@sleve_mcdichael @Addison Thank you for your help!!

@mitu that's what i don't understand. Here is what i do:

I add a rom into the fba folder open the rom (the default emulator is lr-fbneo the game opens but i cannot insert coins with any of the buttons even though the "all" retroarch is set to "select" so I edited the retroarch in the fba folder only and nothing, it doesn't work...
Some of those roms work with Mame, so no big deal but i can't get any of them to work with lr-fbneo...

I hooked up a keyboard through the USB and i could insert coins with r-shift key but again the controllers were all over the place...

At least I can play some games now so i'll be trying them with different folders and emulators...

Thanks again

@kgm316 via what method are you changing them? please fill out https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

@melbmatt50 I thought you already used the configuration editor to set those options ?
Anyway, you can find it in Retropie-Setup, under 'Configuration/tools' - see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Configuration-Editor/.
You can go into the Advanced Configuration -> Configure Libretro options, choose which core (or all if you want all cores), then in the list choose to configure input_player1_analog_dpad_mode - from there you can configure which joystick (left/right) to control the D-pad.

@Ashpool Thank you SO MUCH. I've spent way too long on this and wish I'd worked that out. Big help!

Ver 2.0
Replaced lipo with a anker 20000mah powerbank.
Added usbc port to charge both the anker and the piboy 1up simultaneously (no need to take the piboy out the case to recharge it), and also an extra external usb socket (anker powerbank has 2 outputs) to charge my phone or the Pi controller or whatever works with a usb charger.
Cheers
PSX_20200808_153113.jpg

PSX_20200808_153124.jpg
PSX_20200808_153135.jpg

It appears that in /opt/retropie/configs/n64/InputsAutoCfg.ini that under the relevant controller there was no entry for B button, and A button was incorrect. I edited this manually to correct for this, but I still get the same problem when i run the emulator - e.g., my attempted fix makes no difference to how it actually performs!

@mitu FANTASTIC !!!!
Everythings working with lr-fmsx!!! I focused to much on Lr-BlueMSX. For Lr-BlueMSX, It's only playable with keyboard . The joypad working only for Coleco. Not enough gamepad buttons are associated with basics keyboard fonctions. They should enable the "RetroPad Keyboard Map - Joypad - Awaiting description" option in Control menu in RetroArch for MSX.
Thank you
REGARDS

Your file has not been uploaded, so if you uploaded any logs, they're not visible. Please add more info about your system, as detailed in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

The installation logs are kept in $HOME/RetroPie-Setup/logs, you can get the latest file from there and unpack it, then upload the part where the error appears on pastebin.com to see what might have be the problem.

Yeah I like the keyboard one better, but maybe someone has some advice if this is still possible with the joystick type. I would think it would be but who knows ;)

Many thanks for the info on evdev. I thought it wasn't being used since evdev-joystick --l doesn't show anything, but the gamepad was being assigned to /dev/input/eventX

I ended up using this solution:
https://joaorb64.github.io/2018/02/14/Configuring-a-Nintendo-Switch-Pro-Controller-on-Linux.html

Do you have an arcade panel configured or are you just testing out with a controller ?
The X button is mapped to the input_menu_toggle_btn action, so you can remove the line containing the mapping from the controller configuration file. The file is generated by Emulationstation in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads, named after your controller. To be honest, I'd be more concerned about the Hotkey + B (reset content) combo, since it will reset the game, while Hotkey + X merely pauses it.

If you're using a keyboard, I think F1 toggles the menu.

So the controller is/was connected to the internal GPIO port of the Pi? Any chance that some of the wires have been detached while travelling?

If that is not the case, please provide the information that is asked for in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

@harrycool25 We don't support 3rd party images - why don't you ask your friend ?

@mitu
Actually, I think I did update it and that caused some of the issues again with it not working properly. It's working well enough as is so I'm a little leery of messing with it at this point. I don't have any games that require thumbstick or trigger input so I'm happy enough with the good D-pad.

@mitu Thank you for the help! It didn't work, but then I got to thinking, just for the heck of it, why not take out the keyboard and dongle. That fixed everything. Thanks to the community for putting up with a noob.

I did it
first thing i build EmulationStation and SDL2
And tried again succeeded
some packages i installed manually

Actually I did not expect it to work Because it is not like a raspberrypi
but its work
@mitu @Drakaen391 @BuZz

@blitzgreig You need to start by posting the information requested in this post:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

No idea what hardware you are running, what software etc.....