More information: I am using a wired controller (i.e. connected via USB). It occasionally works, but mostly doesn’t (seems unpredictable). The configure input screen says “1 gamepad detected”, but when I hold down a button on it, nothing happens.

Also, I mapped my keyboard so that I can at least use that when the controller isn’t working.

Very interested to hear what might be causing this…

As mentioned above, including a link to the power supply is causing the forum to reject my post. So instead I’ll simply describe it:

– model: DSA-12CA-05
– input: 100-240V ~ 50/60Hz 0.3A
– output: +5V 2A

And here is my dmesg output:

[ 0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0xf00
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct
[ 0.000000] Linux version 4.1.7-v7+ (dc4@dc4-XPS13-9333) (gcc version 4.8.3 20140303 (prerelease) (crosstool-NG linaro-1.13.1+bzr2650 – Linaro GCC 2014.03) ) #817 SMP PREEMPT Sat Sep 19 15:32:00 BST 2015
[ 0.000000] CPU: ARMv7 Processor [410fc075] revision 5 (ARMv7), cr=10c5387d
[ 0.000000] CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
[ 0.000000] Machine model: Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Rev 1.1
[ 0.000000] cma: Reserved 8 MiB at 0x2e800000
[ 0.000000] Memory policy: Data cache writealloc
[ 0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 192512
[ 0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 8085af80, node_mem_map ae156000
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 1692 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 192512 pages, LIFO batch:31
[ 0.000000] [bcm2709_smp_init_cpus] enter (9420->f3003010)
[ 0.000000] [bcm2709_smp_init_cpus] ncores=4
[ 0.000000] PERCPU: Embedded 13 pages/cpu @ae114000 s20608 r8192 d24448 u53248
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s20608 r8192 d24448 u53248 alloc=13*4096
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0 [0] 1 [0] 2 [0] 3
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 190820
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: dma.dmachans=0x7f35 bcm2708_fb.fbwidth=1920 bcm2708_fb.fbheight=1080 bcm2709.boardrev=0xa01041 bcm2709.serial=0x2383402e smsc95xx.macaddr=B8:27:EB:83:40:2E bcm2708_fb.fbswap=1 bcm2709.disk_led_gpio=47 bcm2709.disk_led_active_low=0 sdhci-bcm2708.emmc_clock_freq=250000000 vc_mem.mem_base=0x3dc00000 vc_mem.mem_size=0x3f000000 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait
[ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Memory: 744632K/770048K available (5958K kernel code, 534K rwdata, 1648K rodata, 416K init, 757K bss, 17224K reserved, 8192K cma-reserved)
[ 0.000000] Virtual kernel memory layout:
[ 0.000000] vector : 0xffff0000 – 0xffff1000 ( 4 kB)
[ 0.000000] fixmap : 0xffc00000 – 0xfff00000 (3072 kB)
[ 0.000000] vmalloc : 0xaf800000 – 0xff000000 (1272 MB)
[ 0.000000] lowmem : 0x80000000 – 0xaf000000 ( 752 MB)
[ 0.000000] modules : 0x7f000000 – 0x80000000 ( 16 MB)
[ 0.000000] .text : 0x80008000 – 0x80775cd0 (7608 kB)
[ 0.000000] .init : 0x80776000 – 0x807de000 ( 416 kB)
[ 0.000000] .data : 0x807de000 – 0x80863af4 ( 535 kB)
[ 0.000000] .bss : 0x80866000 – 0x8092378c ( 758 kB)
[ 0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=4, Nodes=1
[ 0.000000] Preemptible hierarchical RCU implementation.
[ 0.000000] Additional per-CPU info printed with stalls.
[ 0.000000] NR_IRQS:608
[ 0.000000] Architected cp15 timer(s) running at 19.20MHz (virt).
[ 0.000000] clocksource arch_sys_counter: mask: 0xffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x46d987e47, max_idle_ns: 440795202767 ns
[ 0.000010] sched_clock: 56 bits at 19MHz, resolution 52ns, wraps every 4398046511078ns
[ 0.000031] Switching to timer-based delay loop, resolution 52ns
[ 0.000322] Console: colour dummy device 80×30
[ 0.002104] console [tty1] enabled
[ 0.002169] Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 38.40 BogoMIPS (lpj=192000)
[ 0.002268] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[ 0.002636] Mount-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[ 0.002703] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[ 0.004038] Initializing cgroup subsys blkio
[ 0.004123] Initializing cgroup subsys memory
[ 0.004193] Initializing cgroup subsys devices
[ 0.004252] Initializing cgroup subsys freezer
[ 0.004329] Initializing cgroup subsys net_cls
[ 0.004439] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
[ 0.004557] ftrace: allocating 20207 entries in 60 pages
[ 0.054155] CPU0: update cpu_capacity 1024
[ 0.054239] CPU0: thread -1, cpu 0, socket 15, mpidr 80000f00
[ 0.054286] [bcm2709_smp_prepare_cpus] enter
[ 0.054449] Setting up static identity map for 0x8240 – 0x8274
[ 0.114040] [bcm2709_boot_secondary] cpu:1 started (0) 17
[ 0.114483] [bcm2709_secondary_init] enter cpu:1
[ 0.114533] CPU1: update cpu_capacity 1024
[ 0.114542] CPU1: thread -1, cpu 1, socket 15, mpidr 80000f01
[ 0.134018] [bcm2709_boot_secondary] cpu:2 started (0) 17
[ 0.134375] [bcm2709_secondary_init] enter cpu:2
[ 0.134406] CPU2: update cpu_capacity 1024
[ 0.134415] CPU2: thread -1, cpu 2, socket 15, mpidr 80000f02
[ 0.154054] [bcm2709_boot_secondary] cpu:3 started (0) 16
[ 0.154310] [bcm2709_secondary_init] enter cpu:3
[ 0.154337] CPU3: update cpu_capacity 1024
[ 0.154345] CPU3: thread -1, cpu 3, socket 15, mpidr 80000f03
[ 0.154439] Brought up 4 CPUs
[ 0.154574] SMP: Total of 4 processors activated (153.60 BogoMIPS).
[ 0.154616] CPU: All CPU(s) started in SVC mode.
[ 0.155622] devtmpfs: initialized
[ 0.180542] VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 2 part 30 variant 7 rev 5
[ 0.180933] clocksource jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[ 0.182104] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[ 0.182947] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[ 0.188760] DMA: preallocated 4096 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations
[ 0.190008] bcm2709.uart_clock = 3000000
[ 0.195308] hw-breakpoint: found 5 (+1 reserved) breakpoint and 4 watchpoint registers.
[ 0.195380] hw-breakpoint: maximum watchpoint size is 8 bytes.
[ 0.195601] Serial: AMBA PL011 UART driver
[ 0.195817] 3f201000.uart: ttyAMA0 at MMIO 0x3f201000 (irq = 83, base_baud = 0) is a PL011 rev2
[ 0.697954] console [ttyAMA0] enabled
[ 0.702212] bcm2835-mbox 3f00b880.mailbox: mailbox enabled
[ 0.776576] bcm2708-dmaengine 3f007000.dma: DMA legacy API manager at f3007000, dmachans=0xf35
[ 0.785339] bcm2708-dmaengine 3f007000.dma: Initialized 7 DMA channels (+ 1 legacy)
[ 0.793750] bcm2708-dmaengine 3f007000.dma: Load BCM2835 DMA engine driver
[ 0.800677] bcm2708-dmaengine 3f007000.dma: dma_debug:0
[ 0.806658] SCSI subsystem initialized
[ 0.810697] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 0.816306] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 0.821796] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 0.827566] raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Attached to firmware from 2015-09-23 12:12
[ 0.863129] Switched to clocksource arch_sys_counter
[ 0.917202] FS-Cache: Loaded
[ 0.920477] CacheFiles: Loaded
[ 0.935313] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[ 0.941009] TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[ 0.948279] TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[ 0.955008] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 8192)
[ 0.961540] UDP hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.967579] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.974410] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[ 0.979351] RPC: Registered named UNIX socket transport module.
[ 0.985345] RPC: Registered udp transport module.
[ 0.990070] RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
[ 0.994845] RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module.
[ 1.002505] hw perfevents: enabled with armv7_cortex_a7 PMU driver, 5 counters available
[ 1.012102] futex hash table entries: 1024 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[ 1.034250] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.6.0
[ 1.038586] VFS: Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 1.048206] FS-Cache: Netfs ‘nfs’ registered for caching
[ 1.054758] NFS: Registering the id_resolver key type
[ 1.059892] Key type id_resolver registered
[ 1.064134] Key type id_legacy registered
[ 1.070983] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 252)
[ 1.078712] io scheduler noop registered
[ 1.082675] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[ 1.088188] io scheduler cfq registered
[ 1.094695] BCM2708FB: allocated DMA memory eec00000
[ 1.099722] BCM2708FB: allocated DMA channel 0 @ f3007000
[ 1.139103] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 240×67
[ 1.166390] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 0 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
[ 1.173504] KGDB: Registered I/O driver kgdboc
[ 1.203959] vc-cma: Videocore CMA driver
[ 1.207970] vc-cma: vc_cma_base = 0x00000000
[ 1.212761] vc-cma: vc_cma_size = 0x00000000 (0 MiB)
[ 1.218288] vc-cma: vc_cma_initial = 0x00000000 (0 MiB)
[ 1.224075] vc-mem: phys_addr:0x00000000 mem_base=0x3dc00000 mem_size:0x3f000000(1008 MiB)
[ 1.248578] brd: module loaded
[ 1.260845] loop: module loaded
[ 1.265240] vchiq: vchiq_init_state: slot_zero = 0xaec80000, is_master = 0
[ 1.274261] Loading iSCSI transport class v2.0-870.
[ 1.280271] usbcore: registered new interface driver smsc95xx
[ 1.286264] dwc_otg: version 3.00a 10-AUG-2012 (platform bus)
[ 1.492486] Core Release: 2.80a
[ 1.495742] Setting default values for core params
[ 1.500664] Finished setting default values for core params
[ 1.706753] Using Buffer DMA mode
[ 1.710141] Periodic Transfer Interrupt Enhancement – disabled
[ 1.716142] Multiprocessor Interrupt Enhancement – disabled
[ 1.721819] OTG VER PARAM: 0, OTG VER FLAG: 0
[ 1.726290] Dedicated Tx FIFOs mode
[ 1.730219] WARN::dwc_otg_hcd_init:1047: FIQ DMA bounce buffers: virt = 0xaec14000 dma = 0xeec14000 len=9024
[ 1.740287] FIQ FSM acceleration enabled for :
[ 1.740287] Non-periodic Split Transactions
[ 1.740287] Periodic Split Transactions
[ 1.740287] High-Speed Isochronous Endpoints
[ 1.757290] dwc_otg: Microframe scheduler enabled
[ 1.757370] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:412: FIQ on core 1 at 0x80401108
[ 1.763409] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:413: FIQ ASM at 0x80401464 length 36
[ 1.769794] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:438: MPHI regs_base at 0xaf89a000
[ 1.775944] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: DWC OTG Controller
[ 1.781046] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[ 1.788549] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: irq 32, io mem 0x00000000
[ 1.799574] Init: Port Power? op_state=1
[ 1.808837] Init: Power Port (0)
[ 1.817691] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[ 1.829862] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[ 1.842439] usb usb1: Product: DWC OTG Controller
[ 1.852460] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 4.1.7-v7+ dwc_otg_hcd
[ 1.863698] usb usb1: SerialNumber: 3f980000.usb
[ 1.874528] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.883639] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[ 1.893307] dwc_otg: FIQ enabled
[ 1.893321] dwc_otg: NAK holdoff enabled
[ 1.893332] dwc_otg: FIQ split-transaction FSM enabled
[ 1.893373] Module dwc_common_port init
[ 1.893767] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 1.905410] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[ 1.917254] bcm2835-cpufreq: min=600000 max=900000
[ 1.927821] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
[ 1.939345] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
[ 1.949450] mmc-bcm2835 3f300000.mmc: mmc_debug:0 mmc_debug2:0
[ 1.960562] mmc-bcm2835 3f300000.mmc: DMA channels allocated
[ 2.003523] sdhci-pltfm: SDHCI platform and OF driver helper
[ 2.019535] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs
[ 2.031089] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[ 2.042061] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 2.053951] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[ 2.065483] Initializing XFRM netlink socket
[ 2.075065] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[ 2.083295] Indeed it is in host mode hprt0 = 00021501
[ 2.098454] Key type dns_resolver registered
[ 2.108512] Registering SWP/SWPB emulation handler
[ 2.119602] registered taskstats version 1
[ 2.129158] vc-sm: Videocore shared memory driver
[ 2.139143] [vc_sm_connected_init]: start
[ 2.149364] [vc_sm_connected_init]: end – returning 0
[ 2.161983] Waiting for root device /dev/mmcblk0p2…
[ 2.176090] mmc0: host does not support reading read-only switch, assuming write-enable
[ 2.191614] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address 59b4
[ 2.203014] mmcblk0: mmc0:59b4 00000 7.35 GiB
[ 2.214379] mmcblk0: p1 p2
[ 2.273173] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using dwc_otg
[ 2.276250] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem
[ 2.276258] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): write access will be enabled during recovery
[ 2.310297] Indeed it is in host mode hprt0 = 00001101
[ 2.513590] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=9514
[ 2.525719] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 2.539150] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 2.548404] hub 1-1:1.0: 5 ports detected
[ 2.833236] usb 1-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using dwc_otg
[ 2.943560] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=ec00
[ 2.955904] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 2.971559] smsc95xx v1.0.4
[ 3.037343] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: register ‘smsc95xx’ at usb-3f980000.usb-1.1, smsc95xx USB 2.0 Ethernet, b8:27:eb:83:40:2e
[ 3.133177] usb 1-1.3: new low-speed USB device number 4 using dwc_otg
[ 3.351518] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=04d9, idProduct=1603
[ 3.363981] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 3.376752] usb 1-1.3: Product: USB Keyboard
[ 3.386380] usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer:
[ 3.444624] input: USB Keyboard as /devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/0003:04D9:1603.0001/input/input0
[ 3.513499] hid-generic 0003:04D9:1603.0001: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [ USB Keyboard] on usb-3f980000.usb-1.3/input0
[ 3.612950] input: USB Keyboard as /devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.1/0003:04D9:1603.0002/input/input1
[ 3.683477] hid-generic 0003:04D9:1603.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Device [ USB Keyboard] on usb-3f980000.usb-1.3/input1
[ 3.793166] usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 3.962474] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=054c, idProduct=0268
[ 3.975333] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 3.988588] usb 1-1.4: Product: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
[ 3.999996] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Sony
[ 4.651718] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): recovery complete
[ 4.680162] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 4.694280] VFS: Mounted root (ext4 filesystem) readonly on device 179:2.
[ 4.709636] devtmpfs: mounted
[ 4.719363] Freeing unused kernel memory: 416K (80776000 – 807de000)
[ 5.783744] udevd[175]: starting version 175
[ 5.949269] random: nonblocking pool is initialized
[ 6.409358] gpiomem-bcm2835 3f200000.gpiomem: Initialised: Registers at 0x3f200000
[ 6.596571] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.20
[ 6.606937] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[ 6.618133] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 6.633269] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 6.645781] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 6.657829] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 6.748825] input: Sony PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller as /devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/1-1.4:1.0/0003:054C:0268.0003/input/input2
[ 6.769773] sony 0003:054C:0268.0003: input,hiddev0,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Joystick [Sony PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller] on usb-3f980000.usb-1.4/input0
[ 8.599061] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): re-mounted. Opts: (null)
[ 8.987813] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): re-mounted. Opts: (null)
[ 13.726073] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: hardware isn’t capable of remote wakeup
[ 15.242148] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0xCDE1
[ 17.557482] Adding 102396k swap on /var/swap. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:102396k SSFS
[ 18.041768] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[ 18.041820] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[ 18.041850] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
[ 18.067519] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[ 18.067547] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[ 18.067573] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[ 18.431981] uart-pl011 3f201000.uart: no DMA platform data