Wiimote on linux

RetroArch Linux devices
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#1

Hello, I have a wiimote connected via bluetooth on my linux machine.

It works with kodi (arrows and buttons), xwiishow and dolphin-emu (arrow, buttons, accelerometer, infrared) without issues.

When starting retroarch, the wiimote is recognized as such (it appears a little notification on startup, and it is listed on the devices), but the buttons do not work as expected.

I cannot navigate the menu with arrows, only A seems to work for selecting things, and home button as-if I’ve pressed escape on the keyboard. If I start a game (for example witht he keyboard), the B button activates fast forward, otherwise thats it.

I tried configuring the device, during setup I’ve pressed the arrow buttons (they get recognized), but after the setup nothing changed, I still cannot navigate retroarch ui.

I did already used retroarch on another linux pc with the wiimote, and no configuration was necessary, it worked out of the box.

As additional information, I tested another bluetooth controller (not wiimote), and it works correctly out-of-the-box.

I’m not sure what I can do for fixing the issue, currently I’m not even interested in ir and accelerometer (or playing wii games)

Are there known issues? I’ve installed retroarch from https://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/linux/x86_64/ instead of the one packaged for my distribution (Debian)

#2

I assume it’s using this profile? https://github.com/libretro/retroarch-joypad-autoconfig/blob/37f429527d7b44fcc6e9d5c3861b89d89b803b4e/udev/Nintendo_Wii_Remote.cfg#L4

If so, I think it may no longer be current/sane since some Nintendo driver stuff was added to the linux kernel…? In any event, try deleting that profile (you can always re-fetch it from the online updater, so no big deal) and see if you can successfully map it yourself. If so, save a new profile and then open it in a text editor and let’s see what it says :slight_smile:

#3

Deleting the file did not make a difference, but something really strange happened during the last test (and it is reproducible)

Start retroarch, connect a non-wiimote controller, connect the wiimote, disconnect the non-wiimote controller.

Now I can navigate retroarch with the wiimote :confused:

Update: deleting the file did made a difference: it works! I accidentally worked from the wrong directory. But what I’ve written still stands; there is a difference if the wiimote is connected as second controller :confused:

#4

With the config file deleted, the issue is that he wiimote does not have sane keybindongs when starting, for example, a gba game.

When starting the game, the dialog wiimote not configured appears.

Once the game is started, the arrow works, but I can reember that when it worked out-of-the-box

  • I had to keep it sideways (much more practical)
  • the menu button exited the game, not retroarch
  • A and B buttons where mapped to 1 and 2

Which is currently not the case

#5

ok, were you able to map it properly in settings > input > retropad binds and then create an autoconfig profile of your own?

#6

Not really.

I’ve used the remapping functionality of retroarch and just remapped the arrows, but after that the navigation with the remote did not work anymore, keyboard too. I had to reset the retroarch.cfg file.

Also, if I write my own autoconfig file, wont this get overwritten by an update?

#7

it can get overwritten by an update, sure, but that one is so old it doesn’t even have the vendor and device IDs (vid/pid pair) to identify with, so it’s just using the device name. As long as your has a different name it will not be overwritten, and as long as it includes the vid/pid, it will be preferred over the one without them. And, if it works so well, you could submit it to https://github.com/libretro/retroarch-joypad-autoconfig for inclusion with the official bundle.

#8

Ok, I’ll try again in the next days.

Still I’m confused that I could find nowhere else a similar report, for this reason it seems strange that it should work for no-one

What I could found are only reports about wiimote not working when playing wii games.

#9

Ok, I’ve decided to do another test.

I’ve installed retroarch 1.16 (same version) on another PC.

It has the unmodified Nintendo_Wii_Remote.cfg, and the remote works as expected.

Hold it horizontally, arrow works, buttons with sensible mappings.

I’ve checked related installed wii packages with “aptitude search wii | grep ‘^i’”, and found that my machine has “xserver-xorg-input-xwiimote” installed.

Removed it, and the wiimote works as expected in retroarch!

So it seems there is an issue only when xserver-xorg-input-xwiimote is installed. Since other programs (dolphin, xwiishow) work both with and without that package, it would be nice if retroarch could be able to use the wiimote as-is, even if this package is installed.

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