Gamepad doesn't work with barrier connected but not active

[leewiscovitch]

I have a barrier server (My laptop) and a barrier client (My emulation box). Both are running linux (Pop_OS! 22.04) and while I had to make the client use x11 instead of wayland it's been fine for the most part. The goal is to have my emulation box connected to my HDTV and has just a bluetooth gamepad connected to it. With the software (EmulationStation-DE) I was able to navigate everything fine during my initial test.

However once I deployed it, I noticed that if barrier is connected, but my laptop is active, the gamepad on the emulation box doesn't work. It connects, but only once I move the mouse cursor from the server to the client does it actually work/respond.

Any thoughts/suggestions? I really don't plan on using barrier too much, but there are always times when you need to muck around and my goal was to just use my laptop from the couch to do that stuff. I didn't see any obvious options for that in either server or client...I get it if it's not possible, just hope there is some hidden setting/feature to make this work.

Thanx in advance!!!

[leewiscovitch]

FYI, I tried stopping the server and it doesn't allow the client to use the gamepad...I was hoping with the server off the client would be in limbo and allow the gamepad to work.

[leewiscovitch]

The plot thickens...Looks like it's only when running a game through retroarch...If I start a Switch game which is using standalone Yuzu emulator then I don't see this behavior...I'll start barking up that tree and update this when I have more info.