updated Generic kernel to 5.0.9 | RPi kernel to 5.0.8
    • updated Mesa to 19.0.2
    • updated Vulkan to v1.1.106
    • updated dav1d to 0.2.2 & fixed multi threaded SW AV1 decoding
    • updated Gstreamer to 1.16.0 | added gst-omx for RPi -> WIP
    • updated FluidSynth to 2.0.5
    • added Kodi announcement when a frontend & Spotify is started
    • fixed ALSA volume for analog audio -> restores 100% after exiting frontends
    • added recording options to Retroarch -> you have to delete your retroarch.cfg before you update, start, exit & start RA again if you use PulseAudio
    • splitted libretro cores & coreinfo into separate packages -> clean up & satisfies my ocd ;)
    • added lr-nSide SNES emulator based on higan v106r25 to Generic builds
    • updated (lr-)ppsspp to v1.8.0-dev for Generic | reverted v1.7.5 for all other projects due speed issues
    • updated GLideN64 to 4.0 for Generic | fixed build for RPi but still WIP
    • updated DOSBox to 0.74-2 | r4156
    • updated several libretro-cores
    • updated citra & dolphin
  • ALSA is basically useless & only needed for some special snowflake software like PCSX2. My TV uses HDMI and changing the ALSA Master volume does not even effect the audio output so it does not make sense to add any functions for this backend while PA normally works fine & is mandatory for video previews for example.

    Being too lazy to research how to use it properly does not equal being useless ;)

    HDMI is a digital signal so it's only logical that volume control doesn't work (ever try adjusting the volume on your TV when connected to a soundbar with optical?). What Pulseaudio does is resampling the audio stream before passing it along, so in that way increasing the volume is possible. You could do the same thing with ALSA as well by using dmix/softvol. As for PCSX2, if you wanted to use Pulseaudio you could just configure your container properly so that it would use it. You can have sound in video previews at the same time as you have sound in the menus as well, there is nothing that requires Pulseaudio.

    And how do you think Pulseaudio talks to your sound card? ALSA :)

  • Being too lazy to research how to use it properly does not equal being useless ;)

    HDMI is a digital signal so it's only logical that volume control doesn't work (ever try adjusting the volume on your TV when connected to a soundbar with optical?). What Pulseaudio does is resampling the audio stream before passing it along, so in that way increasing the volume is possible. You could do the same thing with ALSA as well by using dmix/softvol. As for PCSX2, if you wanted to use Pulseaudio you could just configure your container properly so that it would use it. You can have sound in video previews at the same time as you have sound in the menus as well, there is nothing that requires Pulseaudio.

    And how do you think Pulseaudio talks to your sound card? ALSA :)

    Well I'm aware of those ALSA plugins & I know that basically Kodi and PA just resamples the given audio stream and in- or decreases the volume this way. AFAIK the master volume just controls the onboard amplifier and sets the output voltage for analog outputs.

    But to be honest I had other priorities. Maybe some would call it lazy but I was to busy to overhaul the docker scripts & images to make sure you always get a defined tagged version of the container and I was also busy to fix PCSX2 for at least most Nvidia users by figuring out what's wrong with the driver. So yes you might have to take your remote and lower the volume but at least you can run ps2 games. ;)

    If someone isn't pleased by using one of three frontends that all feature theming, assets or video previews then c'est la vie. Feel free to use any third party stuff and I help to fix some bugs if I can but I'm not motivated to reconfigure the ALSA stuff while a fully functional PulseAudio backend is available which even the average user can configure in a Kodi addon without having to deal with a terminal or other cli stuff. But as I said priorities /shrug

    In the end you can either use this build which basically runs ootb after some minor adjustments or you craft a custom solution. Pick your p0ison :P