In this guide, you are going to learn how to connect your Xbox Wireless Controller in RetroPie on your Raspberry Pi.
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Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
What You’ll Need
- Raspberry Pi 3
- 8GB MicroSD Card
- Keyboard
- Xbox One Wireless Controller Model “1708” Bluetooth Compatible
NOTE: Before starting this guide you will need to connect your Xbox One Controller to a Windows 10 PC via a USB cable, so your controller receives a firmware update.
Disabling “ERTM” Bluetooth Mode
ERTM stands for Enhanced Re-Transmission Mode and causes issues when trying to connect the Bluetooth Xbox Wireless Controller with Retropie. So let’s disable it!
Once you have booted up you Raspberry Pi into Retropie, you need to press F4 to open up the Command Prompt and type in the following.
sudo nano opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh
Scroll upwards and press Enter to create a line before the emulation station line. Then type in
sudo bash -c 'echo 1 > /sys/module/bluetooth/parameters/disable_ertm'
To save the changes we have just made, press CTRL + X then Y and ENTER
Before we can continue, we need to do a quick reboot by typing
sudo reboot
Connect the Xbox One Wireless Controller
Once Retropie has fully rebooted, you need to go to the Configuration menu.
Go to the Bluetooth menu option.
Now before you choose Register and Connect to Bluetooth Device you need to press the Xbox button on the Wireless Controller.
After a few seconds, the device should appear in the list.
Choose DisplayYesNo as the security mode.
Now you should get the message Successfully Registered and Connected
But wait! The Xbox Wireless Controller is now connected but in order to use it in Retropie, we need to configure the inputs.
Configure Your Controller’s Imput
Back on the Main Retropie screen, we need to get to the Start Menu.
Here we need to choose Configure Imput and select Yes
Press each button as they appear until you’ve matched all of them.
NOTE: Some buttons may not be fully detected the first time around. If that’s the case, when you get to the end on the Input Configuration, scroll back up to the unrecognized buttons and try pressing the correct button again. In most cases, the second time around it works!
Retropie Xbox One Controller Issue Fixed!
Congratulations, you’ve just connected your Xbox One Bluetooth controller to RetroPie and successfully mapped your imput for all your Retrogaming needs.
Do you need a Bluetooth compatible Xbox One Wireless Controller? Check out this huge Xbox Wireless Controller Amazon list!
Did this work for you? Did you have any problems connecting your Xbox One controller to RetroPie? Do you have any suggestions? Then leave a comment down below.
Everything worked fine… except it will not recognize ‘select’ at all. Pressing the select button doesn’t get registered, even if I try and bind it to something other than select. I tried it on my actual Xbox One, to make sure that the select button works, and it does.
Does your select button work properly?
Yes, I have the same problem and I have tried three controller. I think he knew and that why he left that part out of the video
I do mention in the video that if it does happen, go back through the inputs and re-input the buttons that failed 🙂 This is successful for a lot of Xbox One Wireless controller owners 🙂
Here’s someone else with the same issue re: select button. Maybe update your video?
Some people have the issue whilst others don’t. The fix for this is to not press OK at the end of mapping. Instead, go back up to the select button area and re-map it again. This isn’t limited to Xbox One controllers. It’s an issue with a few including 8BitDo. Which means that it’s really a driver issue within RetroPie. If you haven’t updated RetroPie in a while, this could be your fix too 🙂 Hope that helps out
I’ve definitely tried going to the end then scrolling back up but the select button still isn’t mappable, Scrolling back up did work for the right trigger though. Any idea how to get this working?
I was able to get the select button working by updating from a fresh install of 4.3. In the Configuration Menu select “RetroPie Setup” then select “Update”.
Looks like it was fixed in SDL2: https://github.com/RetroPie/SDL-mirror/pull/4
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/5oe7r2/xbox_one_s_controller_suppory/
Right Trigger and Select button does not work with this process, That is why these steps are left out
As stated though, skip these buttons and once you reach the end, go back up the list and re input those buttons. It does work if you do it that way. Just don’t hit OKAY at the end 🙂
Hi, I have this model of Xbox One Gamepad (1708) and I followed all these steps of this tutorial.
But my retropie (4.2.9) console doesn’t detect my Xbox One Controller when I tried to connect with “Register and Connect to Bluetooth device”
Indeed I updated the gamepad firmware and change batteries.
Bluetooth on Rpi3 is working fine. I’m playing with my 8bit NES Bluetooth gamepad with any problem.
Is there any log file that I can see? Or any advice to fix this problem?
Regards!
tip
OK – so here’s something that hints to the “select button” issue people are having – on the “Configure Input” screen, if you press (and hold) the Select button (instead of, say, the A button), the pie actually registers it as “Keyboard”, not as part of the Xbox controller. If you hold it, it actually takes you into the config for your keyboard. Nothing else to report – my triggers dont respond as anything so that kinda sucks.
What if your retropie isn’t recognizing your xbox one s controllers at all? I have followed these instructions but retropie can’t even see the controllers ans just sit at the pairing screen while the controller is in pairing mode blinking.
Can a second controller be added, too?
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