xboxdrv remapping in atari800 emulator not working?

cheesymonkey

I'm trying to get the standalone Atari 800 emulator working with a Bluetooth-connected 8BitDo Pro 2 controller on my Pi 5 running version 4.8.8, where some of the controller buttons are remapped to keyboard keys with xboxdrv [Note: I have added the xpadneo driver for wireless controllers but this offers no remapping functionality as far as I know] – useful for games such as Miner 2049r, where using up to four available transporters requires use of keys 1-4 – but it results in seemingly no output from the controller. I've followed the steps in this guide: Universal Controller Calibration-Mapping Using xboxdrv (instead of creating the udev rule, I've used the option to set up such an entry in retropie_setup.sh) and this forum post (where the original version of this post lies), but nothing.

Well, almost nothing…

If I start emulationstation under tmux directly on the Pi, then log into the same tmux session via ssh on my laptop, I can see the remapped button values (‘4’ when I D-Pad left, ‘6’ when right, etc.) which possibly means xboxdrv is being loaded correctly, the remapping is working but atari800 cannot ‘see’ this.

xboxdrv assigns a different event handler to that it initially connects on. The guide is unclear on having to remap the controller once it is being handled by xboxdrv. I had to quit out of ES with F4, then run the xboxdrv command in the background, restart ES and remap. Is thia how it should be done? I’m not starting xboxdrv through rc.local as a) Bluetooth and b) I only want to use this method for this emulator for now. Once working, I'm hoping to apply to others where games primarily use the keyboard, both current and future (Acorn computers, hint, hint).

This has been driving me insane for two weeks now so any help greatly appreciated.

Current `runcommand-onstart.sh` script

#!/bin/sh

rom="${3##*/}"

echo "Emulator: $1" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
echo "Software: $2" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
echo "Game/rom: $3" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
echo "CLI: $4" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
echo "Rom: ${rom}" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log

# Try to automatically find the correct event[•] of the connected controllers
controller1=`grep -Ei "js+" /proc/bus/input/devices | sort | grep -Eo 'event[0-9]{1,2}' | sed -n -e '1{p;q}'`
controller2=`grep -Ei "js+" /proc/bus/input/devices | sort | grep -Eo 'event[0-9]{1,2}' | sed -n -e '2{p;q}'`
controller3=`grep -Ei "js+" /proc/bus/input/devices | sort | grep -Eo 'event[0-9]{1,2}' | sed -n -e '3{p;q}'`
controller4=`grep -Ei "js+" /proc/bus/input/devices | sort | grep -Eo 'event[0-9]{1,2}' | sed -n -e '4{p;q}'`

echo "controller1: ${controller1}" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log

if [ "$1" = "atari800" ]; then
  echo "Running xboxdrv for ${1}" >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log 2>&1
  sudo killall >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log 2>&1 xboxdrv
  sudo /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log 2>&1 \
    --evdev /dev/input/${controller1} \
    --silent \
    --detach-kernel-driver \
    --deadzone 4000 \
    --deadzone-trigger 15% \
    --force-feedback \
    --mimic-xpad-wireless \
    --trigger-as-button \
    --evdev-absmap ABS_HAT0X=dpad_x,ABS_HAT0Y=dpad_y \
    --evdev-absmap ABS_X=x1,ABS_Y=y1,ABS_RX=x2,ABS_RY=y2 \
    --evdev-absmap ABS_Z=lt,ABS_RZ=rt \
    --evdev-keymap BTN_A=a,BTN_B=b,BTN_X=x,BTN_Y=y \
    --evdev-keymap BTN_TL=lb,BTN_TR=rb,BTN_THUMBL=tl,BTN_THUMBR=tr \
    --evdev-keymap BTN_SELECT=back,BTN_START=start,BTN_MODE=guide \
    --ui-axismap   x1=KEY_KP4:KEY_KP6,y1=KEY_KP8:KEY_KP5 \
    --ui-buttonmap du=KEY_KP8,dd=KEY_KP5,dl=KEY_KP4,dr=KEY_KP6 \
    --ui-buttonmap a=KEY_RIGHTSHIFT,b=KEY_RIGHTCTRL,x=KEY_UNKNOWN,y=KEY_UNKNOWN \
    --ui-buttonmap lb=KEY_UNKNOWN,rb=KEY_UNKNOWN,lt=KEY_UNKNOWN,rt=KEY_UNKNOWN \
    --ui-buttonmap tl=KEY_UNKNOWN,tr=KEY_UNKNOWN \
    --ui-buttonmap back=KEY_P,start=KEY_F4,guide=KEY_UNKNOWN \
    &
fi

mitu

You should first start xboxdrv without anything loaded (i.e. exit EmulationStation) and check with evtest that it's outputting/translating the correct values. xboxdrv creates a (user space) input device and it should be detected by both emulators and EmulationStation, but you since you intend to use xboxdrv only for certain remapping configurations (emulators and/or game), there's no need to re-configure it in EmulationStation - xboxdrvwill not be active when EmulationStation runs, only during gameplay.

2nd, remove the complicated controllerX detection since you have just one gamepad, there's no need to all those commands - just point xboxdrv at /dev/input/js0, where the 1st gamepad inode is created.

Check the emulator log in /dev/shm/runcommand.log and see if xboxdrv is started correctly and doesn't give an error (it shouldn't , if you 1st step has been succesfull).

cheesymonkey

Accessing through ssh, Emulation Station is not currently loaded, but Kodi is. Controller is accessible at /dev/input/event0

`evtest` tests

With `xboxdev` not loaded

evtest /dev/input/event0
- Works, all buttons report as expected
evtest /dev/input/js0
- Errors out: evtest: can't get version: Invalid argument

With `xboxdev` loaded

As xboxdrv not in my $PATH, setting alias xboxdrv="sudo /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv" for sanity.

`xboxdrv --evdev /dev/input/event0`

xboxdrv own output is one line per button press/axis push, but event output is 0 across the board:

X1:     0 Y1:     0  X2:     0 Y2:     0  du:0 dd:0 dl:0 dr:0  back:0 guide:0 start:0  TL:0 TR:0  A:0 B:0 X:0 Y:0  LB:0 RB:0  LT:  0 RT:  0

Setting to background and silencing the event output with xboxdrv --evdev /dev/input/event0 --silent &, then running… [xboxdrv reports back in this case its event output is available on event 1 and js1]

evtest /dev/input/event0
- Errors out, saying that This device is grabbed by another process…
evtest /dev/input/event1
- Running, but no button presses are resistered on screen at all – probably to do with no (re)mappings in the xboxdrv command given
evtest /dev/input/js0
- Errors out with evtest: can't get version: Invalid argument, as expected
evtest /dev/input/js1
- Errors out with evtest: can't get version: Invalid argument, not as expected

`xboxdrv --evdev /dev/input/event0 --evdev-absmap ABS_HAT0X=dpad_x,ABS_HAT0Y=dpad_y,ABS_X=x1,ABS_Y=y1,ABS_RX=x2,ABS_RY=y2,ABS_Z=lt,ABS_RZ=rt --evdev-keymap BTN_A=a,BTN_B=b,BTN_X=x,BTN_Y=y,BTN_TL=lb,BTN_TR=rb,BTN_THUMBL=tl,BTN_THUMBR=tr,BTN_SELECT=back,BTN_START=start,BTN_MODE=guide`

We now have full event output, so now to push it into the background run evtest again on event1 and js1:

`evtest /dev/input/event1
- Runs, displaying all event outputs almost as expected, with the addition of the Mode/Guide button also responding. Almost, as the triggers display ABS_BRAKE and ABS_GAS instead of ABS_Z and ABS_RZ for some reason.
evtest /dev/input/js1
- Again, errors out with evtest: can't get version: Invalid argument

Running `atari800` – output of `/dev/shm/runcommand.log` (running Donkey Kong)

Emulator: atari800
Software: atari800
Game/rom: /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari800/Donkey Kong (1983).car
CLI: /opt/retropie/emulators/atari800/atari800.sh "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari800/Donkey Kong (1983).car"
Rom: Donkey Kong (1983).car
controller1: event9
Running xboxdrv for atari800
xboxdrv: no process found
xboxdrv 0.8.8 - http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/xboxdrv/
Copyright © 2008-2011 Ingo Ruhnke <grumbel@gmail.com>
Licensed under GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
conditions; see the file COPYING for details.

Your Xbox/Xbox360 controller should now be available as:
  /dev/input/js1
  /dev/input/event10

Press Ctrl-C to quit
Parameters:
Executing: LD_PRELOAD="/opt/retropie/supplementary/sdl12-compat/libSDL-1.2.so.0" /opt/retropie/emulators/atari800/atari800.sh "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari800/Donkey Kong (1983).car"
Unsupported archive: /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari800/Donkey Kong (1983).car
Using Atari800 config file: /home/pi/.atari800.cfg
Created by Atari 800 Emulator, Version 5.2.0

Keyboard mapped to emulated joystick 0
Keyboard mapped to emulated joystick 1
Joystick 0 mapped to emulated joystick 0
Joystick 1 mapped to emulated joystick 1
Video Mode: 1920x1080x32 fullscreen, pixel format: BGRA32
OpenGL initialized successfully. Version: 3.1 Mesa 23.2.1-1~bpo12+rpt3
OpenGL Pixel Buffer Objects available.
~
Shutdown complete

mitu

Ok, so the driver works for atari800 and it's seen by the emulator (according to the start message - Joystick 1 mapped to emulated joystick 1), maybe additional configuration needs to be done inside the emulator for the mapping ?

cheesymonkey

It looks as if the key/button presses are being passed to the console and being displayed there but not further passed on to the emulator. I can't see any suitable options to change in atari800 – the internal keyboard mapping matches the external mapping and the Use real joysticks option is for period-appropriate hardware? I'm at work so I can't check right now, but I'm going to assume when applied to another emulator (I'll try later with ScummVM as per the original guide) the same issue will occur. As I'm using a Pi 5, could it be something to do with the manual (and sort-of unofficial) nature of the Retropie install itself?

mitu

@cheesymonkey said in xboxdrv remapping in atari800 emulator not working?:

It looks as if the key/button presses are being passed to the console and being displayed there but not further passed on to the emulator.

Not really, the emulator (i.e. the input handling library which is libsdl1.2) reads from /dev/input/eventX, not from the 'console'.

As I'm using a Pi 5, could it be something to do with the manual (and sort-of unofficial) nature of the Retropie install itself?

Unlikely, but Pi5 support is stil pending so YMMV and various issues may come up.

cheesymonkey

Here's my latest runcommand-onstart.sh to test both atari800 and scummvm. As expected, this results in both emulators not seeing the button/axis events even though runcommand.log shows xboxdrv starting without issue:

#!/bin/sh

rom="${3##*/}"

echo "Emulator: $1" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
echo "Software: $2" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
echo "Game/rom: $3" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
echo "CLI: $4" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log
echo "Rom: ${rom}" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log

# Try to automatically find the correct event[•] of the connected controllers
controller1=`grep -Ei "js+" /proc/bus/input/devices | sort | grep -Eo 'event[0-9]{1,2}' | sed -n -e '1{p;q}'`
controller2=`grep -Ei "js+" /proc/bus/input/devices | sort | grep -Eo 'event[0-9]{1,2}' | sed -n -e '2{p;q}'`
controller3=`grep -Ei "js+" /proc/bus/input/devices | sort | grep -Eo 'event[0-9]{1,2}' | sed -n -e '3{p;q}'`
controller4=`grep -Ei "js+" /proc/bus/input/devices | sort | grep -Eo 'event[0-9]{1,2}' | sed -n -e '4{p;q}'`

echo "controller1: ${controller1}" >> /dev/shm/runcommand.log

xbdkill="sudo killall >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log xboxdrv"

# xboxdrv settings
map="--evdev-absmap ABS_HAT0X=dpad_x,ABS_HAT0Y=dpad_y,ABS_X=x1,ABS_Y=y1,ABS_RX=x2,ABS_RY=y2,ABS_Z=lt,ABS_RZ=rt \
--evdev-keymap BTN_A=a,BTN_B=b,BTN_X=x,BTN_Y=y,BTN_TL=lb,BTN_TR=rb,BTN_THUMBL=tl,BTN_THUMBR=tr,BTN_SELECT=back,BTN_START=start,BTN_MODE=guide"
basicSettings="--silent --detach-kernel-driver --force-feedback"
deadzone="--deadzone 4000 --deadzone-trigger 15%"
fourway="--four-way-restrictor"
invert="--ui-buttonmap du=KEY_DOWN,dd=KEY_UP"

remapAtari800="--ui-axismap x1=KEY_KP4:KEY_KP6,y1=KEY_KP8:KEY_KP5 \
--ui-buttonmap du=KEY_KP8,dd=KEY_KP5,dl=KEY_KP4,dr=KEY_KP6,a=KEY_RIGHTSHIFT,b=KEY_RIGHTCTRL,x=KEY_F9,y=KEY_F1 \
--ui-buttonmap lb=KEY_UNKNOWN,rb=KEY_UNKNOWN,lt=KEY_UNKNOWN,rt=KEY_UNKNOWN,tl=KEY_UNKNOWN,tr=KEY_UNKNOWN,back=KEY_P,start=KEY_F4,guide=KEY_UNKNOWN"
remapScummVM="--axismap -Y1=Y1,-Y2=Y2 \
--ui-axismap x1=REL_X:10,y1=REL_Y:10,x2=void,y2=void \
--ui-buttonmap a=BTN_LEFT,b=BTN_RIGHT,start=KEY_F5,back=KEY_ESC,guide=KEY_LEFTCTRL+KEY_Q,x=void,y=void,lb=void,rb=void,tl=void,tr=void,lt=void,rt=void,back=void"

case $1 in

  atari800)
    eval ${xbdkill}
    echo "Running xboxdrv for ${1}" >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log 2>&1
    eval "sudo /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log 2>&1 \
    --evdev /dev/input/${controller1} \
    ${basicSettings} \
    --mimic-xpad-wireless \
    --trigger-as-button \
    ${deadzone} \
    ${map} \
    ${remapAtari800} \
    &"
  ;;

  scummvm)
    eval ${xbdkill}
    echo "Running xboxdrv for ${1}" >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log 2>&1
    eval "sudo /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv >>/dev/shm/runcommand.log 2>&1 \
    --evdev /dev/input/${controller1} \
    ${basicSettings} \
    --mimic-xpad-wireless \
    --trigger-as-button \
    ${deadzone} \
    ${map} \
    ${remapScummVM} \
    &"
  ;;

esac

cheesymonkey

I realised I hadn't tried starting one of these emulators directly. Working directly with the Pi (going through ssh won't work), F4 to leave Emulation Station and a sudo killall xboxdrv just to be sure. Then I ran runcommandonstart.sh directly:

/opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh atari800

This returned nothing (expected) so checked xboxdrv was up and running by checking dev/shm/runcommand.log (I read using batcat which is like a cross between cat and less with added syntax highlighting). Everything seems to be fine, so I then start the atari800 emulator with:

/opt/retropie/emulators/atari800/atari800.sh "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/atari800/Donkey Kong (1983).car"

It loads and… it works! Axis needs inverting for the stick, but apart from that, the other remapped keys seem to work, including X to quit the emulator.

So the question remains, why isn't the xboxdrv-controlled controller being seen by an emulator when started through ES/runcommand – where are the events being sent to? Is there something I've overlooked, obvious or not?

EDIT: scummvm still has no controller recognition started in this way, but atari800 does. Does ScummVM have native controller handling?

mitu

@cheesymonkey said in xboxdrv remapping in atari800 emulator not working?:

So the question remains, why isn't the xboxdrv-controlled controller being seen by an emulator when started through ES/runcommand – where are the events being sent to? Is there something I've overlooked, obvious or not?

I think the difference is that when started by runcommand, the sdl12-compat library is used by the emulator (a SDL2 compatibility shim that implements SDL12), while running it outside of runcommand it uses the sdl12 library directly. Doesn't offer an explanation on why it's not working though, since SDL2 has a wider input handling support than SDL1. I'd also check the permissions on xboxdrv input files (/dev/input/eventX), that might be an issue.

EDIT: you can test the 1st theory (sdl12-compat interference) by going into the Configuration / tools part of RetroPie-Setup, then opening the backends menu and set default as the video backend for atari800. Then launch the Atari800 emulator from EmulationStation and see if the input handling is difference w.r.t. xboxdrv.

cheesymonkey

@mitu said in xboxdrv remapping in atari800 emulator not working?:

EDIT: you can test the 1st theory (sdl12-compat interference) by going into the Configuration / tools part of RetroPie-Setup, then opening the backends menu and set default as the video backend for atari800. Then launch the Atari800 emulator from EmulationStation and see if the input handling is difference w.r.t. xboxdrv.

This works, but I'll need to test across other games which hopefully will not involve more than sorting out correct button mappings. I noticed that for scummvm, its only backend options are for SDL2 and therefore will not work (as far as I can tell) with xboxdrv.

It's looking to me as if xboxdrv may be a bit of a dead end when it comes to button remappings for non-libretro emulators in RetroPie. Can such remappings be done in SDL2 or is there another option that could be applied system-wide?

mitu

This works, but I'll need to test across other games which hopefully will not involve more than sorting out correct button mappings. I noticed that for scummvm, its only backend options are for SDL2 and therefore will not work (as far as I can tell) with xboxdrv.

That's because ScummVM is already a SDL2 application and there's no need for a compatibility shim like sd12-compat.

It's looking to me as if xboxdrv may be a bit of a dead end when it comes to button remappings for non-libretro emulators in RetroPie. Can such remappings be done in SDL2 or is there another option that could be applied system-wide?

Not dead, just not widely used. xboxdrv itself is mostly feature complete and there's little development nowadays, since compatibility with Xbox controllers is offered OOB by Linux kernel modules (xow, xpad, xpadneo).

There are no alternative re-mapping solutions in RetroPit, though anything that works in Linux and without X11/Wayland could work.

xboxdrv remapping in atari800 emulator not working?

Current runcommand-onstart.sh script

evtest tests

With xboxdev not loaded

With xboxdev loaded

xboxdrv --evdev /dev/input/event0

xboxdrv --evdev /dev/input/event0 --evdev-absmap ABS_HAT0X=dpad_x,ABS_HAT0Y=dpad_y,ABS_X=x1,ABS_Y=y1,ABS_RX=x2,ABS_RY=y2,ABS_Z=lt,ABS_RZ=rt --evdev-keymap BTN_A=a,BTN_B=b,BTN_X=x,BTN_Y=y,BTN_TL=lb,BTN_TR=rb,BTN_THUMBL=tl,BTN_THUMBR=tr,BTN_SELECT=back,BTN_START=start,BTN_MODE=guide

Running atari800 – output of /dev/shm/runcommand.log (running Donkey Kong)