PS4 Controller 8bitdo won't work in games

music9000

Hi
I've got a Raspberry Pi 4 with the Retropie v. 4.8.2

I bought some PS4 controllers (not originals) and two 8bitdo adapters.
The PS4 controllers are not recognized by the raspberry pi directly. Also, bluetooth pairing did not work.
They work however, very well with the 8bitdo adapters and I can also configure them (wireless). They work as configured during console and game scrolling, until I open a game. At that point, when the game itself starts, no button works anymore at all.

I tried several things with no success. Any ideas?

mitu

What game(s) are you starting and which emulator is used ?
Configuring the controller(s) in EmulationStation will generate the proper configuration for RetroArch and a few other emulators, so when you start a game, the controllers should be working with the generated configuration. There is a configuration option for EmulationStation to disable creating the configuration for emulators, but it's disabled by default - did you use the Pi4 image from https://retropie.org.uk/download or some other 3rd party image ?
What other things have you tried ?

music9000

Hi @mitu
It's an official retropie image.
The controller is recognized after entering retropie and pairing with the 8bitdo, as microsoft x-box 360 pad. (It is a PS4 controller, even though not original) After every restart I need to pair and configure it.
What I tried so far:
Retropie setup/configuration / tools/ tried install with bluetooth or with xboxdrv
Retropie setup/manage packages/manage drive packages/ps3 controller and xpad
As soon as I leave retropie setup the controller does not work anymore.
The controller does not work for any game or any console. I had earlier PS3 controller and they worked.
I don't think I disabled the configuration, maybe by mistake, how can I check that? Thanks!

mitu

@music9000 said in PS4 Controller 8bitdo won't work in games:

I don't think I disabled the configuration, maybe by mistake, how can I check that? Thanks!

Open the RetroPie-Setup script, then go to Configuration / Tools -> emulationstation and check if Auto Configuration is enabled.

If you're using the 8bitdo adapter, there's no need to install additional drivers - you should remove them (especially xboxdrv).

When you configure your gamepad, EmulationStation will save the configuration in various places, but the 1st one to be saved is the one for EmulationStation itself, in $HOME/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg . Can you post the contents of this file ? You can also get it via file shares, from \\retropie\configs\all\emulationstation.

music9000

@mitu
I did as told, emulationstation auto config was disabled. I enabled it and also removed xboxdrv.
And it finally works! I could configure both controller, the configuration is kept in the game and even when rebooting I don't need to re-configure it again.

Thanks a lot, the auto config settings were an eye-opener!