The hotkey enable button, being RetroArch specific, is part of the joypad auto-configuration profiles saved in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig.

Then I have no idea. I routinely use a keyboard - without a hotkey set - and don't experience the behavior you're describing.

@zering just to be clear you are saying to remap in Emulation Station or Retroarch?

Is there any way to backup my current mapping?

I have a PlayStation 4 Dual Shock controller that seems to not have this issue with the same mapping. The one with the issue is a Vilros classic PlayStation controller with two analog sticks.

@mitu so i just mapped it in ES ( after re-enabling auto save) and then i had to quit ES and i did a system shutdown, performed a reboot and it is WORKING! so far, yes!! i think before, i wasn't exiting ES correctly and it kept remapping the r1 to only the start button as the "y" button. and it was showing up as a keyboard input. I REALLY appreciate your help. thank you!

@mitu Good call! I'm not sure how much power it's pulling, but setting over_voltage to 2 definitely makes it last longer, though not completely staying on all the time. Trying with setting it to 3 right now and that seems to be going strong!

That usually happens if the L2/R2 are registered as axis,

Yes, that is the issue.

Try re-installing xpad from RetroPie-Setup and see if the mapping in EmulationStation works.

I did try that. Didn't fix the issue.

@baconbandage Run the following command - with the gamepad plugged in - and post the output

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

Try testing the gamepad with the jstest utility. Exit EmulationStation and run

jstest /dev/input/js0

You should get a listing with the gamepad's input types (buttons/joysticks/etc.) and you can press the buttons/D-Pad/move joysticks to see if they are registering. You can exit the test by pressing Ctrl+C.

@crush Yeah, I think Vilros was going for the original 6 button layout rather than the extra features Retro-bit did. The Retro-bit controllers are admittedly a nicer option as far as Genesis goes.

I think I'd prefer my 8bitDo SN30 pro for SNES and Playstation. But I plan to get this set for the NES and N64 options, and the rest can be used as controllers by friends/family. I've yet to decide what I want to do for Sega, but I may just get this one and get the Retro-bit when I have the luxury of extra game budget.

I have managed to sort this out:

sudo systemctl stop bluetooth
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/bluetooth/*
sudo shutdown -r now

:D

@davindersangha I made a similar attempt where I wanted to have two active joy sticks on one game This just won't work. Can't set two controllers as player 1 or two. Can't have multiple active controllers for player 1 type thing. But..... If you got a very compact and mounted it under the switch so the switch hit the 1 button which is start that could work. Or just mount the keyboard on the chassis and use the 1 / 2 for one and two players. The keyboard always works in tandem with the controllers.

TIL that there is an option in lr-desmume which has not yet been ported to lr-desmume2015. Thus there is another option to solve this issue. :)

@crush I was too. AFAIK if you have ps3controller installed and you install sixaxis, then ps3controllergets automatically uninstalled. But seems like installing ps3controller works perfectly after having installed sixaxis.

@grimdanfango Yes, Hotkey + Quit should exit RetroArch.

I would add that I have two DragonRise controllers, a USB Mouse (e.g., spinner), and USB keyboard connected.

I changed out the controller board for the 2nd player with another DragonRise just to see if it was the problem. That wasn't it.

@peetem All the files in the config folder should be owned and accessible by the installation user (pi on a Pi system). They're also available at \\retropie\configs via file shares.
Check the permissions on that folder by running

ls -ld /opt/retropie/configs

and post the output.

@mitu here's the command output you asked for: https://pastebin.com/7P4XQALt

Let me know if I can be of any help.

This is also happening with RetroArch for Android, reverting to a previous build (november 2020) of PCSX ReARMed solved the issue without changing any RA config.