@buzz : That was it! Thanks so much! Now works splendidly (except for the hotkeys for some reason). Have added this in my .cfg file :

input_enable_hotkey_btn = "10"
input_exit_emulator_btn = "11"

and they’re not being triggered (if SELECT + START) are pressed. Will keep on looking :)
Small note though : I had looked in that retroarch.cfg before and tried the options as given :
# Input device driver. (Valid: linuxraw, sdl, dinput)
Confused as the udev option isn’t in that file but it’s present in the menu (which I didn’t know)
What else : didn’t know you were the author so also my genuine thanks for a brilliant distro :)

@hobbswon : Absolutely and yes you can – started out initially with 3.2 and always updated my distro with the 1st option in the Retropie-Setup menu. And currently, the commit is 6b752d1f5cb162e96f519e74b26e70a803a94bae – so just one day old (and thus also 3.4 I think? )
Well, I have had some problems too with my NES30 PRO and not sure if they are similar to your problem but here it goes : the NES30 PRO is finicky : to switch it completely off, I have to press B and POWERON for 3 SECS… Seems it gets sometimes in a “weird” state? After that, I use the NES30 PRO in the 1st ‘state’ (switching it on with just the POWERON button and no other keys are being pressed)
I also updated my NES30 to the latest firmware (1.68 with WII option)
And finally : I had also some problems with ES detecting the NES30 : fixed it with editing the /etc/init.d/rc.local and added this :

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

sudo bluez-test-device remove xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
sudo bluez-simple-agent hci0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
sudo bluez-test-device trusted xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx yes
sudo bluez-test-input connect xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

do_start() {
        if [ -x /etc/rc.local ]; then

Drastic to delete the device first but it does the trick…
Hope it helps?
/dimi