Controller Support?

  • I've been reading the forum all day looking for a reason why none of my controllers are working within LE. Before I moved to LE, I was still on OpenElec and all of my controllers would work (it was an older version, still using Kodi 16). They would control the Kodi menu and work within RetroArch. Now none of my controllers will work!

    LSUSBwill show this:

    Bus 004 Device 003: ID 045e:0291 Microsoft Corp. Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows

    Bus 004 Device 002: ID 045e:028f Microsoft Corp. Xbox360 Wireless Controller

    But none of the buttons respond, at all. When I'm using the configure controller settings to map a controller, none of the buttons do anything. I read in one post that Kodi changed the way they handle inputs, but I'm also seeing several posts where people say they got it working, just no where am I finding out how, or if there's some setting I missed along the way.

    The primary controller I'd like to use is a Wireless Xbox 360 controller with the USB dongle, but I do also have a PS3 controller, and a few Xbox One controllers, I really don't care which controller I can get to work, I just would like it to recognize any controller!

    I really do appreciate anyone taking the time to read this and help!

  • I use a Logitech F710 which is similar to an XBOX360 controller.

    Firstly you will also need a keyboard to SET the controller.

    In the Input-> Controller menu select "Kodi" from the left hand side with the keyboard. Then when the countdown timer starts on the "A" button, select that button on the controller. If all goes well it will move to "B", "X", "Y" etc. If one of the buttons fails, just select it again with the keyboard and try again.

    If nothing happens, check cat .kodi/temp/kodi.log for something like inpiut/jr0 not found. If that is the case restart Kodi with systemctl restart kodi.

    Also I have found that if a button is not pressed on the controller during boot, LE will fail to recognise the controller, so if rebooting hit a button a number of times.

  • What version of LE and what is it running on ? (your hardware)

    I'm glad you asked that, cause I never realized that my system didn't auto update, I was still on 8.2.2 but then I manually updated to 8.2.3 and nothing changed at all.


    I use a Logitech F710 which is similar to an XBOX360 controller.

    Firstly you will also need a keyboard to SET the controller.

    In the Input-> Controller menu select "Kodi" from the left hand side with the keyboard. Then when the countdown timer starts on the "A" button, select that button on the controller. If all goes well it will move to "B", "X", "Y" etc. If one of the buttons fails, just select it again with the keyboard and try again.

    If nothing happens, check cat .kodi/temp/kodi.log for something like inpiut/jr0 not found. If that is the case restart Kodi with systemctl restart kodi.

    Also I have found that if a button is not pressed on the controller during boot, LE will fail to recognise the controller, so if rebooting hit a button a number of times.

    In the Settings -> Input section, I'm not sure if it matters, but "Peripherals" is grayed out.

    Also, back when I was on Openelec and configuring RetroArch to work, I was doing a lot of customizing to get my Xbox 360 controllers to identify themselves (the lights surrounding the Xbox button, the player 1 light, player 2, etc) and after a lot of trial and error, I did finally get that to work. But I could never get my Xbox One controller to work (it's a wireless controller with the USB cable connected, the same way I use this controller on the PC). But now when I connect either of these controllers, the lights just blink and the Xbox One controller will eventually just turn off.

    When I go to configure the controller, I select "Kodi" from the left hand side, and that takes me to the "button A" section, and no matter what I press on my controller, nothing happens. I've tried both controllers.

    There is nothing in the kodi.temp log about anything that I can tell is related to controller inputs at all, I can't even see in there anything that even attempted to map my controllers.

    Finally, I did try pressing buttons during boot, and it didn't change anything.

    I am open to try anything and everything! Thanks for both of you for helping thus far!

  • Small update, when I connect my PS3 controller via USB, it connects immediately and controls my system. I would still prefer to get my Xbox 360 controllers working though, so I can use multiple controllers, but at least this is a start!

  • Does the wireless USB Receiver (dongle) have an LED (showing power or connect status) ? You still haven't told us what PC you have Libreelec running on. Is it an Intel NUC, Raspberry Pi, or maybe a toaster oven (lol).

  • Does the wireless USB Receiver (dongle) have an LED (showing power or connect status) ? You still haven't told us what PC you have Libreelec running on. Is it an Intel NUC, Raspberry Pi, or maybe a toaster oven (lol).

    The dongle does have an LED power light, that flashes for a bit when I first connect it, then stays solidly lit after a few seconds (which is supposed to indicate it's connected). And this current system (I have 3 total currently installed) is a Gateway One ZX6961-UR20P, with the following specs:

    Intel Core i3 (2nd Gen) 2100 / 3.1 GHz

    Dual-Core

    Intel H67 Express

    2GB Ram

    Nothing fancy, it was an old computer that the screen shattered, and I've had Kodi installed on it ever since. I also have a custom built PC in another room that I'm having the same issue on, but that TV currently has a SteamLink installed on it, so I can use that to play games.

    P.S. If you can get Kodi installed on a toaster, you'll be my hero!

  • A lot of older hardware lost support in newer versions of OE and LE. Maybe your Wireless USB dongle is no longer supported. You would have to check with a developer if that's the case.

    The XBox 360 was first released in 2005 according to wiki

    Xbox 360 - Wikipedia

    Edited once, last by blueribb (February 26, 2018 at 8:04 PM).

  • A lot of older hardware lost support in newer versions of OE and LE. Maybe your Wireless USB dongle is no longer supported. You would have to check with a developer if that's the case.

    The XBox 360 was first released in 2005 according to wiki

    Xbox 360 - Wikipedia

    I would completely understand if that were the case for this particular installation, but my other HTPC that I'm having the exact same issue with, is a much much more modern system, the mobo was built in late 2016.

    I'm not sure if this matters, but neither of these systems are pure LE installs, they had OE installed since OE was still on Frodo, and I switched from OE to LE via manual upgrade to get to the current version between Jarvis and Krypton (I think lol).

    When I search the forum and google in general, I've seen other posts from people saying the same thing as me, but most of those posts were never replied to. Based on the PS3 controller just working, and I can't get any response from the Xbox controllers, I'm guessing that the dongle isn't being recognized. I just don't know how to confirm that.

  • I have an idea. Install a much older version of Libreelec and see if the controller is recognized. If it is, that would confirm the newer versions have dropped support for it.

  • I have this PC sitting in the corner that I'll install it on later to confirm this. Do you suspect they dropped support for the Wireless USB dongle in general, or they dropped support in older chipsets?

  • There is a similar thread about an older wireless USB Network device no longer working in recent versions of LE. I'm sure there are newer devices not yet supported in LE but they may be in the future.