RetroArch won't distinguish between two controllers

[StanDarsh14]

Hey guys, first post here.

I'm working with a RPI4, most up to date Retroarch. I'm trying to play some N64 games (mario kart, perfect dark) with my wife. I have two identical 8bitdo Pro 2's. I have one paired to the internal Bluetooth and one paired to a Targus Bluetooth adapter in Port 2. I gave up on trying to pair both to the internals of Retroarch because I inevitably wind up with one controller that controls both players. I thought that by setting up one on an ext bluetooth adapter and one with the internal that they would be distinguished but I'm still having the same issue of controlling both Port 1 & Port 2 with one controller. When I attempt to save controller profile for Port 2 - I get an error to save config notification endlessly. Just trying to distinguish these two controllers so we can both play. I've read a lot through these forums all week and haven't quite found the solution. 8bitdo's both firmware updated.

Thanks for reading!

[mitu]

Please add some info about your setup, as detailed in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

Reset the controllers configuration from Retropie Setup Script >> Manage Packages >> Manage Core Packages >> EmulationStation >> Configuration / Options >> Clear / Reset EmulationStation Input Configuration.
Then re-configure one of the controllers in EmulationStation and test to see if the other one works also (without configuring it). Boot a 2nd player game and check to see if the both controllers are detected - there should be a message at startup in the bottom left corner for each controller. See if they work in 2p games idependently.

[theotherdan]

@standarsh14

I used a number of 8BitDo controllers and I use SN30 Pro's on one Pi and SN30 Pro+ on the other. Long story short, the configuration, or to what I can tell, is based on the name, not to much the hardware address. There is a flat file that will contain the configuration. I can literally pair the Pro 2 to the Pi using SN30's and it works out of the box, and vice versa.

I haven't dug into the inner workings, but from my experience, the controller that is powered on and connected first, is port 1, the other is port 2.

[StanDarsh14]

@mitu

Pi 4B 4G Ram
Cana Kit 5v supply
Retro Pi 4.7.1 from image on SD
Targus 4.0 Bluetooth Adapter in Port 2
Rii 8 x1 dongle in port 3
(2) 8bitdo Pro 2's

I performed a controller reset in manage core packages twice now - deleted all Bluetooth devices, rebooted and reconnected to ONE remote.

It seems like either controller will work with one registered bluetooth connection - which confuses me because I thought that with separate Serials, only the one registered would work.

I get message at start up of game saying Port 1 -configured & Port 2 configured but no actual control in game out of port 2. In retroarch just prior to launching a game - both controllers work independently.

@theotherdan
that's my same situation but even with both port 1 & 2 "configured" I can only operate with port 1 - port 2 controller is dead.

[mitu]

@standarsh14 said in RetroArch won't distinguish between two controllers:

It seems like either controller will work with one registered bluetooth connection - which confuses me because I thought that with separate Serials, only the one registered would work.

That's unexpected, the controllers should have different MAC addresses (they appear in the pairing dialog) so the OS would be able to tell them apart and some pairing info to be also stored on the device itself. Deleting the device from the list of paired Bluetooth devices in RetroPie should force the gamepad to be re-configured.

With both devices connected, can you run

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

and post the output ?

You can also test with jstest if the controllers are acting separately. Run:

jstest /dev/input/js0

and press the buttons on 1st, then on the 2nd controller. Only one controller should yield any events/output on the test.