PS4 Controller not working on external menus

mitu

If it's installed, then try running the following command, from the terminal, after exiting EmulationStation:

python3 /opt/retropie/admin/joy2key/joy2key_sdl.py kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x0a 0x20 0x1b 0x00 kpp knp -d

Try pressing the buttons/d-pad/joystick on the gamepad and see if they get recognized by the joy2key script. If you get any errors during the script execution, then post them here.

LPG

@mitu Just gave that command a try both on SSH and in the desktop just in case. Both time I got no output when pressing the buttons.

I did get a message that no joystick devices were found, even though the controller still works fine in games and the RP GUI.

LPG

@mitu What's also interesting is that I can see the PS4 controller connected and paired on the Ubuntu BT menu.

mitu

@lpg said in PS4 Controller not working on external menus:

@mitu What's also interesting is that I can see the PS4 controller connected and paired on the Ubuntu BT menu.

That should be normal, the PS4 controller is a regular bluetooth device.

I did get a message that no joystick devices were found, even though the controller still works fine in games and the RP GUI.

That's the issue I think, though it's weird the controller is not detected by SDL2 (via Python) when it's working in EmulationStation.

LPG

@mitu I had a chance to play around with this some more tonight. I paired my PS3 controller and tried running joy2key_sdl.py with the PS3 controller both wired and using BT.

Both yielded the same results or lack of results I should say. I'm digging into the joy2key docs as I'm pretty new to this to see if I can find anything that jumps out at me.

LPG

@lpg After doing some digging I got the controller to work as a keyboard using qjoypad. However, since both qjoypad and RetroPie now have bindings pressing one button is seen as a double press so pressing right once becomes press right twice.

I guess that's at least some progress.

mitu

@lpg joy2key functions just like qjoypad. I still can't figure out why it won't work with your setup, but you can use start qjoypad just during the runcommand start screen (and stop it afterwards). See the runcommand scripting support doc page.

LPG

@mitu That seems pretty straightforward. However, how do I get around the issue where both qjoypad and retropie detect the button press so the game thinks the button is being pressed twice?

Is it just a matter of not configuring the controller on retropie and only adding it to qjoypad?

On a side note, are there any logs I can dig through to try and figure out the original joy2key issue?

mitu

@mitu That seems pretty straightforward. However, how do I get around the issue where both qjoypad and retropie detect the button press so the game thinks the button is being pressed twice?

The idea was that you can start qjoypad just during the runcommand launch and then stop it before the game starts from the scripts mentioned on the page I linked, so qjoypad would not active during gameplay.

Is it just a matter of not configuring the controller on retropie and only adding it to qjoypad?

That's one possibility, but I wouldn't recommend it.

On a side note, are there any logs I can dig through to try and figure out the original joy2key issue?

The command I've posted in the beginning should log something when the gamepad is detected and active (inputs pressed) or log any errors, other than that there's no other logging involved.
Since it seems there's an issue with the pysdl2 module, I'd rather try to upgrade to the latest LTS (20.04) and see if the problem still appears there.

LPG

@mitu I'll swap the HD on my pc and try out 20.04. I didn't know RT would work on it, I was going strictly by what was on the wiki.

I'll report back any findings.

mitu

@lpg said in PS4 Controller not working on external menus:

I was going strictly by what was on the wiki.

The wiki says 18.04 LTS or later in order to emphasise the minimum requirement. You can use a more recent Ubuntu LTS.

LPG

@mitu Welp, that's totally on me. I didn't catch that. That's what I get for skimming for the main things I was looking for.

LPG

@mitu happy to report that after installing 20.04 on another HD I am able to natively use my controllers in the menus. Now to go through the process of redoing all the OS tweaks.

Thanks for all your help @mitu