Retropie 3.8 Bluetooth Configure Issue

Floob

I've put a brief guide for this here:

riddix

got exactly the same issue as ransom. i want to use ps3 controllers and my 2 ouya controllers, but im not able to use the bluetooth config scrip and even the bluetoothctl command inst working my pi just freezes when i use it.

i think the ps3 controller driver overrides the default bluetooth driver like it does on windows so you cannot use it to connect other devices than ps3 controllers. dont know if this is true but a fix/workaround would be awesome

Ransom

@Floob I know you have videos on how to pair both PS3 controller and as posted above, FC30 Pro controllers. Have you ever had success pairing both on a Pi3? As riddix pointed out and in the link I posted in my original post, there's a belief that the PS3 bluetooth driver is overriding the Pi's, and I'm curious if anyone has had success pairing both controllers as the same time.

riddix

on windows the 3dr part ds3 driver actually overrides the microsoft bluetooth one so it seems plausible thtat this is the case here too, wich would explain why we have both the same issue. Btw i got a fresh 3.8.1 image!

Floob

The manual implies there will be a conflict:
http://qtsixa.sourceforge.net/manual.pdf

Here is a fork that supports a non-official PS3 device, maybe it could help here.
https://github.com/ryonlabaw/qtsixa

Although the process does seem to have a conflict generally with the standard bluetooth drivers.
I'm afraid I dont have a PS3 controller to hand so I can try this out.

BuZz

you cant use ps3controllers and the built in bluetooth stack at the same time currently. Known limitation of the ps3 pairing software.

riddix

so any idea how to work around that? am i able to use a extra bluetooth dongle to pair my extra controllers ?

a quick link to a guid would be very helpful cause i dont find anything that helped me

anyways thx Floob and BuZz <3

Byrn

@BuZz said in Retropie 3.8 Bluetooth Configure Issue:

you cant use ps3controllers and the built in bluetooth stack at the same time currently. Known limitation of the ps3 pairing software.

Ahh there we go, been scratching my head for a week trying to figure out why I couldn't pair both my ps3 controller and then a bluetooth keyboard at the same time (didn't help that the bluetooth script had a bug at the same time haha). Same question as riddix, one dongle for the ps3 controller and another for all other bluetooth needs?

BuZz

no. That wont work either currently. The ps3controller software is set to disable the internal bluetooth stack.

Byrn

Ahh well. My thinking is if it gets the controller to work with the Pi then it can do what it pleases really. Will have to try a standard wireless keyboard until that changes, and I hope it does because I aim to get bluetooth headphones as well. Thanks!

BuZz

The solution is to pair the ps3 controller without sixpair and instead use bluez. However although I can do this on my Ubuntu desktop machine, I couldn't do it reliably on the RPI (I think I did a couple of times, but it wasn't something I could automate). Probably some bugs in the Bluez stack which we will have to revisit in a newer Raspbian. If you can get the ps3controller to manually pair using bluetoothctl (google for some howtos), then you can use other bluetooth devices also.

Ransom

Thanks for all the great responses everyone. This is the only thread where I've seen a definitive answer to this issue.

The question I have now, is there a way to effectively uninstall the PS3 driver, and get control of the bluetooth stack back? I had used the "sudo apt-get --purge remove sixad", which disabled the PS3 controller, but the issue of me not being able to open the bluetooth configuration menus persisted, so I'm not sure it worked.

Starting to feel like I may have to reinstall the whole thing, but hoping to avoid that.

EDIT: Seems like this thread may have some relevant info on getting a PS3 controller to pair natively with the bluetooth, rather than rely on sixad. Haven't done any testing myself, as I'll need to be able to get access to the configuration first, but seems like there may be potential in using other drivers. https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/42/shanwan-ps3-controller-pi3-retropie-3-6-bluetooth-setup/123

BuZz

there is an remove option in retropie-setup for it - if bluetooth is still not starting you can try chmod 755 /usr/sbin/bluetoothd

Ransom

Just an update, using the chmod 755 /usr/sbin/bluetoothd command worked (needed to sudo it) to allow me to regain control of the bluetooth configuration settings. I then set about setting up my 8bitdo controller, using @Floob 's video. However, something has gone wrong in the meantime.

I started to have a lot of success from the video, getting so far as to run sudo bluetoothctl so see my controller, and use that to select that controller in the setup menu. So far so good.

At this point, the controller still wasn't working in BT mode, so I opted to manually set up the sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules, but here's where things go weird.

From this point, I can no longer run sudo bluetoothctl successfully, as it just seems to stall. I read this is due to the bluetooth daemon not running, so I ran "systemctl status bluetooth" and it's telling me

"● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2016-06-20 02:18:36 UTC; 7min ago
     Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
  Process: 2872 ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
 Main PID: 2872 (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)"

If I run sudo systemctl start bluetooth, I get

"Job for bluetooth.service failed. See 'systemctl status bluetooth.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details."

Lastly, if I go back into my bluetooth configuration menu and choose display and register connected devices I get a long error that reads in part:

"Traceback (most recent call last):                       │  
              │   File                                                   │  
              │ "/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/blu │  
              │ etooth/bluez-test-device", line 44, in <module>          │  
              │     adapter = bluezutils.find_adapter(options.dev_id)    │  
              │   File                                                   │  
              │ "/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/blu │  
              │ etooth/bluezutils.py", line 14, in find_adapter          │  
              │     return                                               │  
              │ find_adapter_in_objects(get_managed_objects(), pattern)  │  
              │   File                                                   │  
              │ "/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/blu │  
              │ etooth/bluezutils.py", line 9, in get_managed_objects    │  
              │     manager = dbus.Interface(bus.get_object("org.bluez"

Sorry, I know this is a long message and I'm not sure how to format the code, but have I somehow mucked things up? Any help appreciated.

Ransom

Just an update, I ended up reinstalling Retropie since there didn't seem to be any solutions to the issue I had above. Bluetooth is back to working as it should, and set up the FC30 Pro.

Now attempting to get the PS3 controller to play nice with the default bluetooth by using a patched bluez build, primarily from these instructions https://luetzels.raspiblog.com/?p=1870

The instructions assume a working knowledge of raspian, which I don't have, so it's proving to be a challenge, but I'll update if I can successfully get a PS3 and FC30 controller both working together.

zakhounet

@Ransom thanks for all you effort and thanks to let us know if you succesfully get PS3 dual shock and your FC3O pro working at the same time.
I am having the same issue but with a NES30 joystick.

Ransom

Hi all. I wanted to thank everyone again for their help and give an update.

Unfortunately, getting the FC30 Pro up and running smoothly was more trouble than it was worth. I got it working, but then it wanted to forget the bluetooth connection, so the controller would stop functioning after each restart, requiring a repairing.

Getting the PS3 controller to work within the normal bluetooth settings as outlined in the links I provided above also turned out to be a bit over my head.

All in all, I'd say this turned out to be a bit of a folly in my case. I had a perfectly functioning RetroPie with PS3 controllers, but now since reinstalling and trying to get my original setup, I've got several issues I never had before ( @Floob 's Video Manager no longer seems to apply settings, and MAME has utterly broke).

So I'll be posting more questions to try and resolve these issues, but looks like I've got a lot of work just to get back to where I was :/

Good luck to anyone following this trying to get the same result as me, I hope there's a workable solution to a more experienced user.

Floob

I think trying to get PS3 and the standard bluetooth drivers working together will be very difficult at the moment, there doesnt seem to be a way around that. I'm sure if you try a new clean image you'll find the 8bitdo controllers a breeze to install now with the updated process.

edmaul69

@Ransom said in Retropie 3.8 Bluetooth Configure Issue:
I've got several issues I never had before ( @Floob 's Video Manager no longer seems to apply settings, and MAME has utterly broke).

What do you mean by mame has utterly broke and what mame version broke? I personally had tested 6 times that if i updated retropie-setup in retropie-setup to 4.0 beta 2 then did a full install update to 4.0 beta 2, mame 2000 libretro (mame4all) no longer worked at all. And apple ii was horribly messed up. But if i did the quick install to 4.0 beta 2 then did the full install everything worked. Not sure if blutooth or anything else was a problem but those were the ones i noticed immedietly and could not fix no matter what. So i had to do the quick install first to have everything working

Ransom

@edmaul69 I've had MAME (mame4all) pulling the roms off a USB drive, which always worked prior. Since reinstalling RetroPie, and resetting the es_system.cfg to look for the MAME roms off the USB, the games would show in Retropie, but all of them would report "missing files" errors, and go back to the RetroPie screen.

I ended up solving it by having to go into the MAME cfg file and pointing part of the config to the same USB directory. It was just weird that I never had to do that before, but in any case the MAME issue seems to have been solved.

Your issue is interesting though, because I opted to use the full install as well, and it's since that I've experienced these "fringe" issues, like MAME directories not working and Retroarch not installing the overlays directory (or allowing the video manager script the permissions to alter those directories). I wonder if there's a connection, since I had never used that update option in prior installations, but only started using it in the latest attempts (the ones giving me issues).