Control works in game (MAME) but not main RetroPie menu

[rasp_renegade]

Hi all, I recently connected my arcade machine control panel to the pi3 with an iPAC2. Controls work find after a ROM is launched, but getting to that point is different. Is there a setting that allows navigation with a keyboard in ES?

[sleve_mcdichael]

@rasp_renegade sounds like you need to reconfigure your controller for ES. Since you have a keyboard*, it's probably easiest to do this:

Press F4 to exit ES and access the terminal. Run RetroPie-Setup with command:

sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

Navigate to configuration/tools > emulationstation and choose clear/reset emulation station input configuration.

Exit out of the setup utility and use any of logout, exit, or ctrl-D to end the current bash session and restart ES via autologin. With the input config reset, you should be prompted to set up your controls as if for the first time. You can now set up your keyboard and/or properly configure your IPAC controller to work in ES.

* or, was the issue that the IPAC is set up to be recognized as a keyboard, instead of as a controller? If you don't have an actual keyboard to use the above method, then you can unplug the controller and all USB devices and boot the Pi with no controller attached; you should again be prompted to configure one, and you can then plug in the IPAC and configure it.

[sleve_mcdichael]

@rasp_renegade adding to above, if you are going to set up an actual keyboard as a controller in ES, I did mine something like:

Up, down, left, right: arrow keys
A ("choose"): enter
B ("cancel"): escape
X ("random"): Q (or R for random I guess)
Y ("favorite"): I don't use (F for favorite I suppose, or W)
Start ("main menu"): spacebar
Select ("gamelist menu," or "activate screensaver" from the system carousel): rshift
L1: PgUp
R1: PgDn

All the other inputs (the triggers, axes, and thumb-buttons) can be skipped, as they have no function in ES.

IIRC, I think this also writes these same values to your global retroarch.cfg. If that's the case, and only if you are setting up an actual keyboard, and not an IPAC configured to be recognized as a keyboard, I recommend you manually edit the default values back into your retroarch config so that using the keyboard in-game isn't all jacked-up by the menu controls (unlike a controller, what's intuitive with a keyboard in the menu is not so in-game and vice versa):

#
# Keyboard input, Joypad and Joyaxis will all obey the "nul" bind, which disables the bind completely,
# rather than relying on a default.
input_player1_a = "x"
input_player1_b = "z"
input_player1_y = "a"
input_player1_x = "s"
input_player1_start = "enter"
input_player1_select = "rshift"
input_player1_l = "q"
input_player1_r = "w"
input_player1_left = "left"
input_player1_right = "right"
input_player1_up = "up"
input_player1_down = "down"
# input_player1_l2 =
# input_player1_r2 =
# input_player1_l3 =
# input_player1_r3 =

[rasp_renegade]

@sleve_mcdichael

Thank you! That did it.