Controller config nightmare

spruce_m00se

I have had retropie working for a couple of weeks with an original X-box classic controller.
I did manage to get a ds4 working with ds4drv.
I then received several ebay specials in the mail, mainly two eurpean SNES clones, one us SNES controller, one NES controller and a mini keyboard and mouse combo.
I have been playing with configuring inputs for each, and it has all gone wrong and something is broken.
The keyboard always seems to default as player one despite being in any other USB port physically.

From what I can tell form googling the problem, USB port 0 seems to have a config, which if you plug a different controller into port 0 uses the same map, but that is not neccesarily the same button on the controller, thus making using several controllers with the global config impossible,
and the retroarch config doesnt actually update the config files on the system, which always seem to default back to the keyboard as player 1 despite me remapping in retroarch.

so the questions and point I need help on are :

if I want to use the ds4 for psx games and the SNES for SNES games etc, is the best way to achieve this to set up a config file for each emulator?
what happens if I want to use the NES USB controller for NES games most of the time but fancy playing wirelessly some times? Can I also make it pick up the bluetooth controller if for example the NES one isnt connected?
how do I remove the current configs in retroarch? preferably without doing a fresh install. I could delete everythign line by line, but i would rather just find a default config file and replace it.

any help is appreciated
Thanks,

meleu

@spruce_m00se the answers for questions 1 and 2 can be the joystick-selection tool (link on my signature).
For question 3, you can use the retroarch.cfg.rp-dist files you can find in /opt/retropie/configs/SYSTEM_NAME/ directories. If those files don't exist, you can reinstall the respective emulator/core and they'll be created.

edmaul69

@spruce_m00se just so you know the keyboard will always be player 1. It works alongside the player 1 controller. If you changed settings in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg for keyboard and set input_libretro_device_p1 = "3" you need to put a hashtag # in front of it to stop it from forcing itself from being the only player 1 device.

spruce_m00se

I tried the joystick selection tool last night, briefly, it recognised both usb pads that were connected, I set them globally to player one and two then loaded up the sonic 2 split screen to test it out, player one worked, all except button B which stopped doing anything, and player two didnt work at all.

I also noticed that the keyboard worked simultaneously for player one, so its good to know that it meant to happen,

I think I may do a fresh instal (after backing up my roms folder) and then instal the joystick selection tool and have a go with a system that isnt already messed around with....... I dont have much time to play around with this kind fo thing with two young kids an all, so I want to spend time playing not messing around with configs.

the joystick selection tool looks like a great add on by the way

meleu

@spruce_m00se I think you can try to remove RetroPie using the ReteoPie-Setup script, and then install it again. Maybe it's faster than a fresh install...

spruce_m00se

@meleu ive seen the option to remove it in the GUI, but surely the GUI dissapears when you do that? how do you re instal it?

meleu

@spruce_m00se said in Controller config nightmare:

@meleu ive seen the option to remove it in the GUI, but surely the GUI dissapears when you do that? how do you re instal it?

Launch the retropie_setup.sh script via command line, not via emulationstation.

Answer Yes when the script asks Are you REALLY sure you want to uninstall RetroPie? /opt/retropie/configs will be removed - this includes configuration files for all RetroPie components.

And answer No when the script asks Do you want to remove all the files from /home/pi/RetroPie - this includes all your installed ROMs, BIOS files and custom splashscreens.

After that you will still be able to launch retropie_setup.sh via command line again.

If you find some problem, you can take a look at these instructions here (pretty simple for who is familiar with basic linux commands)

spruce_m00se

yeh im nto familiar with linux, but I have used DOS back in the day and can handle a tutorial that calls for command line use.

I uninstalled last night, and reinstalled through emulation station.
Funnily, when I dumped just one rom back onto the system (sonic 2) it mentioned the sony ds4 not being connected as it loaded the game. I havent yet used this on the new instalation.

I then proceeded to calibrated and test one joypad. It worked well, I then connected and calibrated a second joypad, and loaded sonic 2. The player one joypad worked, but again the B button stopped working, and the player two joystick worked well. I went back and recalibrated the player 1 joypad, and it then worked fine in Sonic 2 but the player two joypad no longer had use of the B button, everythign else worked fine.

It seems like there is some conflict going on, so I am simpy going to format the SD card and do a fresh instal from scratch and they try again, if it still doesnt work then I may set fire to it.

spruce_m00se

Ok so this is getting boring,

A freshly formatted SD card, downloaded the joystick selection tool, configured both controllers, set them as player one and player two, and the B button doesnt work on player 1, not even in the GUI!!!!!!!!!!!

spruce_m00se

I will add that button B still works in the joystick selection tool

spruce_m00se

So I decided to try one xbox usb pad and one generic snes ripoff pad so at least the names are different,
the same thing happens, although, I have noticed that infact both controllers in this setup work with buttons a,b and y. It is the button that I have configured as X that doesnt work in the emulator.

perhaps the config into retroarch is changing a bit, and my button I have mapped to B is becoming X?
on a two button controller this makes it look like B isnt working.
annoyingly both A and B work fine when I dont configure a second controller.

This is a really annoying issue, I dont know why we cant just have the controller plugged into usb port one as player one regardless of which controller it is..... what a pain the in A**

spruce_m00se

Wierdly when I go into the "ES Themes" section, A continues to work but functions as B and the only other button that works, is X so I get A and X to navigate with.

what a wierd wierd beast!

denisuu

It's a nightmare I'm experiencing almost the same :P I feel like I'm going to spend more time trying to get the controllers to work then actually playing games.

spruce_m00se

yep, I think I have decided that im just going to have to make the most of it,
its a shame that such a great looking front end software cannot handle the controller config properly.
I am looking into launchbox on windows, and it seems to handle it fine, but getting a small cheap windows pc isnt so easy

spruce_m00se

@meleu your joystick config tool worked for me in the end, when installed on a fresh instal from the start.
I am setting up another system and went to instal the joystick selection tool and the instalation procedure has changed,
I have followed your new instructions and get a message about a corrupted script,,,
is there a way to instal it using the old method still?
can we send Pm's on this forum ?

meleu

@spruce_m00se said in Controller config nightmare:

I have followed your new instructions and get a message about a corrupted script

Oh... Please, paste that message here, or post a picture with it.

is there a way to instal it using the old method still?

No, but I can provide it again. First I would like to know what's wrong with the current method.

can we send Pm's on this forum ?

Nop.

spruce_m00se

I will have another go at instaling it later today and take a photo.

thanks,

spruce_m00se

@meleu
it says:
curl: (3) <url> malformed

and then I cant see it in the experimental packages section.
I have tried twice now on a fresh instal downloaded last night.

meleu

@spruce_m00se said in Controller config nightmare:

it says:
curl: (3) <url> malformed

can you paste here the command you are trying to use?

The correct (and written in the README) is:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meleu/RetroPie-joystick-selection/master/install.sh -o ~/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/joystick-selection.sh

I tried here right now and it worked fine.

spruce_m00se

@meleu my only concern is the ~ symbol, my keyboard places it at the top not in the middle . i will not paste as im not using ssh, but I will cuadruple check and get back to you