Increasing max volume

Argestes · 8 September 2017 03:37

Apologies. I called the button the “pair button” but stand corrected.
The really odd thing is that with one bluetooth dongle (connected to my PC) - the Creatives connect with no hitch at all. But now I have tested two other dongles, and within the PC bluetooth control the Creatives are not seen; and from the Creatives, they will not connect. I conjecture that the Creatives use an implementation of bluetooth that is not supported in some bluetooth dongles, but it is in others.
It’s moot for me now, as I have found a way to get audio from the Vero - via the USB - and now want to boost the volume.
The really strange things are that:

the dongle that works with the Creatives T50, also detects a Soundblaster AXX200
a Vaio laptop running Win10, with built in intel bluetooth does not detect or pair with the Creatives or the Soundblaster.
the same a Vaio laptop does not detect or pair with the Creatives or the Soundblaster when the other bluetooth dongles are inserted.
the Vero, when bluetooth is activated does see the PC (with the dongle that works), but does not see, as previously noted, the PC when using the other dongles; nor does it see the Soundblaster.
While puzzling, it’s moot for me now, as I have a way to get audio from the Vero - via the USB - and now want to boost the volume.
Thanks for your reading and advice. Very much appreciated.

Argestes · 8 September 2017 03:38

I only have the VERO remote - and it does not have a + button.
Can I get at that setting via the terminal?

Argestes · 8 September 2017 03:56

Right. I found an “airmouse” that came with a now discarded xtreamer. It has volume on it and I’ve boosted kodi to 100%.
Q: will it preserve that setting between reboots? If not, how can I make it permanent?
I also went back into alsamixer via terminal. I found the volume on the soundblaster Paly!2 had reset to 40.
I boosted it to 87. It does not seem to retain the new setting between reboots.
Q: Is there some wah tto edit the configuration file to make that change to 87 permanent?
Thank you for reading and for advice. Much appreciated.

fzinken · 8 September 2017 04:00

This will be preserved between reboots

Normally that settings should be saved but there are currently some issues with the alsa package. Maybe revisit this after next month update.

sfera · 5 October 2017 12:58

i tried the current kernel today (3.8.9 - vero364-image-3.14.29-37-osmc:arm64) and the amplification issue (as i previously described it) is still the same. such a disappointment…

i’m now trying to figure out how to revert to the previous kernel (which was working) without having to backup and flash the device. any help or hints would be appreciated…

sam_nazarko · 5 October 2017 13:01

The issue may not necessarily be kernel related, by related to AML-M8AUDIO.conf.

Which kernel was it (do you remember the exact version)?
We keep some old kernels in our repository, but only for a short while.

I’m looking in to this further.

Cheers,

Sam

sfera · 5 October 2017 13:08

hey sam, it’s all documented in this thread: the last kernel version in which both amplification and volume worked was vero364-image-3.14.29-25-osmc

sam_nazarko · 5 October 2017 13:19

Hi

Unfortunately that kernel is not in the repository anymore.
But thanks for confirming the exact working version again. I may be able to build it for you again, although I’d rather take a stab at fixing the issue properly.

Sam

sfera · 5 October 2017 13:38

here are my thoughts:

fixing the issue for good would be great, but in the meantime i need a workaround
if i am to test different kernel images or setups, i should be able to revert to the last working version without having to backup/flash/restore the vero 4k each time.
kernel-3.14.29-25-osmc.img is still available in /boot/. i just don’t know how to re-enable it. i also think about avoiding some mixed-up state which apt updates would mix up even more
i downloaded the 2017.06-1 image (the last working one) , extracted it and checked /usr/share/alsa/cards to see if there are differences in AML-M8AUDIO.conf. there is no AML-M8AUDIO.conf file in this image…

sam_nazarko · 5 October 2017 13:40

Try:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall vero3-image-3.14.29-25-osmc

Edit: /etc/osmc/prefs.d/update_preferences and change autoremove kernels flag to 0.

sfera · 5 October 2017 13:55

E: Unable to locate package vero3-image-3.14.29-25-osmc
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'vero3-image-3.14.29-25-osmc'

sam_nazarko · 5 October 2017 13:57

Sorry, typed that in a hurry, should be vero364-image.

You can use dpkg -l | grep vero364-image to see a list of kernels that are available on your system.

sfera · 5 October 2017 14:32

so apparently there’s no need to reinstall the old kernel, as it is still installed:

dpkg -l | grep vero364-image

ii  vero364-image-3.14.29-25-osmc  25  arm64  Linux kernel binary image for version 3.14.29-25-osmc
ii  vero364-image-3.14.29-37-osmc  37  arm64  Linux kernel binary image for version 3.14.29-37-osmc

reinstalling does not work anyways:

sudo apt install --reinstall vero364-image-3.14.29-25-osmc

Reinstallation of vero364-image-3.14.29-25-osmc:arm64 is not possible, it cannot be downloaded.

still, the newer version is in use:

uname -a

Linux osmc 3.14.29-37-osmc #1 SMP Wed Sep 27 22:43:28 UTC 2017 aarch64 GNU/Linux

sam_nazarko · 5 October 2017 14:34

We purge most old kernels after a period of time. However as your system shows that it’s installed on the system, it should be possible to reinstall without redownloading.

Can you post the contents of ls -l /boot and ls -l /lib/modules I can give you manual instructions.

Sam

sfera · 5 October 2017 14:39

ls -lh /boot/
total 33M
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 92K Jul 2 15:53 config-3.14.29-25-osmc
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 93K Sep 28 00:38 config-3.14.29-37-osmc
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 37K Jul 2 15:51 dtb-3.14.29-25-osmc.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 40K Sep 28 00:35 dtb-3.14.29-37-osmc.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 7.5M Jul 2 16:54 kernel-3.14.29-25-osmc.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 7.7M Sep 28 01:11 kernel-3.14.29-37-osmc.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1.2M Feb 18 2017 splash
-rw------- 1 root root 2.7M Jul 2 16:30 System.map-3.14.29-25-osmc
-rw------- 1 root root 2.8M Sep 28 00:47 System.map-3.14.29-37-osmc
-rw------- 1 root root 5.5M Jul 2 16:30 vmlinuz-3.14.29-25-osmc
-rw------- 1 root root 5.6M Sep 28 00:47 vmlinuz-3.14.29-37-osmc

ls -lh /lib/modules
total 8.0K
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Jan 1 2015 3.14.29-25-osmc
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Oct 5 14:41 3.14.29-37-osmc

sam_nazarko · 5 October 2017 16:21

I think the error from APT occurred because you ran apt install rather than apt-get install.

Anyway:

sudo -s
LANG=C /bin/dd if=/boot/kernel-3.14.29-25-osmc.img of=/dev/boot bs=1M conv=fsync
/usr/bin/fw_setenv upgrade_step 2
LANG=C /bin/dd if=/boot/dtb-3.14.29-25-osmc.img of=/dev/dtb bs=256k

Should do the trick. You can then reboot and check the kernel version with the uname -a command.

Sam

sfera · 5 October 2017 16:46

i did execute apt-get not apt. nevertheless, the manual switch worked. i’ll stick with 3.14.29-25 for now… thanks

sfera · 13 February 2018 11:25

FYI: this issue is still present after the osmc january update

grahamh · 13 February 2018 12:00

What are you connecting to the Vero via the analogue port?

sfera · 13 February 2018 17:03

analogue speakers with external power supply - same as before.
but does it matter? my issue is with the alsa settings which don’t work correctly since august.