@chisnillum Open the EmulationStation menu by pressing Start and choose to the Input Configuration menu item.

Is it recognized as a joystick by the system (check dmesg after pairing it to see how it's detected) ? Does it work with jstest ?

Did you try to ask the vendor if they have Linux support ? Is the controller you have the Brawler64 BT NSO Edition - the one that's created for the Switch ?

Please also add the info requested in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

@mitu Thank you so much! This fixed the problem. I was sure it wasn't a wiring issue, but I guess it goes to show how little I really know about computers, lol. Thanks for the help :)

@craigbot said in Noob: can someone please help me understand input and input devices?:

I tried xboxdrv according to the instructions, but it doesn't seem to be there:

It's not installed by default, you need to install it first, from the drivers section of the packages.

Thank you all for the feedback, I'll probably go with a Pi 4 and retropie.

@OM3GAZX

Just sort Hypseus.

No particular error shows up in the logs, the 360 is detected but not initialized as a gamepad though. Nothing comes to mind on what's going on.
You may want to post in the Steamlink forums (https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/0/) and post the link to your log there also. If any of the controller works by itself, then it's not a config issue and usually in situation like this I'd check if there's enough power for both the WiFi and USB at the time, but since they already work (simultaneously) outside Steamlink that can't be it.

@mitu That worked! Thank you!

@mitu I ran an update last night and the issue of the in-game menu causing the controller to become unresponsive until the select button is pressed has been fixed. I can now pull up the menu, take screenshots, save states, and return to the game without any problems.

The issue with running the setup from within the RetroPie OS still remains. The workaround is to sudo ./retropie_setup.sh from the terminal.

Can you run the following commands and post the output here in the topic ? If xpad is not recognizing the gamepad, we can try and force the driver to load is we know the device's Vendor and Product Ids

lsusb cat /proc/bus/input/devices

@sugarfree thanks! Good to know there is a way to do this from the terminal window. I ended up following the instructions from this video to reset the emulation station input configuration for the controllers.

@mitu Thanks guys - I'll give it whirl

@mitu
I ended up having to do a full re-install of Mint Mate 22 for other reasons. This is my third install in the past 2 weeks and I hope I do not need to do so again.

Let it be known that even after a fresh full-reinstall of Mint Mate 22, the same lack of joypad recognition continues. I have to access the setup through terminal via the sudo command in order to make it work. Otherwise, accessing the setup through the Retropie OS itself does not enable joypad function in Mint Mate 22. I did not have this issue with Mint Mate 20.

@ScOULaris You may want to add the solution to your reddit post.

Get a ROM to test the gamepad - like https://www.psx-place.com/resources/padtest.396/ for PS1 - and run it under RetroArch to test your inputs.

EDIT: outside am emulator, you can use the jstest utility to test the connection/input response with your controller. You'll have to exit EmulationStation and run it from the command line like so:

jstest /dev/input/js0

To finish the test and get back to EmulationStation, use Ctrl+C (this will close the jstest session) and type emulationstation (+ enter) to start EmulationStation again.

@mitu Cool, thank you for looking into this, and I look forward to the release that will resolve this!