Two things I noticed.
1. Installed from Mageia-6-LiveDVD-Xfce-x86_64-DVD.iso
Entered password during install, but could not log in.(Do not remember a spot to enter user name) Installed again, selected auto-login. (no password) Once installed and logged in I was able to enter user name and password. Now working.

2. Like many other new distros the volume control is overly complicated. In the past I have used Volti to return to a simple up and down volume control. I can not get this to work. Could use some help with this. Thanks

I installed Mageia 6 today. There was a dialog during the install for entering the root password, then under it on the same screen, a dialog to create a user name and password. Many distros do not permit a root login from a display manager--I am not in a position to test whether Mageia does tonight--but that may have been your login issue.

Your workaround was quite clever.

Mageia uses Pulse Audio; whether you like Pulse or not, it is fairly complex; you can control various audio streams independently. You might find Klaatu's podcast about troubleshooting Linux audio helpful regarding the other issue. I can't link to the specific episode; look for episode 11x5.