Note 5 & Xbox360 wireless controller won't work

[ThomasKK]

Hello,

Yesterday i've bought a wireless xbox 360 controller with wireless USB adapter. I tried it on my PC and it worked flawlessly - all games are responsive and auto-detect my controller. But it's a different story with my phone, i saw people connecting x360 controllers to their android devices too so i decided to do the same.

I own a Galaxy Note 5 (rooted, note7/S7edge port ROM & custom kernel). Before i've been using a cheap (~7$) controller, but most of the games did not recognize it, even if they did, the key mapping was really bad and not all of the buttons work.

When i connect the receiver through OTG cable to my Note5 and pair it with the x360 wireless controller, it keeps flashing (it is paired), but the phone does not recognize it - i cannot interact with the screen using the controller buttons (although with mouse/keyboard/cheap-controller it works).

I found out that i only had a USB wired xbox360 controller .kl and .kcm files in /system/usr/keylayout and keychar folders, so i found some guides -> i copied these files (changed the product number to Wireless X360 controller's) using "Terminal Emulator for android" with super user access and gave them specific permissions (chmod 644). I also checked if the permissions were granted ("ls -l" command) and restarted my phone. According to all of the guides, it should work after these steps but i still can't use the controller - it keeps flashing and is not recognized. Are there other steps/guides or maybe something i should know about Galaxy Note5 and Xbox 360 wireless controller connection?

I'm really desperate after 0% of success. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: I just checked this setup with my old HTC One M7 and it worked from the first time. I'm using official USB receiver and controllers that are all of Microsoft brand.I really would like to hear that it is also possible with my newer Note 5.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I found this: https://www.se7ensins.com/forums/threads/how-to-use-xbox-controllers-on-your-android-device.882265/

Perhaps that will help?

 

[ThomasKK]

Thanks for the answer, but i've already done everything what the page you suggested tells me to. The thing is, my smartphone should recognize the controller, but have problems in-games (spinning camera). This guide helps to fix bugs like spinning camera in-games, but at first, phone has to detect a controller, which in my case does not. I started to think about, maybe Note 5 does not support Xbox360 controllers? but i can't find an exact answer to this question.

I've also tested LG G3 -> controller is recognized almost instantly, note 10.1 2014 wifi edition - same as my note 5 - not recognized at all.

 

[Golfdriver97]

When you connect the OTG, do you get a notification for Marshmallow saying something like device connected?

 

[ThomasKK]

!!! I SOLVED THE PROBLEM AND MADE MY GALAXY NOTE 5 NATIVELY SUPPORT XBOX360 WIRELESS CONTROLLER !!!
(S6 & S6 EDGE & S6 EDGE PLUS INCLUDED & AND BY NATIVE I MEAN WITHOUT ANY KEYMAPPING APPS LIKE USB/BT)

First, i would like to thank you, Golfdriver97, for your efforts.

And now to everyone who has a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and have problems connecting Xbox 360 USB or Wireless controller, i would like to share my solution, just to save time for some people with a similar problem.

If you have an older device, it's easy and there are many tutorials out there, but for people like me that have a newer Samsung's smartphone like Note 5, S6/edge/active etc. there is one thing you need to know - these devices no longer have native support for wireless xbox360 controller. After hours of searching, testing keymapping applications, editing system's key input files, creating and exploring them, i tried to install xbox360 driver module by myself, but my system (through Terminal Emulator) would not let me do that. After all that "trying" to make it work and some more googling i found out that the problem actually is not here. The real problem is the Kernel. The Kernel is the thing that controls everything on your device. So, i spent a couple of minutes searching for a Kernel that has full xbox 360 support and i came up with arter97's Kernel (I will post links in the end). A fact worth mentioning is that i have a Note7 Port ROM installed on my Note5 and that was where i made a mistake, i soft bricked my Note7. Before i've been using Minotaurus V10 custom ROM and Infinity v1.0 Kernel. Important info: I updated only my Kernel and left ROM, my data and apps untouched. At the first try i downloaded arte97's Kernel for the Note5 (n920cig) and soft-bricked the phone, i let it boot up, but that took ~35mins and was still loading, i couldn't turn off my phone (solution: there was samsung logo on the screen flashing and power button didn't work > i was able to enter download mode > select "No" which leads to reboot my phone > from there enter recovery and restore backup i've created before using TWRP recovery - that's how you un-soft-brick your phone). After this accident i found that the arte97 has a specific Kernel edition for galaxy Note5 that has Note7 Port rom installed, which was my case, so i gave it another shot, downloaded the Kernel (-N7/Grace UI Port'ed edition for N5) and the first boot-up took around 2-3minutes. The device works just like before switching Kernels, fast and smooth. Time to test the xbox360 controller - BOOM! it connects instantly allowing me to interact with the screen (using microsoft xbox360 wireless controller & official microsoft xbox360 USB receiver). I open up the game (Riptide GP2) and everything works without any adjustments, i checked the controls, the game automatically shows the image of a x360 controller. I also had "Dead Trigger 2" installed - same story, i can assign any button to do any action in the game. I've finally achieved what i was trying to do! (by the way, when the controller is connected the lights around xbox logo aren't flashing, but instead it looks the same as it was connected to the console - only one quarter of the light is green without flashing and it stays like that until i unplug the receiver from my phone)

Here are the links i've been using:
My OS: https://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/development/rom-minotaurusrom-v1-note7-port-t3461731

Arter97's Kernel with native xbox360 controller support (I upgraded my Note5 to the v22.0 version):
XDA-Developers page: https://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/development/arter97-kernel-galaxy-note-5-t3189907
Official page (there is a link to this page in the xda page): arter97's Android studio

I have also have had these files installed on my phone before changing kernels (Vendor_045e_Product_0291 = wired x360 controller, Product_0719 = wireless, so i've created a .kl file with number 0719 and i downloaded a key character mapping file for x360 wireless, which ends with .kcm):
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=29232978#post29232978

Before changing Kernels i made it work using USB/BT app. All the buttons were working using an older version of USB/BT, but the problem was that it was not comfortable enough for me (having to change keyboard every time & stick directions are registered as buttons, so in first person shooting games you can't aim slowly, it always goes at the same fast speed). If you are like me and want to use xbox360 wireless controller like "plug and play", you gotta check this thing with Kernels (^^), if you don't want to risk and think the emulator will be OK, i will leave a link to a USB/BT Joystick center tutorial bellow. (The guy in the video is using Galaxy S6 active, but my Note 5 also worked, so any other S6 will work)

https://youtu.be/I9fvLZMd9bE

Hope this helps!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Glad everything is working out. Thanks for posting the solution, as well.

 

[ThomasKK]

No problem, sir! I'm also happy to have made this unsupported setup work and after all i feel like a real [ https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KEkrWRHCDQU/maxresdefault.jpg ]

I have also tested Minecraft and some Telltale games (Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead to be exact) - the controllers are recognized instantly and i can 100% enjoy plug&play experience. These games work absolutely the same just like on my xbox 360 console, the controls and bindings of the controller are the same.

Sure, just wanted to help people that have the same problem with newer devices, because there was no place i could find everything in one place, i will be happy if someone finds this useful