Strange issue - controllers & keyboard not working on PI -400

Infyra

After my Pi4 died I got a Pi-400 and when I tried using the 4.6 image on the device I found out it is not supported, and the way this showed was the controller and the Pi-400 keyboard will not work in Retropie.
I figured updating to the latest 4.7 version would fix the problem for me, so I headed over to a friend with a Pi4B and we updated the Retropi on my card to the latest version (he connected to his wifi for this update).
I brought my Pi-400 and tested it out, it worked perfectly.
When I got home I have the same issue I had before, the controller and keyboard do not respond, so Retropie starts, shows a little movie and then says that no gamepad is found.

All I can think of right now is maybe it needs the same internet connection is needed to boot and recoginise the connected controllers or such? The only variables I can think of right now is that the wifi in my home is different then his, and I am using my 4k tv where he used a monitor, all other factors are the same from when it worked, the same Pi-400, same card, same power supply, same HDMI cable and even same controller (PS4 USB controller which worked fine).
I am so confused, we played games all evening and now when I got home it will not work, even after updating the Retropi on the card to the latest verion.

I also noticed which may or may not be a problem that the Pi will not start if the SD card is in the slot on boot, I have to wait for the Pi to say no SD card is found, and then slot it in for it to work. If I boot with the SD card in the slot, the Pi will flash green once and then go dead until I force the restart by removing and reapplying the power cable. Nothing will work, not even Fn + F10 to power up or down after it flashes green once.

Does this sound familiar to anyone and can anyone help me figure out what the problem is?

mitu

@infyra said in Strange issue - controllers & keyboard not working on PI -400:

All I can think of right now is maybe it needs the same internet connection is needed to boot and recoginise the connected controllers or such?

No, there's no need for an internet connection in order for RetroPie to work. Does the controller work if you plug it in after the boot is completed ?

Infyra

I just checked and, no the controller wont be found even after plugging it in after the boot. The controller will keep flashing white instead of lighting up blue as it does when it connects normally.

mitu

Can you run

cat /proc/bus/input/devices
lsusb -v
uname -a

and post the output ?

Infyra

@mitu
Since the keyboard wont work either, I cant access the shell with F4.

I tried a new barebones flash of 4.7.1 and that one works fine, so I think there is something in my old image that gives an issue.
I think I can either start from scratch with a new card or buy a new Pi4B, I think the 2GB version should be fine right? The 4GB one is not available anywhere here in NL at the moment.

I still cannot figure out why it worked at my friends house yesterday, but maybe when I get the Pi4B I can check to see if running it there and then on the Pi-400 in my house fixes the issue.

mitu

@infyra said in Strange issue - controllers & keyboard not working on PI -400:

I think I can either start from scratch with a new card or buy a new Pi4B, I think the 2GB version should be fine right

The 2Gb version should be fine.

Infyra

@mitu
I got the new 2GB one in and sadly it seems to be to new for the image, I get the dreaded start4.elf is not compatible, this board requires newer software.
So it seems I kind of wasted 60 euros and will have to start from scratch anyway :(

mitu

@infyra said in Strange issue - controllers & keyboard not working on PI -400:

I got the new 2GB one in and sadly it seems to be to new for the image, I get the dreaded start4.elf is not compatible, this board requires newer software.

Yes, there have been quite a few topics in the forum with this error - the solution is to use the weekly build image from https://files.retropie.org.uk/images/weekly/.

Infyra

@mitu Yes thanks, I read about it. I will try to see if just the start4.elf and recovery4.elf will make my old SD card come alive.

Infyra

@mitu
Just replacing the start4.elf actually made it boot into the intro video, but after the video I just get a black screen.
At least one step further!

Infyra

@mitu
I had to setup my retropie from scratch to get it to work on the Pi-400 and the new 2GB Pi4B I got.
I got almost everything working except some of the openbor games (the script mentioned in the emulator section on the site does not seem to be in my image).

The biggest issue I have now though is that for GBA, GBC and GB games the games will only show in the top left quarter of the screen. No matter the retroarch setting I change, and no matter the resoltion I choose in the launch menu, nothing changes this.
The games are playable if I disable the basel, but I am confused because GBA was actually the first system i got working on my new install, and it worked fine.
After getting the rest of the systems working I went back and the resultion changed just on these 3 nintendo handheld systems. So instead of rendering in the center of the screen as usual, it renders the whole image in the top left of the screen at 1/4th the usual size as if the top left quarter of my tv is the whole screen.

Do you have any idea what could have caused this?

mitu

@infyra said in Strange issue - controllers & keyboard not working on PI -400:

The games are playable if I disable the basel,

Then disable the bezels, looks like it's an issue with them.

Infyra

@mitu
What I meant is that since its in the top left corner of the screen, the bazel will cover up most of the image, but if I disable the bazel, the whole image will be visible but still in the top left quarter of the screen.

mitu

@infyra This doesn't look like a standard config - how did you install the bezels ?

Infyra

@mitu
I can't remember installing them, dont they come with the image? Maybe they were in my old folder on the USB and retropie imported them too.
Anyway, I figured out how to move the viewport to the center of the screen, if I enable the integer scaling under scaling options in retroarch it will move the picture to the center, and then I can pump it to about 10x so it will fit the bazel.
If I don't use integer scaling I can move it to the center of the screen manually by adjusting the x and y of the viewport, but in either case, I cannot get retroarch to save the configs in the /opt/retropie/configs/gba/retroarch.cfg folder.
I have manually saved a config and overwritten the retroarch.cfg but it seems it will only enable the integrer scaling without keeping the 10x configuration.

I have also tried these instructions: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Smaller-RetroArch-Screen/
However, adding these to the config does not do anything for me:

Adding these lines to the config doesn't move the viewport when I start a GBA game:

aspect_ratio_index = "23"
custom_viewport_width = "720"
custom_viewport_height = "480"
custom_viewport_x = "600"
custom_viewport_y = "300"

Thanks for all the help so far!

mitu

@infyra said in Strange issue - controllers & keyboard not working on PI -400:

I can't remember installing them, dont they come with the image? Maybe they were in my old folder on the USB and retropie imported them too.

Bezels are not provided by RetroPie and they need to be configured manually or by installing the packs provided with the Bezel Project.
You'll have to find the configuration of the bezels, which should be a .cfg for the system and/or for the game, and adjust there the settings (viewport size, resolution).

Infyra

@mitu
Thanks for all the help, I finally figured it out. There was a directory config overwriting in the folder with the bios config, when I removed that one my own configs worked and everything is now perfect.