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![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/1f477879-f269-4fc2-805c-3cb0fe552f40.png)
EmuDeck uses EmulationStation, in which I’ve seen a lot of controller-related problems. Controllers working in the menu but not in the emulators. Controllers working in the emulators but not in the menus.
For a dedicated emulation machine, I’ll once again shill for Lakka, that boots LibreELEC directly into RetroArch without EmulationStation, and has bootable installers for multiple configurations of x86_64 machines and images for loads of single-board computers.
Maybe they’ve finally fixed those problems. In Lakka, I set my controller up once (for each unique controller) in RetroArch frontend, and then it works in any emulator core. I don’t think it’s normal to have to set up the controller in each core (but you can, if you want or need to!)