Genie Community Forum

Pi Zero 2 config has no audio output

User Support
#1

Hi Genie Team,

I’m setting up a Pi Zero 2 configuration and have a USB mic and speaker combination. The audio output and input work from the Bullseye image and I have pulse audio set up and running which activates the mic input, but has no audio output and has an error:
your GStreamer installation is missing a plug-in. Then later down: Internal data stream error.

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Would appreciate knowing if this is an error of the client (being a newer development), a missing GStreamer plug-in (as I still get this message after installing all GStreamer plugins [good,bad, and ugly]), or if there is something additional going on that needs to be corrected?

Using a server on my Home Assistant…pi zero 2…kixar 3 mic and speaker combination.

Thank you,
Daniel

#2

The error message is confusing but it indicates that GStreamer could not negotiate the output. One reason is that module-echo-cancel did not load correctly (hence “echosink” and “echosrc” are not available). Another reason might be the channel count or sample format, but PulseAudio should take care of those. Does output work with a plain GStreamer application?

#3

I appreciate you helping to troubleshoot. I didn’t notice an error on load of genie-client, but certainly could be the case. I’m unsure how to use an app that implements GStreamer as there’s not a lot documented on web, but some instructions on creating your own GStreamer app is out there, which is a little too much of an ask at this point. Are you sure that the raspberry pi OS Bullseye genie client install is currently working for audio output as this is a plain install following the instructions. To boot someone in this forum said they had audio issues and said that installing bullseye instead of buster fixed the issue.

Thank you for your help!

#4

We have tested the client on a Pi Zero 2 with Bullseye (@almakantara did the testing) and it should work.

To test Gstreamer, you can install a tool like gst-play-1.0 and see if that works to play some audio from the web.

Can you verify that the PulseAudio configuration was loaded correctly? Use pactl list sinks and verify that there is a sink called “echosink”; use pactl list sources and verify that there is a source called echosource. If either one is missing, PulseAudio is not configured correctly or module-echo-cancel failed to load. You should look at the journal to see why.

#5

If I were to go the Baidu Xiaodu route —> which speaker would work well and be future proofed for the genie project?

#6

I’m not sure I understand the question. The Xiaodu is a full smartspeaker - it includes a speaker and microphone - but it’s not available yet as an unlocked devkit.

#7

Are these the instructions for how to use it?
https://wiki.genie.stanford.edu/getting-started/installation-guide/xiaodu-speaker

#8

Yes, if you have a Xiaodu devkit (which, once again, is not yet available to the general public) those are the instructions to install Genie on it.

#9

Hi,

I’m not able to see journal entries for module-echo-cancel, but I don’t have any echo sink or echosource entries - how do I ensure pulse audio installs correctly?

Thank you,
Daniel

#10

Did you edit /etc/pulse/default.pa as suggested in Installing a Genie Client on a Raspberry Pi | Genie Wiki ?

#11

That was it! I did a portion of the config but apparently not all of it! This solved it and it’s working perfectly- thank you!!