Retroarch Not Seeing Controllers

obsidianspider

In setting up RetroPie on my GalliumOS laptop I seem to have messed up something pretty severely. EmulationStation and the various terminal windows can be controlled by my iBuffalo controller with no problem, and non-RetroArch emulators work with the controller, but anything RetroArch, including RGUI from the EmulationStation menu don't see the controller.

I've tried updating RetroPie, removing the /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_input.cfg file and opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/USB,2-axis8-buttongamepad.cfg, then starting EmulationStation and remapping, and finally, removing RetroPie completely with the Uninstall script in retropie_setup.sh and reinstalling it, and it's still not working. I'm really at a loss for what is going on. jstest sees the controller at js0 and EmulationStation and non-retroarch emulatiors are seeing the controller. What else can I look for?

I realize this is an x86 install of RetroPie, but I would have to think the principles would be similar to that on a Raspberry Pi.

For what it's worth I'm currently on GalliumOS 2.1 and RetroPie is at 4.1.8 (c23eee1)

obsidianspider

Just for the heck of it I also tried setting up a Gravis Gamepad Pro, and I have the same issue, so it's not a bad controller. I'm wondering if me updating RetroPie this morning broke it or if something else is messed up with Linux. I don't know of a way to go back to an earlier version since the setup script downloads everything for the x86 installation fresh every time you run it.

obsidianspider

In an attempt to troubleshoot and compare to a working system (on a Pi 3) I noticed that when a game starts (lr-mame2003 in this case) on the Pi it has the normal yellow text telling me the controller is configured. If I unplug it while the game is running, I'll get yellow text telling me it was disconnected, then if I reconnect it, yellow text that it's connected.

On my x86 installation I get no yellow text telling me the controller is connected, but every time I unplug the controller, I do get yellow text telling me it was disconnected.

obsidianspider

Going through this old ticket from a year ago to see if I can find anything. :-/

obsidianspider

Retroarch is allowing input from a keyboard. (I never configured a keyboard for use as a joystick.) I tested by unplugging my controller from my working Pi setup and a keyboard (which was also never configured as a controller) will also work, so it's not that.

obsidianspider

Found another old help ticket on the issue and an easy solution on a Pi is to just reimage the SD card and start over. Unfortunately on a laptop I really don't want to do that. There's got to be some stupid setting that RetroArch is looking at (or not looking at).

obsidianspider

I've determined that there's a problem with the RetroArch Autodetect. I ran lr-mame2003 with verbose on and the output from my GalliumOS machine was different in one important way:

GalliumOS Full Log on Pastebin

RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Plugged pad: USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad   (1411:8288) on port #0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Pad #0 (/dev/input/event6) supports 0 force feedback effects.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Found joypad driver: "udev".

Pi3 Full Log on Pastebin

RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Plugged pad: USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad   (1411:8288) on port #0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Pad #0 (/dev/input/event0) supports 0 force feedback effects.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Autodetect: 2 profiles found.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Autodetect: selected configuration: /home/pi/.config/retroarch/autoconfig/USB,2-axis8-buttongamepad.cfg
RetroArch [INFO] :: Found joypad driver: "udev".

What I need to determine now is why is Autodetect seeing the profile(s) on the Pi, but not on my x86 install?

The reason I think that's the issue is that when I unplugged and replugged the controller on x86 I saw this:

RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Hotplug remove: /dev/input/event6.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Autodetect: Device disconnected from port #0 (USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  ).
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Hotplug remove: /dev/input/js0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Hotplug add: /dev/input/js0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Hotplug add: /dev/input/event6.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Plugged pad: USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad   (1411:8288) on port #0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Pad #0 (/dev/input/event6) supports 0 force feedback effects.

but on the Pi 3 I see this:

RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Hotplug remove: /dev/input/js0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Hotplug remove: /dev/input/event0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Autodetect: Device disconnected from port #0 (USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  ).
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Hotplug add: /dev/input/event0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Plugged pad: USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad   (1411:8288) on port #0.
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Pad #0 (/dev/input/event0) supports 0 force feedback effects.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Autodetect: 2 profiles found.
RetroArch [INFO] :: Autodetect: selected configuration: /home/pi/.config/retroarch/autoconfig/USB,2-axis8-buttongamepad.cfg
RetroArch [INFO] :: [udev]: Hotplug add: /dev/input/js0.

So something is up with Autodetect, but I have no idea what.

meleu

@obsidianspider can you paste your all/retroarch.cfg from your GalliumOS?

obsidianspider

@meleu I was going to say, that file is VERY different from the one on my Pi 3. I'm not sure why (probably becuase it was built from source on the x86 and on the Pi it's not?). The x86 file is very "pretty" with lots of comments. I noticed some of the lines are commented out about input mappings, and I've been trying to get them to work by copying things from my Pi3 and rebooting, but to no avail. I've reverted back to the original file.

This is the original retroarch.cfg before I messed with it from the x86.

This is the retroarch.cfg file from the Pi 3.

meleu

@obsidianspider so you used enabled config_save_on_exit on your raspi and changed your mind... it's unrelated to your issue anyway.

The connection where I am now really sucks. Try to understand what I said here:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/32547

meleu

The variables I'm talking about there is what you need to check on your config. input_autoconfig_dir seems to be commented on your GalliumOS.

edmaul69

@meleu in another thread on retroachievements the op has the same problem after updating retropie from source.

obsidianspider

@meleu I did update via RGUI on the Pi because that's the only good way I know to change the aspect ratio. I had it stretched and then went back to the core default.

I tried uncommenting the lines and filling in the path to the directories, but it didn't work, even after a reboot. I now put it back to as it came from the install. (I've reinstalled three times today and updated twice while trying to fix it.)

I'm starting to think something is up with the latest update to RetroPie if I'm not the only one who's had the issue. (thanks @edmaul69 for pointing that out.) Unfortunately on x86 everything is built from scratch every time you do an update and there is no prebuilt install like on the Pi. My Pi 3 is at the same version number and it's fine. I also noted that on a Pi the updates run much faster as it appears they are just downloading binaries.

It's frustrating because yesterday things were working, and quite well. :-/

obsidianspider

I was excited to see that @fun4stuff solved their controller problem by re-updating from binaries. Sadly, it's not a choice on x86. :(

popkid

had nearly exact same problem yesterday after update from source to my x86 based install (in my case ubuntu based with Xbox One controller) controller working fine in emulation station, but not in emulators (was previously working fine), had a dig around and found something that has sorted it for me

in /home/username/.config/retroarch/autoconfig folder there was my .cfg for my controller, but it was not inside the /udev folder, copied the .cfg file into udev folder and it is detected/works once more now with the emus

hope this helps, I registered on forum just to let you know...!

obsidianspider

@popkid Thanks! What's the full path to the /udev folder? I'm looking for it now (sudo find / -name "udev") , but there are a few different folders.

popkid

@obsidianspider ah, sorry, it is there at /home/username/.config/retroarch/autoconfig/udev

obsidianspider

@popkid THAT FIXED IT!

I didn't have the /udev folder inside ~/.config/retroarch/autoconfig/ at all, just the .cfg file so I added the udev folder, then copied the .cfg file in there and now it works.

Thank you SO MUCH. I spend HOURS on this yesterday.

obsidianspider

What's weird, is that my working Pi 3 install doesn't have that udev folder either. That must be one of the quirks of the x86 variant.

popkid

@obsidianspider no worries :) weird you didn't have anything at all at that level though, my udev folder was there and full of entries (dozens of them for all sorts of controllers) just not my controller, it was your debug stuff that led me there, so thanks to you too, happy gaming :)