controller working in retropie menu but not in retroarch or in games

[67120]

controller is set up with xboxdrv to output KEY_ENTER, KEY_A, KEY_DOWN/UP/LEFT/RIGHT. works in retropie autoconfig and then in the menu but if i go to the retropie menu > retroarch, it won't work there. retroarch doesn't even see the virtual controller listed (although it sees the actual controller which xboxdrv grabbed.) nor does it see a keyboard. the games also are unresponsive to the virtual controller. retroarch and the games both respond to the real keyboard. the emulator used was lr-stella.

my rc.local looks like:

sudo /opt/retropie/supplementary/xboxdrv/bin/xboxdrv \
    --evdev /dev/input/by-id/usb-DragonRise_Inc._Generic_USB_Joystick-event-joy$
    --silent \
    --detach-kernel-driver \
    --force-feedback \
    --deadzone-trigger 15% \
    --deadzone 4000 \
    --mimic-xpad \
    --evdev-absmap ABS_X=X1,ABS_Y=Y1 \
    --evdev-keymap BTN_THUMB=START,BTN_TRIGGER=A \
    --ui-buttonmap START=KEY_ENTER,A=KEY_A \
    --ui-axismap X1=KEY_LEFT:KEY_RIGHT,Y1=KEY_DOWN:KEY_UP \
    &

exit 0