Bug#1034583: kodi-game-libretro: Joystick input doesn't work in games

[Jonathan McDowell]

Control: reassign -1 src:libretro-bsnes-mercury

On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 09:44:57PM +0000, Hugh Cole-Baker wrote:
> In Kodi 20 in Debian testing, game addons don't seem to receive any input from
> a USB game controller.
> 
> I have an attached USB game controller (VID 2dc8, PID 9001, 8Bitdo NES30 Pro)
> which is working OK to control the user interface in Kodi to navigate menus,
> etc, but when I launch a game in Kodi, the game doesn't receive any input from
> the controller. The Kodi UI still seems to receive game controller input while
> the game is running, for example I can press Select+Start to exit the game,
> or hold Start to bring up the Kodi game settings menu, but the actual game
> can't be controlled at all.
> 
> This is a regression from the previous version, since I had the same game
> controller working with the libretro-based game addons in Kodi 19 on Bullseye.

There was no kodi-game-libretro that was part of Bullseye, so I think
that must have been from an external repository.

> I have mapped the buttons in Kodi's settings for both the default type of
> controller (named "Kodi" in the UI) and the "Super Nintendo" control scheme,
> and have tested and found this problem with the libretro
> "kodi-game-libretro-bsnes-mercury-performance" Debian package, but also with
> other libretro addons I've built locally, so I don't think it's specific to
> any single libretro game addon, and the controller works fine in other Kodi
> UI, so kodi-game-libretro seemed like the most appropriate package to report
> the bug against.

I can't comment on the local addons you've tried, but I've managed to
reproduce this and the issue is with the
kodi-game-libretro-bsnes-mercury-* packages. They are failing to
install the buttonmap.xml into the correct subdirectory; I think what's
happened is my testing left around a buttonmap.xml in the correct
place, which is why I never noticed.

Try:

sudo mv /usr/share/kodi/addons/game.libretro.bsnes-mercury-performance/buttonmap.xml /usr/share/kodi/addons/game.libretro.bsnes-mercury-performance/resources/

which will move the button map into the correct location.

> Some things I've noticed that could be useful info:
> - if I hold Start while a game is running in the BSNES emulator, and go into
>   Settings->Controls, the Kodi UI shows "Super Nintendo" under the controller
>   profile, and a picture of a SNES gamepad, but under the list of "Buttons"
>   it says "Nothing to map". I'd sorta expect the SNES gamepad buttons to be
>   listed there.

The controller mapping needs to be done in the main Kodi configuration
screen: System -> Input -> Configure attached controllers. You should
see "Super Nintendo" listed there.

J.

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