No gamepads detected

oviradoi

Hello, I recently got a Raspberry Pi 3, and I want to install RetroPie on it.

I downloaded and installed Retropie v3.8.1 on my SD card, but when I boot it my controller is not detected. EmulationStation shows the "No gamepad detected" screen. I try to press the buttons on my gamepad, but nothing changes.

I have a USB controller, the Serioux SRXJ-PH2400. It works without any drivers on my Windows laptop.

I tried to add a sleep command to the /usr/bin/emulationstation file, as suggested here but it still does not work.

I also tried to use the latest release candidate, but it still did not detect the gamepad.

Unfortunately I don't have a USB keyboard to plug into my Raspberry Pi, but I can use putty to connect to it and configure it. How can I make it detect my gamepad?

meleu

@oviradoi said in No gamepads detected:

I can use putty to connect to it and configure it.

So go to the terminal and type:

ls -l /dev/input/js*

To check if your system is detecting some joystick.

oviradoi

I tried also with a powered USB hub, but it still does not work. My vendor and device id is 11ff:3331.

It is not showing up under /dev/input. The only thing in there is mice:

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/input
total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 63 Aug  4 15:11 mice

pi@retropie:~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 11ff:3331
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

pi@retropie:~ $ lsusb -t
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=dwc_otg/1p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/5p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=smsc95xx, 480M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
            |__ Port 3: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
                |__ Port 2: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M

mamalukes

This post is deleted!

oviradoi

I loaded the Ubuntu 16.04 live USB on my computer, and I can see that the gamepad is detected. I checked to see what driver it's using, and it looks like the Ubuntu live USB has more drivers than retropie.

On Ubuntu, I am using the usbhid driver, and the usbhid module is being used by usbhid_gembird. If I look inside /lib/modules/4.4.0-21-generic/kernel/drivers/hid, there is a hid-gembird.ko file which I believe is the driver for my gamepad.

On the Retropie machine, I don't have the hid-gembird.ko file inside /lib/modules/4.4.13-v7+/kernel/drivers/hid.

How can I get, (maybe compile) and install the hid-gembird.ko module on RetroPie?

oviradoi

Eventually, I got it to work.

The problem is that the raspbian kernel build does not include the gembird driver. Retropie, being based on raspbian also does not include it. Which is a shame, because it is a distribution geared towards gaming using gamepads.

I installed Ubuntu on my laptop and used these guides to build raspbian from source, also including the Gembird HID driver. Then I copied the new kernel and modules to my SD card that contained Retropie, and when I booted it up, my gamepad was detected.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/kernel/building.md
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/kernel/configuring.md

I suggest that in the retropie builds you compile the kernel including the Gembird driver, and maybe other gamepad drivers that might not be included in the default build.

BuZz

We don't maintain the kernel. A PR needs to be sent to the raspberry pi Linux github with the kernel config changes. I'll look into it

Retropie isn't a distro. The Image is just RetroPie installed on top of Raspbian Lite and provided for convenience.

BuZz

https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/pull/1589