8Bitdo Wireless Controller

Note: The following guide was tested with a 8Bitdo NES30 Pro Controller.

8Bitdo controllers won’t pair automatically. You will have to use the command line interface to pair them the first time.

Enabling bluetooth

Enable bluetooth in Settings → Services.

If you want to check that the service is active:

systemctl status bluetooth

You should see something like this:

● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2015-04-07 19:37:50 UTC; 1s ago
 Main PID: 489 (bluetoothd)
   Status: "Running"
   CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
           └─489 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

If you get this message:

● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
Condition: start condition failed at Tue 2015-04-07 19:35:48 UTC; 1min 59s ago
           ConditionPathExists=/storage/.cache/services/bluez.conf was not met

Try to manually enable and start bluetooth service:

systemctl enable bluetooth
systemctl start bluetooth

Check again if the service is active. (with the commands from above)

If bluetooth is still inactive you have to create the config file, and restart the service:

touch /storage/.cache/services/bluez.conf
systemctl start bluetooth

Pairing the controller

Launch bluetoothctl

bluetoothctl

A bluetooth prompt will appear. Type the following:

agent on
default-agent
power on
discoverable on
pairable on
scan on

Power on your 8Bitdo Controller in Mode 1. You will see output in your terminal similar to this:

Discovery started
[CHG] Controller B8:27:EB:48:30:22 Discovering: yes
[NEW] Device E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D 8Bitdo NES30 Pro

To authorize the 8Bitdo controller copy the device address (e.g. E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D) and type the following:

connect <device_addr>

You should see something like this:

[bluetooth]# connect E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D
Attempting to connect to E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D
[CHG] Device E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D Connected: yes
[CHG] Device E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D Modalias: usb:v3820p0009d0100
[CHG] Device E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D UUIDs: 00001124-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
[CHG] Device E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D UUIDs: 00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
[CHG] Device E4:17:D8:3E:6A:7D Paired: yes
Connection successful

If the connection fails because the controller already powered-off just power it on and try the connect command again.

Now trust the device:

trust <device_addr>

You’re done.

Common issues

• Make sure the battery on the controller is decently charged.
• If the controller had been previously paired with another device, you might need to press the reset button (look in the controller manual).

• If the controller is not reconnecting after a reboot/shutdown it usually means the pairing didn’t stick. Try to manually pair the controller with the following command:

  pair <device_addr>
  

Configuring the controller

If the autoconfiguration does not work, you can manually configure your controller via the Input menu within Lakka’s settings.