"No Gamepads Detected" upon start, even though there are definitely gamepads

Kai_Logic

Pi Model or other hardware: Raspberry Pi 4 B
Power Supply used: The one that comes in THIS AMAZON LINK kit. It's an 18W, 5V, 3.6A power supply with an inline rocker switch
RetroPie Version Used: Retro pie 4.8
Built From: used the official Raspberry Pi Imaging tool for Windows
USB Devices connected: Just the controller, and then a cheap keyboard to try and debug.
Controller used: 8bitdo Ultimate C (I also tried some rando cheapie controller)
Error messages received: "No Gamepads Detected" upon startup
Guide used: The official one on this website LINK
How to replicate the problem: Turn it on and it does it.

I know the RP4 recognizes the controller. When I run this tool that generates some logs, I can see the activity on the log where I plug the controller in and the log even says "Manufacturer: 8bitdo" or something. The RP4 totally knows it has a controller plugged in. The controller is lighting up so it's properly connected. It's just Retro pie that doesn't seem to know the controller is hooked up.

What I've already tried:

Re-imaging the SD card with Retro Pie. I've done it 4 times and the error persists.
Restarting the Pi with the controller in different states, like plugging in AFTER I start, vs before I power on. Or unplugging and plugging back in

thanks y'all. I hope everyone is having a good day.

mitu

@Kai_Logic said in "No Gamepads Detected" upon start, even though there are definitely gamepads:

I know the RP4 recognizes the controller. When I run this tool that generates some logs, I can see the activity on the log where I plug the controller in and the log even says "Manufacturer: 8bitdo" or something. The RP4 totally knows it has a controller plugged in.

It may know it's plugged in, but that doesn't mean it's detected as a controller/gamepad. Can you post the logs and also the result of the following commands:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices
dmesg | grep -hid
lsmod

Kai_Logic

@mitu You'll have to forgive me, but I'm actually not sure how I got to that console with the logs. I was googling around and found a command that basically gave a real time console with logs that told me it knew there was an 8bitdo Controller plugged in.

How do I run these logs, and once they run, how can I export them to something I can share here via pastebin? Is there an export command that will save them to a USB stick or the SD card?

Thanks for taking a look at this for me!! I hope I can get this working. It's a gift for an old friend who could really use a blast from the past.

mitu

@mitu You'll have to forgive me, but I'm actually not sure how I got to that console with the logs. I was googling around and found a command that basically gave a real time console with logs that told me it knew there was an 8bitdo Controller plugged in.

You were probably running dmesg -w on the terminal before you plugged in the controller.

How do I run these logs, and once they run, how can I export them to something I can share here via pastebin? Is there an export command that will save them to a USB stick or the SD card?

You can redirect the output of each command to a file on the sdcard and then you can read them on your PC - command > /boot/file1.txt, command2 > /boot/file2.txt, etc. You can also enable SSH and you'll be able to run the commands from your PC and then copy the output from there, without any additional files to transfer.

Kai_Logic

@mitu Thanks so much for this!! Unfortunately, I think I'm a bit of a knuckle head cuz I can't seem to get those logs written to the SD card.

Am I supposed to enter

dmesg -w > /boot/fileXYZ.txt

And then on the SD card there will be a file called "fileXYZ.txt" with the contents of the log. Because I tried that and I got an error message that reads "Permission denied", and there was no file on the SD card that contained the contents of the log

SSH isn't an option here as I'm in a foreign country with really weird internet access (it's a whole thing just to get my laptop on the internet. I can't imagine I have the tech skills necessary to get a Raspberry Pi online here).

IDK man I'm kinda sad. I thought this was gonna be as simple as image the SD card, plug the controller in and that's it. I didn't realize how badly I was gonna manage to screw this simple thing up. I feel really lousy about this. I appreciate you helping though. I'm still hopeful I can get this working.

mitu

Does the controller have an additional D-Input mode ? Try switching to it and see if it's detected.

Kai_Logic

@mitu Thank you I will try this tonight. I hope this resolves it. I also found some stuff in the literature that says for Raspberry Pi, I need to hold the B button while I plug the controller in. That's weird, but I'll certainly try that too.

I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to try and help me thru this. I know you don't have to. So thank you :)

Kai_Logic

@mitu said in "No Gamepads Detected" upon start, even though there are definitely gamepads:

Does the controller have an additional D-Input mode ? Try switching to it and see if it's detected.

Problem solved, my man. I don't know if it was D-Input mode thing, but I found the controller's literature which mentioned you must power on the RP, and then plug the controller in, while holding the B-button down. Once I did this, the RP recognized the controller and we are in business.

I appreciate your help, man. Y'all are the best.