Cannot pair Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

jschwalbe

Hello -
I'm new to retropie; installed version 4.8 using Raspberry Pi Imager. One issue is that the USB doesn't work on my Pi, so I ssh'd in and added the controller via retropie_setup.sh; also I've run the commands via the docs to set up dkms-hid-nintendo and joycond.

The controller is connected via bluetooth, and the controller shows "Player 1" LED lit up after pushing L+R buttons.

That's where it stops working. I'm stuck at the WELCOME (No gamepads detected) screen. I've tried holding down various buttons on the controller, but haven't gotten anywhere. Any help? Thanks

mitu

Try installing the hid-nintendo driver, as detailed in the docs, and then re-pair the controller over Bluetooth.

jschwalbe

@mitu I seriously thank you for the reply, but I already did that, unless I'm missing something.

*@jschwalbe said in Cannot pair Nintendo Switch Pro Controller:

also I've run the commands via the docs to set up dkms-hid-nintendo*

Edit to ask: if you were referring to the order, I installed hid-nintendo first, then added it via bluetooth.

mitu

@jschwalbe Apologies, you're right.
If you test the controller via jstest, does it register the inputs ? Do you have other drivers installed (i.e. xpadneo) ?

To test the controller with jstest, just run - from a command prompt -

jstest /dev/input/js0

and press the buttons or move the joysticks to see if the inputs are registered.

Can you also run cat /proc/bus/input/devices and post the output ?

jschwalbe

@mitu Sorry it took a bit.

Running the jstest command was successful. I was able to see the button presses in realtime.

I: Bus=0005 Vendor=057e Product=2009 Version=8001
N: Name="Nintendo Switch Pro Controller"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/soc/3f201000.serial/tty/ttyAMA0/hci0/hci0:12/0005:057E:2009.0001/input/input1
U: Uniq=DC:68:EB:EE:EC:3D
H: Handlers=event0 js0 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=20000b
B: KEY=7ffb0000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=3001b
B: FF=1 7030000 0 0

I: Bus=0005 Vendor=057e Product=2009 Version=8001
N: Name="Nintendo Switch Pro Controller IMU"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/soc/3f201000.serial/tty/ttyAMA0/hci0/hci0:12/0005:057E:2009.0001/input/input2
U: Uniq=DC:68:EB:EE:EC:3D
H: Handlers=event1 js1 
B: PROP=40
B: EV=19
B: ABS=3f
B: MSC=20

However, I am still stuck at the "WELCOME -- NO GAMEPADS DETECTED" screen.

Edit to add: No other drivers installed that I'm aware of. If other installs failed (hid-nintendo and joycond), would there be a way to test for that? Thx!

mitu

@mitu Sorry it took a bit.

Not a problem.

Running the jstest command was successful. I was able to see the button presses in realtime.

OK, so the gamepad works fine and it's recognized by Linux and in this case it doesn't matter if other drivers are installed.

Now, stupid question, but are you holding one of the buttons for at least 2-3 seconds on the welcome screen ? Otherwise EmulationStation will not register a 'configure start' event.
You can start EmulationStation from the terminal with the --debug parameter (emulationstation --debug) and then look in the log file (in $HOME/.emulationstation/es_log.txt or directly on the terminal from where you've run emulationstation --debug) to see if the gamepad is detected and if the button presses are registered by the application.

jschwalbe

@mitu I've played a good number of games by now! If I ssh and run the command you mentioned (emulationstation --debug ), then it works as expected. Just restarting doesn't work though.

mathan416

I'm having a similar issue. When you run emulationstation --debug, it recognizes the controllers beautifully.

Even when rebooting, it goes directly to the system list but the controllers don't work. Re-reun with --debug and it works fine.

Any suggestions?