Sony DualShock 3 - call for testers: "sixaxis" script module

psyke83

Unfortunately, it's going to take some time before you'll see this merged in any form as we're currently busy testing everything for stretch compatibility.

Additionally, there are issues with this scriptmodule that are going to require some evaluation:

I've backported the hid-sony driver from the 4.15 kernel, but patched it to revert to the old button mappings that were used by the driver in the 4.9 kernel (as well as the ps3controller driver), with the intention of minimizing user frustration from getting stuck in menus/having to remap their controller, after installing this module. I'm not sure this is a good idea, because the next Raspberry Pi firmware update on stretch will bump the kernel to 4.14.x, and the hid-sony driver from this kernel release will start using the newer button mappings anyway.
In order to support third-party (Shanwan/Gasia) controllers, we need BlueZ 5.48. The packages I've provided work well, but there are always potential pitfalls, complications and upgrade issues when overwriting distribution versions of packages. This won't be an issue once the official Debian/Raspbian packages are upgraded to this version, but the question is how long that will take to happen, or if it will happen at all in the case of stretch.
I haven't yet received any feedback on third-party Gasia controller compatibility. I'm fairly sure it will work just as well as Shanwan, but I need to be sure in order for us to consider this a full replacement for the old ps3controller driver.

Sano

@psyke83
I see.
I saw the future 4.14 kernel/firmware upgrade as stated above through rpi-update github.

Regarding button mapping, IMHO, I think it would be better to stay as close as possible of the upstream packages/drivers.
Moreover, the stretch image is still a beta and apparently no direct upgrade path from jessie will be supported, so we could hope than by integrating this directly in stretch, very few users will be bothered by controller remapping, because the new installs will use the new mapping anyway...

My two cents.

Oh, and thanks again for your work and advices !

psyke83

@Sano,

Yes, but stretch is not yet using the new mappings. Once the next firmware package is released, I'd certainly be happy to drop the old mappings.

BTW, one more thing you could try is to verify that it's not BlueZ 5.48 causing your issue with Bluetooth stability.

Revert the change to /usr/bin/btuart
Revert the Bluetooth packages back to Raspbian defaults:
sudo apt-get install $(dpkg -l | grep 5.48-1~rpi1 | awk -v os_rel=$(lsb_release -sc) '{print $2"/"os_rel}')

Reboot and see if your controller is stable with the default BlueZ packages. To go back to the new BlueZ packages, just re-install the sixaxis module.

Sano

@psyke83
Just tested as requested.
hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84) errors are back, as well as unwanted analog stick events.
Going back to the working solution then :)

psyke83

@sano said in Sony DualShock 3 - call for testers: "sixaxis" script module:

@psyke83
Just tested as requested.
hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84) errors are back, as well as unwanted analog stick events.
Going back to the working solution then :)

At least we know it's not caused by my custom BlueZ packages - much appreciated! I'm still curious as to why I don't experience the same issue, given that we have the exact same revision of Pi 3. Hopefully more people will test this to help discern if it's going to be a common issue.

Sano

@psyke83
Could the answer be that my RPi is near my wifi router (maybe 30cm) ?
Nevertheless those unwanted stick inputs were not there a couple of weeks ago.
Maybe a new firmware/driver/config rendering the BT controller more sensitive ?

psyke83

@sano said in Sony DualShock 3 - call for testers: "sixaxis" script module:

@psyke83
Could the answer be that my RPi is near my wifi router (maybe 30cm) ?
Nevertheless those unwanted stick inputs were not there a couple of weeks ago.
Maybe a new firmware/driver/config rendering the BT controller more sensitive ?

Could be, or perhaps some interference if you have your Pi inside a metal case. Are you on jessie or the stretch testing image? The latter may have different BT/wifi firmware that can affect how Bluetooth behaves.

Sano

@psyke83
My Pi is in a plastic case, and I use the stretch image for a few weeks.
Still trying to find bugs with my "regular" use of retropie, but no big deal ATM.

pjft

I have seen those hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84) errors in the past in my setup, before I even tried to play with these new drivers. I never got to the bottom of it, though since it didn't seem to have any material impact on the performance I just ignored them.

Sano

@pjft
Just FYI those errors are logged in /var/log/kern.log*.
On my setup that was several MB of logs rewritten on a daily basis (I tested and had 500kB of logs for a few minutes of DS3 use), in addition to the random inputs.
Even with a F2FS formatted root partition, I don't like having error logs writing over and over a a several MB per day on a SD card for nothing :)
Gasp, my OCD is still kicking here...

psyke83

@pjft said in Sony DualShock 3 - call for testers: "sixaxis" script module:

I have seen those hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84) errors in the past in my setup, before I even tried to play with these new drivers. I never got to the bottom of it, though since it didn't seem to have any material impact on the performance I just ignored them.

Yeah, those messages aren't unique to the BlueZ sixaxis plugin - they definitely occurred with sixad (ps3controller) too. I don't recall seeing complaints about ghost analog movements, though.

It's hard to debug sixad because the virtual uinput device reports a lot of accelerometer events, and doesn't support setting axis fuzz (needed to skip reporting events when there's a small deviation).

psyke83

@sano said in Sony DualShock 3 - call for testers: "sixaxis" script module:

@pjft
Just FYI those errors are logged in /var/log/kern.log*.
On my setup that was several MB of logs rewritten on a daily basis (I tested and had 500kB of logs for a few minutes of DS3 use), in addition to the random inputs.
Even with a F2FS formatted root partition, I don't like having error logs writing over and over a a several MB per day on a SD card for nothing :)
Gasp, my OCD is still kicking here...

That seems quite excessive. I would see perhaps a dozen or so messages in one day at most, not several megabytes worth. I haven't seen any warnings at all since reducing the UART speed.

Perhaps it's due to overclocking your Pi?

Sano

@psyke83
No overclock :)
I have a personal motto to stay as vanilla as possible.
The only changes I make on my installs are :

disabling overscan
disabling wifi
migrate root partition to F2FS

Here is an example of log I had for a single second before reducing speed :

Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.012012] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.012040] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.012088] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.012184] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.012274] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.012353] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.114573] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.114577] Bluetooth: hci0 ACL packet for unknown connection handle 520
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.114642] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.114728] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.114813] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.114900] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.114966] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.181939] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.181991] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.182071] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.182165] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.182252] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.182340] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.182426] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)
Feb 24 09:51:37 retropie kernel: [552204.182480] Bluetooth: hci0: Frame reassembly failed (-84)

psyke83

@sano said in Sony DualShock 3 - call for testers: "sixaxis" script module:

@psyke83
No overclock :)
I have a personal motto to stay as vanilla as possible.

It's good that we have a mitigation for the issue; regardless, if your warranty isn't void, perhaps you could report the issue to the firmware issues tracker. No need to go into detail about RetroPie or this scriptmodule, as you can replicate the behaviour with stock bluez and the default hid_sony driver on the current stretch kernel.

I have a suspicion that your Pi's bluetooth module may be faulty, considering that we have the same revision of Pi. I've often seen them offer to replace boards when a HW fault is diagnosed (but of course, I'm only speculating about your board).

To be clear, the problem is not that the frame reassembly errors are appearing; our revision board doesn't support HW flow control, so those messages are (unfortunately) expected. The reason I suspect a HW fault is due to the magnitude to which the error is occurring for you along with the phantom feedback. Perhaps if you can test in a "quieter" environment and rule out interference etc., it might help. I'd like to see more people test this module so we can get a wider assessment as to whether this would be a common problem.

MadHorse

Hi all,
i have a Shanwan and a Gaisa controller, i would like to try sixaxis.
I installed sixaxis and automatically it will install customhidsony.
Becasue my controllers are not sony i try to install custombluez but it give me an error because a lot of package are missing

dh-systemd git-buildpackage icu-devtools libcap-ng-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libdw-dev libical-dev libicu-dev libreadline-dev libsubunit-dev libsubunit0 libtinfo-dev libical2

Tried to install all the packages manually with the command

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dh-systemd git-buildpackage icu-devtools libcap-ng-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libdw-dev libical-dev libicu-dev libreadline-dev libsubunit-dev libsubunit0 libtinfo-dev libical2

I was able to install all the packages except libical2
E: Unable to locate package libical2.
Someone can help me ?
I'm using Retropie 4.3.12 on a Raspberry Pi 3.

Thank you

psyke83

@MadHorse,

Thanks for bringing the problem to my attention. It seems that I accidentally left in some unnecessary depends that should fulfilled by the corresponding -dev packages; libical-devshould be sufficient, as it selects libical2 on stretch, but on jessie it probably selects the old package.

I've updated the PR/branch to remove the excess depends, so it should work for you now.

P.S. You have the option to install custombluez from binary, but it's also possible to build from source. If building from source fails, then I may need to add more explicit dependencies to the script for jessie. I only have Raspbian stretch installed on my test card at the moment, so let me know if installing from source is broken and I'll re-flash jessie to test.

In case you're not familiar with git, this should refresh the branch for you due to the branch update being forced, assuming you chose the remote name as psyke83:

git fetch psyke83
git reset --hard psyke83/sixaxis

Thanks.

MadHorse

@psyke83
Thank you for replying me.
As asked i try to install custombluez from source but it fail with the following error

make[2]: *** [client/bluetoothctl] Error 1
Makefile:3183: recipe for target 'all' failed
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/custombluez/build-area/bluez-5.48'
dh_auto_build: make -j1 returned exit code 2
debian/rules:35: recipe for target 'build' failed
make: *** [build] Error 2
dpkg-buildpackage: error: debian/rules build gave error exit status 2
debuild: fatal error at line 1376:
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -D -us -uc -i -I failed
gbp:error: 'debuild -i -I -us -uc' failed: it exited with 29
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/custombluez /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup
Could not successfully build custombluez - Updated version of BlueZ Bluetooth stack

Install alongside 'sixaxis' driver if you need to pair third-party (Gasia/Shanwan) DualShock 3 controllers. (/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/custombluez/build-area/bluetooth_5.48-1~rpi1_all.deb not found).

Installing from binary seems to install without problems.
Let me know if you need the full log if you need me to do some test.

thank you

Sano

@psyke83
The Hori controller is in fact a PS3 and PS4 compatible controller (with a switch to choose PS3/4 compatibility, but this doesn't seem to affect the driver).
Will it use the Sony hid driver even if it's seen as a regular USB controller by the OS ?

Anyway, please feel free to relocate the last few posts to your thread if you think it's more relevant.

psyke83

@sano said in Sony DualShock 3 - call for testers: "sixaxis" script module:

@psyke83
The Hori controller is in fact a PS3 and PS4 compatible controller (with a switch to choose PS3/4 compatibility, but this doesn't seem to affect the driver).
Will it use the Sony hid driver even if it's seen as a regular USB controller by the OS ?

Anyway, please feel free to relocate the last few posts to your thread if you think it's more relevant.

Yes, the sony-hid driver is used for both PS3 and PS4 controllers. However, I'm not very familiar with DS4 clone compatibility.

Without this scriptmodule, the hid-sony kernel driver is used for DS3 pads via USB, while the ps3controller userspace driver claims the input device on the Bluetooth connection, but names the controller differently (without the manufacturer prefix). You may have noticed that on a fresh install, if you map buttons via USB, then install ps3controller and pair, you have to map them again - that's because of the name discrepancy. When using this scriptmodule, the hid-sony driver is used on USB and Bluetooth connections, and thus shares the same name for both.

What happens if you pair your DS3 pad, unplug the Hori and then plug in again? Does the Hori display a player led for you to tell if it's player 1/2/3/4?

Sano

@psyke83
I have to say that I configured the Hori on the fresh install, then installed sixaxis, and didn't have to reconfigure the HORI.
Unfortunately too, the Hori controller doesn't have LEDs for player number...