Controller in AmiBerry on wrong Port

[RapsterUK]

Pi Model or other hardware: B+
Power Supply used: Official PSU
RetroPie Version Used: 4.4
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: iPac Mini
Controller used: iPac Mini (keyboard emulator)
Error messages received: n/a
Emulator: AmiBerry with WHDBooter
Attachment of config files: Screenshot of issue attached
How to replicate the problem:

Hi All,

I have been building an Arcade cabinet based on RetroPie and everything is working perfectly, apart from one little thing. I have AmiBerry installed for Amiga emulation, my games are in WHD format (lha) They all launch and run fine, however the issue is that my controller is always set to port 2 [parallel 1] within AmiBerry, which means it doesn't work in the games. If I open the AmiBerry menu and change it to port 1 [joystick] then it works fine, but on next launch, it reverts back to port 2 (parallel 1]. As I'm running in a cabinet, I don't have a mouse and keyboard plugged in, so having to manually change this is a real pain. I have attached a picture for reference.

I've played around with the "hostprefs.conf" file, most of it is self explanatory, but I'm not sure what the first couple of lines actually refer too?

CONTROLLER_1=joy1
CONTROLLER_2=joy2
CONTROLLER_3=joy0
;CONTROLLER_4=
CONTROLLER_MOUSE_1=joy1
CONTROLLER_MOUSE_2=joy2

I've tried changing the order of the controllers but it doesn't make a difference. I know the file is being read as I used it to successfully change the 'menu' and 'exit' keys.

Any help would be massively appreciated!

Thanks
Nigel

[stoney66]

@RapsterUK dumb question, but are you saving the config after you set to Joystick 1? I don't think it auto saves but been a while since I used the amiga.

Also I have heard before similar issue and the fix was to install from source instead of binary, that fixed the save config issue.

[RapsterUK]

@stoney66 yeah I've saved the config but I think the issue is that the config is dynamically created by the WHDLoad process?

Funnily enough, I updated from source today and no change :-(

[stoney66]

@RapsterUK Not sure, I didn't use WHDLoad when I was running it. Did you see this page below, whdboot and host specific settings?

https://github.com/midwan/amiberry/wiki/WHDLoad-Auto-booting

[jackyracer]

Hi. I had similar problems. Try to put controller 1 to joy0 in the hostprefs.conf file. joy0 is for using a keyboard as a controller. That could be the reason it is set to parallel1, which is controller3 in Amiberry (that is the default config I think). Or you could save the config per game, this seems to override the hostprefs.conf file. Also there is the xml database file, which has info on most games and sets them up accordingly. Again I think this is overridden by the hostprefs.conf I think, which is the overridden by the inidividual .uae config file for the game. I hope I understood and explained everything correctly, maybe someone can correct me if not. I just figured some of the stuff out myself, it was driving me crazy 🤣

[RapsterUK]

@jackyracer thanks for the info! I had already sarted to play with individual UAE config files and looking in the XML file. I still couldn't get it to work and the controller randomly changed to parallel port 2!?!. So I deleted all the config files I had created or had been playing with and it started working! Port 0 was the mouse and port 1 was joystick and recognised on games 👍

Now I've noticed an issue, only tested Turrican but when I hit any button the game pause's then carries on when I press again, anyone seen this?