Thank you very much! I had the same problem (installed RetroPie on top of Xubuntu 18.04 LTS 32 bit on top of an old Asus EEE PC. Took me some time but finally RP installed fine.
However, ES gave me the white screen. Based on your advice I found out it was caused by the same issue, the GPU not supporting OpenGL 2.
After following up your advice, ES starts just fine. As such this EEE system has a new life: a retro gaming station! Awesome!!!!