If you like retro-gaming you probably came across RetroPie, which allows to turn your Raspberry Pi into a retro-gaming machine.
RetroPie supports game-controllers of many different brands, however it can be difficult to configure them, especially if you chose a wireless (bluetooth) controller. I decided for a wireless Sony PS3 controller and purchased a pair of “compatible” devices from Aliexpress a.k.a. Gasia/Shanwan clones.
The RetroPie Wiki provides some useful information on how to pair these controllers with a bluetooth dongle. At the moment RetroPie supports PS3 controllers using the sixad daemon, which is part of the QtSixA package.
The QtSixA Sixaxis Joystick Manager can connect PS3 hardware, but it takes over bluez/ bluetoothd service and other bluetooth devices, so that keyboards or mice can’t connect when sixad is active.
Thus, I was wondering why there is no ‘native’ bluez support for PS3 devices. A Google search revealed that bluez comes with a ‘sixaxis’ plugin supporting only “genuine” PS3 controllers. However, I found on the gmane mailing list that bluez patches are currently under development, but none of them made it into an official or main developer branch, yet.
BlueZ PS3 support using the Sixaxis plugin
Fortunately Szymon Janc, one of the bluez developers, provided some patches for the OpenELEC.tv Mediacenter. [Update: 2016-09-28] However, development of OpenELEC.tv seems to be dead, since there were no updates for quite a while. Therefore, I do not expect that patches supporting other PS3 clones will be released soon.
Here is a short tutorial on how to use these patches for RetroPie and to fix the annoying PS3 Shanwan/Gasia pairing problem:
Hi Thiago,
thank you for your elaborate answer. I decided not to publish your instructions here, because they mainly
deal with the sixad daemon, which already works very well on the Retro Pi distribution. Since I wanted to use
my PS3 controller at the same time as my BT keyboard and mouse, I started to work on the patched bluez version.
However, I think that your instructions are quite useful for sixad/Retro Pi users. Therefore, I’d suggest to
post your tutorial at the Retro Pi forum. Thank you!
/luetzel
Hello everyone. Thank you for that great work. I have a little problem with detecting my PS3 Controller. When i try to get informations about my Controller, dmesg shows nothing about my controller. I use “dmes | grep input” command, but only my keyboard will displayed. What i am doing wrong?
Hi Andreas,
what does dmesg say if it is wired via USB to your Pi? Does it rumble? If not, you probably got a faulty controller …
Cheers,
/luetzel
Hi luetzel, I have a new problem for another image I’m trying to fix. At step 5, I downloaded and extracted QtSixA but: pi@retropie:/QtSixA-1.5.1 $ patch -p1 < compilation_sid.patch patching file sixad/shared.h pi@retropie:/QtSixA-1.5.1 $ sudo make make -C qtsixa make[1]: Entering directory '/QtSixA-1.5.1/qtsixa' pyuic4 -o ./gui/ui_qtsixa_mainw.py ./gui/ui/qtsixa_mainw.ui make[1]: pyuic4: Command not found Makefile:7: recipe for target 'build' failed make[1]: *** [build] Error 127 make[1]: Leaving directory '/QtSixA-1.5.1/qtsixa' Makefile:6: recipe for target 'build' failed make: *** [build] Error 2 pi@retropie:/QtSixA-1.5.1 $ make make -C qtsixa make[1]: Entering directory '/QtSixA-1.5.1/qtsixa' pyuic4 -o ./gui/ui_qtsixa_mainw.py ./gui/ui/qtsixa_mainw.ui make[1]: pyuic4: Command not found Makefile:7: recipe for… Read more »
Hi Matt,
make sure to have the required header files installed. QtSixA depends as its name suggests on QT libraries.
“sudo apt-get install python-qt4 pyqt4-dev-tools qt4-designer” should solve your problem.
/luetzel
The link could be corrupt:
After this operation, 123 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Err http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main libgstreamer1.0-0 armhf 1.4.4-2
404 Not Found [IP: 93.93.128.193 80]
You probably have to do “sudo apt-get update” first. Or check with “sudo aptitude search libgstreamer” for the proper package name.
I have problems with step 4
pi@retropie: /bluez $ make -j3
Make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. stop
Hi Matt,
make sure to execute “make” while being within the bluez directory which you have downloaded (“cd bluez”).
Cheers,
/luetzel
Unfortunately it does not depend on the directory. Cd bluez and i send the command ./configure –prefix = / usr –mandir = / usr / share / man –sysconfdir = / etc –localstatedir = / var –enable-sixaxis starts checking and in the last Line I have this error: configure: error: libical is required. From the blues folder i write make -j3 but the answer is makefile not found…
You are simply missing some header files (dependencies) for compilation of the package. Please run:
sudo apt-get install libdbus-1-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libglib2.0-dev libical-dev libreadline-dev libudev-dev libusb-dev
Then, run ./configure –prefix=/usr –mandir=/usr/share/man –sysconfdir=/etc –localstatedir=/var –enable-sixaxis again,
which will generate the desired makefile.
Cheers,
/luetzel
Connected! You’re great. Thank you very much
Pairing accomplished!!! You have been very kind. thank you so much
Hi Luetzel, I am trying to connect a shanwan ps3 gamepad to my old laptop running Ubuntu 16.04. The gamepad seems to be stuck in some reconnection loop. All LEDs blink continuously but never settle on a number.
This is the hcidump after disconnecting: https://pastebin.com/a6WmTX5E The log repeats itself as the gamepad keeps trying to connect and disconnect.
Sixpair works fine and correctly shows the device: https://pastebin.com/88em69qy
The same gamepad connects to a rPi3 running retropie so the controller should be working fine. Any ideas what is going on?
Hi Dan, I strongly recommend to upgrade blueZ to version 5.44 since it contains a lot of fixes. According to your dump, you have blueZ 5.37 installed. Not sure if it is related to your problem, but you could try to play with settings in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf. The behavior of your controller appears to be a “connection timeout issue” during pairing. You could try to set DiscoverableTimeout = 0 and PairableTimeout = 0 in main.conf, so that your BT dongle remains visible to your controller during the pairing process. Make sure that your BT is in discoverable mode by adding ‘hciconfig… Read more »
Thanks for the help! I finally figured out what went wrong. There were issues with my laptop’s broadcom bluetooth. After getting a bluetooth dongle, I finally managed to connect my ds3 controllers wirelessly
I managed to get more fake controllers. This time its a SZMY-POWER CO.,LTD. PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller. Unlike the panhai garbage, this one has a working tilt/accelerometer sensors!
It works great over cable and jstest can read all the axis including the tilt+accel. Unfortunately, it doesnt work with bluez. I managed to connect wirelessly with retropie’s “shanwan” ps3 driver but the tilt sensor no longer shows up. The controller definitely broadcasts tilt data. When logging bt data with hcidump -R, the values change as I rotate the controller. Is there a way to get bluez working with this controller?
AFAIK there are no functional patches for bluez available. It probably requires some reverse engineering in order
to modify the sixaxis plugin for bluez.
Cheers,
/luetzel
How can I do that?
In case that it shows version 5.23, reboot the system and check it again. If it still shows the wrong version, you must change your
–prefix=/usr
./configure option to the installation path of your distribution’s bluez package.
Hi Julian,” lists all files of the bluez package. With “rpm based distributions, do: “rpm -qlp ” and on Arch “pacman -Qlq “. Be aware that name might differ between distributions. Cheers /luetzel
whats your distribution? You should check the path of your distribution’s bluez and adjust the –prefix accordingly. On Debian based distributions, “dpkg-query -L
Hi Luetzel! Thanks for all the time you are spending with this. I have similar problem with a SHANWAN controller as some of the other commenters before: the controller connects, but it simple won’t pair. From bluetoothctl: [NEW] Controller A0:2C:36:6F:24:16 raspberrypi [default] [NEW] Device 05:37:96:52:63:25 PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller [bluetooth]# info 05:37:96:52:63:25 Device 05:37:96:52:63:25 Name: PLAYSTATION(R)3Conteroller-PANHAI Alias: PLAYSTATION(R)3Conteroller-PANHAI Class: 0x000540 Icon: input-keyboard Paired: no Trusted: yes Blocked: no Connected: no LegacyPairing: no [CHG] Device 05:37:96:52:63:25 Connected: yes [PLAYSTATION(R)3Conteroller-PANHAI]# pair 05:37:96:52:63:25 Attempting to pair with 05:37:96:52:63:25 Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AuthenticationFailed [CHG] Device 05:37:96:52:63:25 Connected: no Sixpair: pi@raspberrypi:~/QtSixA-1.5.1/utils/bins $ sudo ./sixpair Current Bluetooth master:… Read more »
Hi ferenczb,
I noticed that your hcidump reports version 5.23. Since hcidump is part of bluez (located within the patched source under bluez/tools), I believe that something went wrong during your installation. Did you forget “sudo make install” after compilation? Here hcidump -v shows that version 5.43 is installed. You can check with “sudo service bluetooth status” whether the correct bluez version (5.44) is up and running.
Cheers,
/luetzel
Hello, I get to step 4, I just cloned your Already patched version, and first line works but make -j3 doesn’t work nor does sudo make install. I also get this when doing service status pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo service bluetooth status ● bluetooth.service – Bluetooth service Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2017-02-18 11:32:46 MST; 38min ago Docs: man:bluetoothd(8) Process: 1362 ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd (code=exited, status=203/EXEC) Main PID: 1362 (code=exited, status=203/EXEC) Feb 18 11:32:46 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth service… Feb 18 11:32:46 raspberrypi systemd[1]: bluetooth.service: main process exited, …EC Feb 18 11:32:46 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Failed to start Bluetooth… Read more »
Please make sure to have build-essentials and header files installed. If you need further support, drop a line to webmaster_at_raspberryblog.de
Thank you for that I got almost to the end here. I know the rest just need it to connect. So I did an hcidump and it looks good. Handshake success connection complete. Sixpair shows same address for current and setting master which is my RPi3 bt mac. First it was the aa:aa etc so I did what was advised then this shows up so I figure I’ll try sudo Bluetoothctl instead. I did trust on Gasia Ps gamepad that says Playstation(R)3 controller. It says conceded yes. I enter pair and get authCancel. It shows up in emulationstation with USB… Read more »
Not sure if it is related to your problem, but you can try to play with settings in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf. The behavior of your controller appears to be a “connection timeout issue” during pairing. You could try to set DiscoverableTimeout = 0 and PairableTimeout = 0 in main.conf, so that your BT dongle remains visible to your controller during the pairing process. Unfortunately, I do not own any Gasia controllers and therefore cannot reproduce this issue.
They are both at 0. I did see that in previous comment. I don’t think it timesout because it did say success and all green in hcidump. Maybe faulty controller is my only conclusion. I was also unsuccessful at pc and Ubuntu pairing using all available solutions. I did get it to Bluetooth pair a few times with scl on pc but it will rumble forever with light 1 on. So my only conclusion is possible faulty bluetooth on gamepad. Cheers
Hello again. So i finally got it to work and the solution was simple. One was I didn’t do sudo CHMOD 755 sixpair and move it. But, I totally forgot about the little Reset button on the back. After deleting trust mac of PS3, rebooting and then starting over to pair and trust, it was successful. All i did was hold that down with PS button for 30 seconds. First time I just tapped it and it connected but no input was detected so I held it before disconnecting usb then hitting PS button and success. I did dmesg and… Read more »
Excellent! Wasn’t aware that there is a reset button, because I never needed to reset my controller. In fact it is also present on my Shanwan clones. However, it is a very tiny hole and hard to see on the backside. The reset button deep inside can be reached with a paperclip.
Hello, So I tried everything in your guide on my rp3 with retropie 4.1. , Had all sort of issues mentioned in here along the way witch I managed to sort out thanks to your advice. I did all of that on a fresh install, and my Gasia Controller still doesn’t pair. When I do “hcidump -x” I get this: > HCI Event: Connect Request (0x04) plen 10 bdaddr 00:26:5C:10:1D:B6 class 0x000540 type ACL > HCI Event: Command Status (0x0f) plen 4 Accept Connection Request (0x01|0x0009) status 0x00 ncmd 1 > HCI Event: Connect Complete (0x03) plen 11 status 0x08… Read more »
Howdy, not sure if it is related to your problem, but you can try to play with the settings in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf. Since your debugging output complains about a “connection timeout”, you could try to set DiscoverableTimeout = 0 and PairableTimeout = 0, so that your BT dongle remains visible for your controller during the pairing process. Unfortunately, I do not own any Gasia controllers and therefore cannot reproduce your issue.
It seems to be connected but the device just keep blinking and I get no input.
Any tips ? Here is the log :
kernel: input: Gasia Co.,Ltd PS(R) Gamepad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0/0003:054C:0268.0028/input/input44
kernel: sony 0003:054C:0268.0028: input,hiddev0,hidraw3: USB HID v1.11 Joystick [Gasia Co.,Ltd PS(R) Gamepad] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2/input0
bluetoothd[821]: sixaxis: compatible device connected: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller (054C:0268)
bluetoothd[821]: sixaxis: setting up new device
kernel: usb 2-2: USB disconnect, device number 13
kernel: input: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.1/usb3/3-2/3-2:1.0/bluetooth/hci0/hci0:69/0005:054C:0268.0029/input/input45
kernel: sony 0005:054C:0268.0029: input,hidraw3: BLUETOOTH HID v0.00 Joystick [PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller] on 00:1a:7d:da:71:04
bluetoothd[821]: sixaxis: compatible device connected: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller (054C:0268)
It is known that some compatible controllers keep blinking even if pairing is successful. Did you check with jstest, whether your controller is recognized as input device?