Driver for the Retro-Bit NES not working

rgrs

Pi model: Pi B rev 2
Power supply: Nokia 5V 2A
RetroPie version: 4.4.14
Built from: retropie-4.4-rpi1_zero.img
USB devices connected: Retro-Bit NES Controller
Controller used: Original NES controller
Error messages received: No gamepad detected
Guide used: https://github.com/msteinbeck/hid-retrobit
Emulator: Emulation Station
How to replicate the problem:

I rebuild my old defective NES with an RPI and installed a clean retropie on it. I installed the drivers for the controller. They do show output when using the command: jstest /dev/input/js0

When I start retropie, I get the message "no gamepad detected". I know this isn't the best controller, but I wanted to keep the original NES look and gamepads. Can't get them to work in retropie. I haven't looked into recompiling my own kernel yet.

Out of the box it doesn't work at all.

Any suggestions?

mitu

@rgrs Did you copy the udev rules - as explained in the driver documentation ?

Unfortunately, the driver hid-generic prevents hid-retrobit from binding your device. The file 99-hid-retrobit.rules contains some udev rules which unbinds all supported devices from hid-generic and rebinds them to hid-retrobit on the fly. Copy this file to /etc/udev/rules.d. To ensure the udev rules are able to rebind your devices, you finally need to copy the file hid-retrobit.conf to /etc/modules-load.d.

rgrs

I did.

I will have another go at it, as I have been messing around a lot.

@mitu I did copy these files, however, this is for the manual installation.

All I have to do is:

Download the latest deb package from: https://github.com/retuxx/hid-retrobit/releases.
Install linux headers and dkms:

sudo apt-get install raspberrypi-kernel-headers dkms

Install the driver:

sudo dpkg -i hid-retrobit.deb

Plugin your device.

mitu

@rgrs OK, but did you check if those udev rules are added after the installation ? Maybe they're important and need to exist in order to have a functioning driver.

rgrs

@mitu

Before installation of the driver:

etc/udev $ ls
hwdb.d rules.d udev.conf

Installation:

udo dpkg -i hid-retrobit.deb
Selecting previously unselected package hid-retrobit.
(Reading database ... 96597 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack hid-retrobit.deb ...
Unpacking hid-retrobit (1.0.0) ...
Setting up hid-retrobit (1.0.0) ...

Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/hid-retrobit/1.0.0/source ->
/usr/src/hid-retrobit-1.0.0

DKMS: add completed.

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel. Skipping...

Building module:
cleaning build area.........
make -j1 KERNELRELEASE=4.19.42+ -C /lib/modules/4.19.42+/build M=/var/lib/dkms/hid-retrobit/1.0.0/build..............
cleaning build area.......

DKMS: build completed.

hid-retrobit:
Running module version sanity check.

Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/4.19.42+/kernel/extra/

depmod.....

DKMS: install completed.

after installation:

/etc/udev $ ls
hwdb.d rules.d udev.conf

So it seems there were no changes made. I will copy the files to the required dirs.

rgrs

Well, I was looking in the wrong dir. But the files are there after installation

No gamepads detected unfortunatly.

dmesg output:

[ 208.530291] usb 1-1.2: reset full-speed USB device number 4 using dwc_otg
[ 209.281657] usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 220.180609] usb 1-1.3: new low-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 220.325589] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=1292, idProduct=4643, bcdDevice= 2.01
[ 220.325618] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 220.325631] usb 1-1.3: Product: NES Controller USB
[ 220.325644] usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer: INNEX
[ 220.351132] input: INNEX NES Controller USB as /devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/0003:1292:4643.0005/input/input7
[ 220.357206] hid-retrobit 0003:1292:4643.0005: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.00 Gamepad [INNEX NES Controller USB] on usb-20980000.usb-1.3/input0

Really weird: the inputs are working fine

pi@retropie:~ $ jstest /dev/input/js0
Driver version is 2.1.0.
Joystick (INNEX NES Controller USB) has 2 axes (Hat0X, Hat0Y)
and 4 buttons (BtnA, BtnB, BtnC, BtnX).
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)
Axes: 0:-32767 1: 0 Buttons: 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off (Left)
Axes: 0: 0 1: -32767 0 Buttons: 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off (Up)
Axes: 0:32767 1: 0 Buttons: 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off (Right)
Axes: 0: 0 1: 32767 0 Buttons: 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off (Down)

mitu

The log shows the device is using the driver, jstest works, maybe SDL2 doesn't detect it. Try adding an udev rule for it - similar to what's described here. Replace Vendor/Product IDs with the values from the log. Reboot and see if it gets detected by Emulationstation.

rgrs

@mitu
This is already in 99-hid-retrobit.rules

only match one vendor and product

ATTRS{idVendor}=="1292", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4154", GOTO="hid_retrobit_ok"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="1292", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4643", GOTO="hid_retrobit_ok"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="1292", ATTRS{idProduct}=="5346", GOTO="hid_retrobit_ok"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="1292", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4745", GOTO="hid_retrobit_ok"

Ok, I unloaded 99-hid-retrobit.rules to see what would happen. But jstest still works fine. I did not expect to see that.

rgrs

@mitu is it possible to setup the controller manuallly in retropie somehow? I can't figure out anything wrong with the driver.

mitu

@rgrs You can set it up manually, but if it's not detected by Emulationstation it will not work in it. You can however set it up in RetroArch - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroArch-Configuration/#autoconfigurations. Get the button values and add them to a .cfg file named after your controller - there's an example in the doc page.