@mitu Just wanted to say thanks for the help on this, it really means a lot. After losing some heart, I took another look over Christmas and the reset you suggested solved my joystick problem as well, so I've had a blast over the break playing on it.
Next stage is to go back into the retroarch.cfg and configure the second joystick when friends are around, and then it'll be good to go.
Thanks so much! And apols for not getting back sooner for your help :)

@Aroenai said in Fresh RetroPie install on Debian 12 x86_64, keyboards not recognized in emulationstation:

Built From: Debian 12 net install (no GUI, installed to external USB 3.1 flashdrive) installation script from https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup

Actually now I noticed this - we don't support nor test running from the CLI on a PC, a desktop environment (X11/Wayland) is required on that platform.

If you still want to run it via KMS/DRM, check if your user is part of the input/video/render groups.

solved, thank you.