Having Issues With Wireless XInput 8Bitdo Controllers

RetroArch Linux devices
#1

Hoping someone here can help me diagnose some strange issues I’m having with 8Bitdo controllers in Retroarch on Linux (Specifically Kubuntu 20.04). When I connect these controllers(and M30 and an SN30) over Bluetooth in XInput mode, Retroarch takes much longer to launch, and afterwards thumbnails and other assets don’t load in the menu.

This only affects these controllers in wireless XInput mode. I’ve tried them in wireless DInput and wired Xinput modes, and the issue doesn’t occur in these modes. I don’t have any other wireless Xinput devices to test with, so I can’t be sure if it’s something about the 8Bitdo controllers specifically or XInput generally.

I would provide logs but the only difference I see in the logs is during force feedback detection. Using the M30 wired XInput mode: [INFO] [udev]: Pad #0 (/dev/input/event9) supports force feedback. [INFO] [udev]: Pad #0 (/dev/input/event9) supports 16 force feedback effects. [INFO] [Joypad]: Found joypad driver: “udev”. And the same controller in wireless XInput mode: [INFO] [udev]: Pad #0 (/dev/input/event9) supports 0 force feedback effects. [INFO] [Joypad]: Found joypad driver: “udev”.

Input works basically as expected and I can work around it using other gamepad modes, so it’s not a major issue, but I’d like to see if I can find a solution.

Edit: I should clarify that I’m using Retroarch 1.9.0 from the Ubuntu PPA.

#2

That may be related to an interaction between xinput, 8bitdo firmware and rumble. I’ve heard of people having that issue in Windows but this is the first I’ve heard of it for Linux. In any event, we usually tell people just switch to dinput mode instead.

#3

Ah, so it’s a known issue. Seems strange that the code for rumble and thumbnails would be tightly coupled enough to cause this issue, but what do I know. Is there a github issue/bug I can follow?

I find XInput mode tends to work better for most apps besides RA, but I guess I can use DInput. Or stick to using it wired.

#4

Dunno about the thumbnails and assets. That doesn’t happen in Windows, but anything that’s taking enough resources to slow everything down could also be interfering with other stuff that’s supposed to be happening.

FAKEDIT: turns out it’s a different but similar issue, which I happened upon while looking for the other issue to link: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/10408

#5

Thanks! Couldn’t find it when I looked through the issues before, but it seems to match what I’ve seen.

Couldn’t find the battery display setting in the UI, but turning it off in the cfg file seems to do the trick for the thumbnails. Loading times are still an issue, though.

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