I just joined to continue this discussion. I’ve been using RetroArch for years and I’ve never had this problem until today. I hope that this can be helpful to pinpoint the problem.
A brief description of my setup:
Up to now I’ve been using my PC with Ubuntu MATE 20.04. I recently bought a laptop for traveling that has now Ubuntu MATE 22.04. Both have the same version of RetroArch installed (1.14.0) although I installed it through APT on the fixed PC and Snap on the laptop.
I’ve also been using two controllers: a RetroBit Tribute64 wireless controller (has its own USB receiver, it’s not connected directly to the computer’s BT), and a very old Logitech VV550 dual action.
Long story short, last time I used RetroArch on my PC (at least June 2022) both controllers worked perfectly. In the meantime the only changes I applied are updates, and now on my PC the controllers are not recognized at startup, but if I start a game, then they start working and keep working even if I stop the game.
On the laptop, on the other hand, despite the fact that I use the exact same configuration (literally, copied and pasted from my PC) I see the exact same problem reported in this topic: the controller is not recognized until I unplug and re-plug it, then as I start a game I have to do the same.
Strangely, on my laptop the controller is not recognized correctly (it says "Retro-bit Genesis/Saturn 8 Button Arcade Pad), but apart from that the mapping of the buttons is perfect. The lsusb command identifies the controller as “ShenZhen ShanWan Technology Co., Ltd. ZD-V+ Wired Gaming Controller”.
On my PC it’s recognized as “SWITCH CO., LTD. USB Gamepad”), the same name I get with the lsusb command. The device ID (2563:0575) is the same on both computers though.
Since others have been having this problem since before June 2022, it’s obviously not something created by an update, but it seems to me that a recent update has “activated” this bug on my PC.
I was hoping that I could provide a narrower window, but unfortunately I haven’t been using RetroArch lately. Whatever happened, it happened between v1.10.3 and v1.14.0.