I've never had issues with the 8bitdo Controllers on rpi, Bluetooth or wired, but I found a thread where others solved the same problem. Looks like that particular controller isn't perfectly supported and you need to update xpad and a configuration file.
RetroGaming
Vintage gaming community.
Rules:
- Be kind.
- No spam or soliciting for money.
- No racism or other bigotry allowed.
- Obviously nothing illegal.
If you see these please report them.
I got it working. I wasn't expecting it to be as simple as pasting 2 lines of code into a config file. Still not sure why emulationstation doesn't see them, but at least retroarch does now.
Plus I fixed my issue of emulators not saving. I am SO excited with what I'm building. Every game from my childhood on one machine. Arcade, NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis, N64, PS1, Dreamcast.
It's all here. I turn on one machine, and it's all here! 14 year old me is screaming into a pillow. 41 year old me wants to scream into a pillow, but is responsible enough to not want to wake up the neighbors.
No, seriously......I am legit screaming at what this is.
On Linux, that's usually the case. Finding the config file is the problem. I suspect that's why emulation Station isn't working. I don't know where that's installed, but I'd assume there's another configuration file for ES. It's probably in the home directory, ~. maybe ~/.emulation_station or or ~/.ES. I don't recall, but there will be a file structure similar to the RetroArch tree.
In either case, it would be very kind to post the full solution for the next person.
I'm running RetroPie on a Debian laptop and I'm able to map all the buttons of my 8BitDo Pro 2 controller; no issues at all. I was also able to connect and configure an Xbox 360 controller just fine.
You might want to try getting help on the RetroPie forums if you don't get any luck here.
Two questions:
Are you connecting via USB or Bluetooth?
Do you have a toggle anywhere to put the device into XInput mode?
Bluetooth, and I'll check again when I get home, but I'm almost certain it was already on x-Input.
I suspect it's the latter because with my (chinese knock off) xbox360 controller I can map all of them.
What if you install retropie or mame on your pc and try to map it here? Maybe it's a driver issue