Pause when controller disconnects

Sano

Hi Guys, I didn't had any answer so maybe I'm the only one that have this issue.

I searched though retroach options without finding anything like "pause when a controller disconnects".

Nevertheless, after finding an UDEV solution for switching to TV when a controller is connected, I just realized that a similar rule when a controller is disconnected could pause the current game.

The problem is I didn't find any way to either :

send a keystoke to retroarch current process (It doesn't accept standard input through /proc/"pid"/fd/0)
or command current retroach thrugh CLI

So basically I'm stuck :)
Does anyone has an idea ? Could named pipes work ? (It would require a change in retroarch launch script)

The last resort would be to open a feature request on retroarch...

Sano

Digging up this thread after 6 months and no answer :)

After finding the feature described here https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/15283/damn-great-retroarch-feature-i-totally-missed

I enabled the Network Control Interface feature, and just created a new UDEV rule :

ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ENV{DEVNAME}=="/dev/input/js*", RUN+="/bin/bash -c '/bin/echo -n MENU_TOGGLE | /bin/nc -u -w1 127.0.0.1 55355'"

And it works : Retroarch menu pops up (and game pause) if a controller disconnects.
I won't loose again because an out of battery DS3 :)

My 2 cents.

Edit : note you can also pause the game by replacing MENU_TOGGLE by PAUSE_TOGGLE, but it's the retroach (not the in-game) pause, so you have to use a keyboard or the network command again to resume the game, hence I preferred the menu solution.

Chuck_B

@sano said in Pause when controller disconnects:

Digging up this thread after 6 months and no answer :)

After finding the feature described here https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/15283/damn-great-retroarch-feature-i-totally-missed

I enabled the Network Control Interface feature, and just created a new UDEV rule :
ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ENV{DEVNAME}=="/dev/input/js*", RUN+="/bin/bash -c '/bin/echo -n MENU_TOGGLE | /bin/nc -u -w1 127.0.0.1 55355'"
And it works : Retroarch menu pops up (and game pause) if a controller disconnects.
I won't loose again because an out of battery DS3 :)

My 2 cents.

Edit : note you can also pause the game by replacing MENU_TOGGLE by PAUSE_TOGGLE, but it's the retroach (not the in-game) pause, so you have to use a keyboard or the network command again to resume the game, hence I preferred the menu solution.

That's really interesting. Does it work with any kind of wireless controllers?

mitu

@chuck_b said in Pause when controller disconnects:

That's really interesting. Does it work with any kind of wireless controllers?

It should work with any type of controller, the configuration makes it so that when a gamepad is disconnected, the menu is shown in RA.

dudumaroja

@sano said in Pause when controller disconnects:

ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ENV{DEVNAME}=="/dev/input/js*", RUN+="/bin/bash -c '/bin/echo -n MENU_TOGGLE | /bin/nc -u -w1 127.0.0.1 55355'"

where exacly you add this command?

mitu

@dudumaroja Create a new file called /etc/udev/rules.d/01-rp-disconnect.rules and add the text in that file. Reboot and it should take effect.

dudumaroja

this work amazingly well.. this should be included with retropie.

Chuck_B

@mitu naming that file 01-rp-disconnect.rules is mandatory?

mitu

@chuck_b No, just the file extension has to be .rules , otherwise you can name it any way you want
From https://wiki.debian.org/udev:

[...] Files in there are parsed in alpha order, as long as the name ends with ".rules".

Chuck_B

@mitu I put the extension ".rules", but when i disconnect the controller the game doesn't pause.
I setted network_cmd_enable = "true" on retroarch.cfg

mitu

@chuck_b said in Pause when controller disconnects:

I setted network_cmd_enable = "true" on retroarch.cfg

Which config file ? This should be done in the global (/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg) file. Did you restart your system after adding the .rules file ? What controller are you using ?

Chuck_B

i solved. I forgot to remove the # before network_cmd_enable = "true" :)