Bluetooth and USB not working in RetroPie

jas51384

@mitu
OK, I made some progress. The USB gamepad will work in Retroarch but it has a lot of lag. It's enough to really notice and the 8Bitdo is even worse and only works for a short time before it stops responding completely along with the keyboard. I did charge the 8Bitdo before this round of testing too.

jas51384

@mitu Log Files

es_input.cfg

USB Gamepad Verbose log

8Bitdo SN30 Pro Verbose Log

I noticed that they bothseem to be using a different driver than before. Shows "X" for the driver now and before it was "udev" for both.

mitu

@jas51384 Can you edit the /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg and explicitly set the input_driver to udev ? The auto-configurations generated by EmulationStation assume the usage of the udev driver.

jas51384

@mitu This is what the Input driver section shows in the Retroarch.cfg file:

# Input driver. Depending on video driver, it might force a different input driver.
# input_driver = sdl

# Joypad driver. ("udev", "linuxraw", "paraport", "sdl2", "hid", "dinput")
input_joypad_driver = "udev"

I changed sdl to udev and there is no change in the behavior. Here is the Verbose log file
it still shows "X" as the input driver. The input_joypad_driver does show as udev in the logs.

mitu

@jas51384 Actually, the input_driver=sdl is commented (the # at the beginning). The input_joypad_driver is present and I think the correct value is set (udev).
Can't understand why the auto-profile generated by EmulationStation is not used or loaded by RetroArch.
You can manually create a configuration for the profile - https://docs.libretro.com/guides/controller-autoconfiguration/#generating-a-joypad-profile. You'll need a keyboard to open the configuration menu (RGUI, F1) and map the button on the gamepad.

jas51384

@mitu What's strange is all this worked fine until the most recent update. The joypad is recognized in retroarch after using Ubuntu 20.04 but has bad lag. The 8Bitdo SN30pro is recognized by retroarch but once loaded into a rom the 8Bitdo and Keyboard stop working entirely forcing me to use the power button to shut it down. I'll try to map the joypad and see if it helps the lag but I won't be able to try it with the 8Bitdo because it all locks up.

mitu

@jas51384 said in Bluetooth and USB not working in RetroPie:

What's strange is all this worked fine until the most recent update.

You're referring to RetroPie's update or Ubuntu ? If RetroPie, then what version did you have before the update ?

jas51384

@mitu I'm referring to the Retropie update from 5 or 6 days ago. Since I did a fresh install on the day it was released and just did another yesterday. I believe it was the version just before this one but I can't remember because I didn't look beforehand.

mitu

There haven't been any significat updates recently, current version was tagged on Sept. 8 (4.7.19) and RetroArch had the same version since July. You may try and checkout the version before (4.7.18 was tagged in August, commit b8e) just to see if any changes before 4.7.19 have any effect on your installation.

jas51384

@mitu I'm just going by the top of the Retropie setup script. Shows version 4.7.19 last commit 7 days ago. I won't be able to try the older version until later today. Comcast has a nationwide network outage that is eaffecting my area. Hopefully t will be resolved this afternoon central time.

jas51384

@mitu said in Bluetooth and USB not working in RetroPie:

There haven't been any significat updates recently, current version was tagged on Sept. 8 (4.7.19) and RetroArch had the same version since July. You may try and checkout the version before (4.7.18 was tagged in August, commit b8e) just to see if any changes before 4.7.19 have any effect on your installation.

This is where my noob starts showing. How do I get that to download and install?

mitu

Assuming a fresh install, you'll need to use some command line commands:

cd $HOME/RetroPie-Setup
git fetch --unshallow
git checkout b8e5974

this will get you version 4.7.18, which you can use to perform an install.
To get back to the current version:

cd $HOME/RetroPie-Setup
git checkout master

jas51384

@mitu ok thanks, I'll report back.

jas51384

@mitu Well, It all seems to work correctly. Even the Bluetooth installed and I was able to set the udev rule for 8Bitdo. The only odd thing is when playing a SNES rom on the default emulator I had to press the buttons twice on the 8Bitdo controller for it to register then it would work fine until a screen changed then would have to do it again. There was no lag in the joypad, it was recognized and preformed as it should. Let me know if you want different logs also.

8Bitdo Verbose log
Joypad Verbose log

mitu

I don't see any differences between the logs - it's the same version of RetroArch as before and the input related log messages are the same. You can update to the current version and see if there's any change.

jas51384

@mitu said in Bluetooth and USB not working in RetroPie:

I don't see any differences between the logs - it's the same version of RetroArch as before and the input related log messages are the same. You can update to the current version and see if there's any change.

Ok, it shows everything updated. The joypad still works and the 8bitdo works but requires extra button presses for it work correctly in both emulationstation and retroarch. It was doing this in 4.7.18 also. It's like the 8bitdo has a delay at first. I remember earlier in the revisions that when you first entered emulationstation the menu would jump several spaces opposite the direction pressed then work perfect. I read that was a normal thing with the 8bitdo on bluetooth.

jas51384

@mitu I have to nuke the current setup and start again. Retropie crashed when starting twice and now the Bluetooth 8Bitdo stopped working like before when I went into the setup menu to look for themes. I can't get the 8Bitdo to reconnect now so I'm starting from scratch. I think installing a theme may have broken something.

jas51384

@mitu So it seems that after I install a theme the 8bitdo and keyboard stop working after launching a rom. After that I have issues reconnecting the 8bitdo and getting it to work at all. I've Uninstalled the theme and still have issues until I do a complete format and reinstall of Ubuntu and Retopie 4.7.18.
I'm at a loss now. I can't think of anything else that would be causing all these issues unless it's Ubuntu 20.04 and something with both sets of hardware.

mitu

Installing a theme shouldn't cause an issue with the gamepads working. There's something else that's causing the issue, but I'm also not sure what it can be.
Since the BT connection is managed entirely by the OS, I don't think it's something related to RetroPie. Maybe there have been some updates in the OS and you need to re-pair the controller ?

jas51384

@mitu I'm not sure how to describe it. I've tried 3 different versions of Ubuntu and Pop OS and they all do the same thing after installing RetroPie. It will crash once when starting for the first time then work fine. The 8bitdo buttons don't program correctly the first time but will all map the second time. Then after I run a rom it stops recognizing the 8bitdo or it won't even load the rom and just locks up the system. The bluetooth stops responding on the OS desktop as well. I'll try to look into the 8bitdo firmware and see if that is an issue. I'm at a loss at this point.