Disable devices?

hansolo77

Something to experiment with at least..

hansolo77

Ok, got home and did a test..

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 23 00:34 /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick -> ../js3

Then I did a sudo reboot and ran it again:

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 23 22:26 /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick -> ../js0

If it stayed the same, I could try and use that command to temporary disable js3, but after reboot it's now js0. This is my problem I'm always having. The Pi doesn't enumerate the devices according to their plugged in location. I thought I had it figured out at one point, even official Raspberry Pi documentation said it should go "top left, bottom left, top right, bottom right". But this clearly isn't the case. It might be because the Xbox dongle hasn't fully "booted up" yet, as the little light blinks a good while before it's fully up and ready. The Raphnet is probably faster, so it takes over. But this doesn't happen all the time, which is what is so frustrating.

Is there a way to maybe have a script or something that can detect which port it's running in and THEN disable it? Something like

Execute "ls -l /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick"
Export results to "Variable"
Execute chmod to disable "Variable"
-----
Then on return from game - Execute chmod to enable "Variable"

Probably no way to do that huh? Have it intelligently identify the jsX variable by executing that command before hand.

mitu

@hansolo77 Since the ID is the same, you'll get the jsX device by executing

realpath /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick

Your variable can be something like

raphnetJS=$(realpath /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick)
chmod g-rw /dev/input/$raphnetJS

cyperghost

@mitu Wow that is a nice solution. But I think you have to strip the /dev/input because realpath is /dev/input/js# to change filestate sudo command is needed.

I think that will work ... so to disable that device chmod g-rw to enable chmod g+rw

hansolo77

I just tested this combination:

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 23 22:54 /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick -> ../js0

pi@retropie:~ $ sudo chmod g-rw /dev/input/js0

The result is that the controller is still active (I plugged it in to test). Just for "fun" I ran this with that same result:

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 23 22:54 /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick -> ../js0

Did I format my chmod wrong?

EDIT Another quick find:

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/input
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     280 Jul 24 21:02 by-id
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     280 Jul 24 21:02 by-path
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 64 Jul 23 22:54 event0
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 65 Jul 23 22:54 event1
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 66 Jul 23 22:54 event2
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 67 Jul 23 22:54 event3
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 68 Jul 23 22:54 event4
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 69 Jul 23 22:54 event5
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 70 Jul 23 22:54 event6
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 71 Jul 24 21:02 event7
crw------- 1 root input 13,  0 Jul 23 22:54 js0
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13,  1 Jul 23 22:54 js1
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13,  2 Jul 23 22:54 js2
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13,  3 Jul 23 22:54 js3
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13,  4 Jul 24 21:02 js4
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 63 Jul 23 22:54 mice
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 32 Jul 23 22:54 mouse0

So it DID set the -rw.. but the device is still reading input from the controller... :(

EDIT 2
I give up for tonight. Did a bunch of googling, came up with a potential option from here:
https://github.com/AntiMicro/antimicro/wiki/Methods-for-Disabling-Joystick-Reading-in-Linux#permission-change
Essentially, using chmod 000 rather than chmod g-rw. Unfortunately, it didn't work either. I tried doing it on the jsX, event, and the by-id path. Nothing I tried worked. The controller was still responsive even though I confirmed through ls -l that the device was no longer readable or writable. Bummer there.. Any other ideas?

hansolo77

I think I might have found a solution. Something I remember coming across before.. If the "raphnet" adapter is identified as js0, I can do a sudo mv to change it's ID. SO...

I run a test.

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/input/by-id
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Mayflash_Ltd_Mayflash_MD_USB_Adapter-event-joystick -> ../event6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Mayflash_Ltd_Mayflash_MD_USB_Adapter-if01-event-joystick -> ../event7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Mayflash_Ltd_Mayflash_MD_USB_Adapter-if01-joystick -> ../js4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Mayflash_Ltd_Mayflash_MD_USB_Adapter-joystick -> ../js3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Microsoft_Microsoft®_2.4GHz_Transceiver_v8.0-event-kbd -> ../event3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Microsoft_Microsoft®_2.4GHz_Transceiver_v8.0-if01-event-mouse -> ../event4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Microsoft_Microsoft®_2.4GHz_Transceiver_v8.0-if01-mouse -> ../mouse0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Microsoft_Microsoft®_2.4GHz_Transceiver_v8.0-if02-event-kbd -> ../event5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-©Microsoft_Xbox_360_Wireless_Receiver_for_Windows_E1594E70-event-joystick -> ../event2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 26 23:55 usb-©Microsoft_Xbox_360_Wireless_Receiver_for_Windows_E1594E70-joystick -> ../js2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick -> ../event1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 26 23:55 usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick -> ../js1

The "raphnet" is located on js1. Everything should work like it should. Test running OpenBOR, and YUP! The Xbox controller works just fine. Reboot and test again:

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/input/by-id
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Mayflash_Ltd_Mayflash_MD_USB_Adapter-event-joystick -> ../event6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Mayflash_Ltd_Mayflash_MD_USB_Adapter-if01-event-joystick -> ../event7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Mayflash_Ltd_Mayflash_MD_USB_Adapter-if01-joystick -> ../js4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Mayflash_Ltd_Mayflash_MD_USB_Adapter-joystick -> ../js3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Microsoft_Microsoft®_2.4GHz_Transceiver_v8.0-event-kbd -> ../event3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Microsoft_Microsoft®_2.4GHz_Transceiver_v8.0-if01-event-mouse -> ../event4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Microsoft_Microsoft®_2.4GHz_Transceiver_v8.0-if01-mouse -> ../mouse0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-Microsoft_Microsoft®_2.4GHz_Transceiver_v8.0-if02-event-kbd -> ../event5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-©Microsoft_Xbox_360_Wireless_Receiver_for_Windows_E1594E70-event-joystick -> ../event2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 26 23:55 usb-©Microsoft_Xbox_360_Wireless_Receiver_for_Windows_E1594E70-joystick -> ../js2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jul 26 23:55 usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick -> ../event1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jul 26 23:55 usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick -> ../js0

(ok so I just copied the same block and changed it but...)
Now the "Raphnet" is located on js0. Test it in OpenBOR and the result is the Xbox controller doesn't work. So let's try this... Reboot, confirm "raphnet" is located on js0. It is, so I execute this:

sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick /dev/input/js99
sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick /dev/input/event99

Then I try and run OpenBOR. The game is working with the Xbox controller like it should again! The trick here is to move the controller's ID to something beyond all the other controller ID's. The game appears to then be loading up the next "first" controller Linux has set up (in this case, the Xbox). The hard part it took me a while to figure out is that I have to do this BEFORE launching an OpenBOR game. If not, the configs are out of sync or something and don't work even if I remember to move them and re-load the game. It only works if I move the ID before the first time I load an OpenBOR game. But it works!

So now I just need a way to add this to my runcommand-onstart script. I tried creating an IF/THEN for the $1 system of "openbor" but it didn't work. I also tried to flat out add the commands to very top of the script without any IF/THEN, but that didn't work either.

Any thoughts?

hansolo77

Ok, got a working runcommand-onstartscript going, but it's not pretty. Had some complications but it's all figured out now.

if [ "$1" = "openbor" ]
then
sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick /dev/input/js99
sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick /dev/input/event99
fi

The "not pretty" part is that this is a suicide modification. I don't know how to store the original ID's as variables to be recalled in the runcommand-onend script to put things back to normal. Going this route solves the problem for OpenBOR, but kills any other games that would use that device. What I need is a script that will do this:

if [ "$1" = "openbor" ] && [ "/dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick" = "js0" ]
then
# store variable for /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick as this changes randomly too and ties with the jsX
sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick /dev/input/js99
sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick /dev/input/event99
fi

and runcommand-onend:

if [ "$1" = "openbor" ] && [ "/dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick" = "js99" ]
then
# recall stored variable for eventX
sudo mv /dev/input/js99 /dev/input/js0
sudo mv /dev/input/event99 /dev/input/eventX #variable
fi

Does this sound possible? I know my &&'s and ='s are probably wrong, this is coming from a google search lol. Does the runcommand-onend remember the $1 variable when a game is exiting?

hansolo77

Anybody have any experience with this care to offer some helpful advice? :) Sorry I gotta ask. Once I get this figured out and working, I promise to leave you guys alone for a month or so before I try and do something else lol.

mediamogul

@hansolo77

I'm not entirely sure I understand the workflow you're aiming for, but if not exactly correct, this may at least serve as inspiration for a better solution.

In theory, the following should store the two event names as variables, export them and then check to see if they're present to allow the if/then statement to continue.

runcommand-onstart:

RNJS="$(find /dev/input/by-id/ -name '*raphnet.net_nes2usb*USB-joystick*')"
RNEJS="$(find /dev/input/by-id/ -name '*raphnet.net_nes2usb*USB-event-joystick*')"

export RNJS RNEJS

if [ "$1" = "openbor" ] && [ -n "$RNJS" ] && [ -n "$RNEJS" ]; then
  sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick /dev/input/js99
  sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick /dev/input/event99
fi

With the event name variables exported, the following should put everything back as it was.

runcommand-onend:

if [ "$1" = "openbor" ] && [ -n "$RNJS" ] && [ -n "$RNEJS" ]; then
  sudo mv /dev/input/js99 "/dev/input/by-id/""$RNJS"
  sudo mv /dev/input/event99 "/dev/input/by-id/""$RNEJS"
fi

Does the runcommand-onend remember the $1 variable when a game is exiting?

It is aware of that variable, yes.

hansolo77

@mediamogul Thanks a lot for this! I will experiment and report back. I wasn't sure how a bash script would work as far as storing variables. My experience in writing a "program" from scratch is limited to my days in high school with TI-BASIC on the TI-85 graphing calculator. LOL! It looks like we name the variable, then the command to locate it. The parts I'm hung up on are the programming commands, like find, -name, and -n. find is pretty self explanatory, as is -name. Reading it across though, are you sure this is correct? I'm not defining $RNJS, just RNJS (missing the preceeding $)... or is that what the export does? Also, I'm still not seeing where the test against the variable is detecting it as js0... It looks like all we're doing is testing for the existence of the $RNJS variable...

What if we do:

if [ "$1" = "openbor" ] && [ "/dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick" = "js0" ]; then
  RNJS="$(find /dev/input/by-id/ -name '*raphnet.net_nes2usb*USB-joystick*')"
  RNEJS="$(find /dev/input/by-id/ -name '*raphnet.net_nes2usb*USB-event-joystick*')"  
  export RNJS RNEJS
  sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick /dev/input/js99
  sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick /dev/input/event99
fi

Or is that just overly complicating things?

mediamogul

@hansolo77 said in Disable devices?:

It looks like all we're doing is testing for the existence of the $RNJS variable...

That is all that it's doing. I'm really not sure how you'd correlate an event name to a jsX assignment for the if/then statement. Perhaps you could get there by extracting and manipulating information from:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

in some way, but to my knowledge you can't automatically correlate them by just using:

if  [ "/dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick" = "js0" ]; then

hansolo77

Well I'm getting no where fast. I thought I had the solution, by moving the js assignment. It worked, but now it's not. Even when doing it manually. Now I'm having a problem where the Xbox controller isn't being enumerated as js1. Instead, it's coming up randomly too as js4 sometimes (so OpenBOR's controller mappings need changed and it says "P3 BUTTON 1" etc. Then other times it's coming up as js1 (Player 2), or even a js6 (Player 5) one time. This whole things is ridiculously complicated now. I think I'm going to skip all of it and add another XBOXDRV setting. I really didn't want to do that, because it seems like each new entry takes a little bit longer for the runcommand-onstart to process. But it looks like it's still the best way to go.

mediamogul

@hansolo77

You never can tell, inspiration usually strikes me just as I've given up. However, xboxdrv will definitely work. One way to keep the script size down is to offload the lengthy xboxdrv launch commands to a separate script, leaving just the if/then statements that call the script in one line. I run a little over 300 xboxdrv maps and my runcommand-onstart file is only 32k.

hansolo77

@mediamogul said in Disable devices?:

I run a little over 300 xboxdrv maps and my runcommand-onstart file is only 32k.

And here I am complaining about 7k. :) Maybe it's just in my head.

mediamogul

@hansolo77 said in Disable devices?:

Maybe it's just in my head.

Maybe not. It could just be some other factor. 7kb shouldn't be slowing you down though. At 32kb, mine loads almost instantly.

cyperghost

@mediamogul

That is all that it's doing. I'm really not sure how you'd correlate an event name to a jsX assignment for the if/then statement. Perhaps you could get there by extracting and manipulating information from ....

That's possible, because the events are just symlinks to the jsx-tree. So the idea @mitu introduced works with realpath symlink and gives output dev/input/js[0-99]

@hansolo77
I think a good approach would be something like this

RNJS="$(find /dev/input/by-id/ -name '*raphnet.net_nes2usb*USB-joystick*')"
RNEJS="$(find /dev/input/by-id/ -name '*raphnet.net_nes2usb*USB-event-joystick*')"
JSX="$(realpath $RNJS)"

if [ "$1" = "openbor" ] && [ "${JSX##*/}" = "js0" ]; then
export  RNJS RNEJS JSX
  sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-joystick /dev/input/js99
  sudo mv /dev/input/by-id/usb-raphnet.net_nes2usb_1228-event-joystick /dev/input/event99
fi

mediamogul

@cyperghost

I love it when ideas exchange and evolve like this. Thinking on it a little bit, this could be used for a couple of different use cases that I've had in mind and didn't know where to start. I've always disliked how device assignment and handling is out of the user's control.

hansolo77

It doesn’t solve the problem though. Simply moving the assignment of jsX on the Raphnet didn’t change any of the other assignments. The Xbox controller still wasn’t working because it was assigned to js5. So my Mayflash that was on js2 was picked up as the next controller in OpenBOR. My wireless keyboard was js3 and the mouse was js4. I would have to go through and move the raphnet and the Xbox too. It’s became much more complicated then it should be. XBOXDRV works because you’re removing the kernel driver then creating a new one where you’re assigning the buttons to keyboard keys. It ALWAYS works. But we shouldn’t have to do that. Granted, my particular situation is unique, but the problem is there.

mediamogul

@hansolo77 said in Disable devices?:

It doesn’t solve the problem though.

Why do you always have to be so negative? ;) I do think there's a kernel of a solution here, but I also agree that after you wade through the complexity of what it'd take, it's probably best to seek out a simpler option. This type of issue with controller assignments was actually one of the first things I ever posted about on here. In looking for a solution I ran across xboxdrv and years later it's still a great option for these types of things.

hansolo77

@mediamogul said in Disable devices?:

Why do you always have to be so negative? ;)

I'm pessimistic.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/pessimistic
Comes with my depression, anxiety, low self esteem. The whole belief that nothing positive exists in my life, other than being alive and having a job.

Back on topic though, I still think in this particular case, even my initial OP to seek a way to disable a device probably wouldn't have worked either, given that the other devices are also enumerated randomly.