Retropie x86 on a laptop help

[abzstrak]

So, I decided to use my old alienware laptop (M17X R4 with a i7-3920xm and GTX 680m) for use for retropie as my rpi 3 just can't handle n64 and other games despite overclocking the crap out of it :)

I should preface by saying my experience with retropie was pretty much just prebuilt images for my raspberry pi...I am familiar with Linux though, it's been my primary OS for 15 years.

So it looked like the best bet was to install lubuntu 19.10, get nvidia working properly for the 680M in the system, make sure to get hdmi audio and all that working then install retropie as a user named pi. I did these things, all looks good... but, I am having trouble with output on mupen stuff for n64.

Due to the nature of the way this alienware is wired to the intel onboard, I used a mini-dp to hdmi adapter in order to access the nvidia chipset as directly as possible. Without this, I cannot get hdmi audio or stop tearing issues....This is a hardware issue, doesn't matter the OS on the system.

If I use libretro, output isn't an issue, however when trying to use anything else, the output only comes out on the laptop screen in the bottom left. I have forced all output to the nvidia in ubuntu and all to the dp port, and yet this continues. I've used xandr to for all to the dp port, nothing changes. I've tried setting the emulator to the dp port, but it seems to ignore me... I'm really getting frustrated and could use some guidance/help.

[mitu]

What's the output of xrandr --query in your current configuration ?

From your description, it looks like your laptop is capable of using both GPUs at the same time (i.e. Nvidia Optimus ?) - is that correct ?

[abzstrak]

@mitu
yeah, it's optimus. Here is the output

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 800mm x 450mm
   3840x2160     30.00 +  29.97    23.98  
   4096x2160     29.97    24.00    23.98  
   1920x1080     60.00*   59.94    29.97    23.98  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1360x768      60.02  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94    29.97    23.97  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    72.19    60.32  
   720x480       59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    59.94    59.93  
LVDS-1-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 382mm x 215mm
   1920x1080     60.01*+  60.01    59.97    59.96    59.93  
   1680x1050     59.95    59.88  
   1600x1024     60.17  
   1400x1050     59.98  
   1600x900      59.99    59.94    59.95    59.82  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1400x900      59.96    59.88  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1440x810      60.00    59.97  
   1368x768      59.88    59.85  
   1360x768      59.80    59.96  
   1280x800      59.99    59.97    59.81    59.91  
   1152x864      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00    59.99    59.86    59.74  
   1024x768      60.04    60.00  
   960x720       60.00  
   928x696       60.05  
   896x672       60.01  
   1024x576      59.95    59.96    59.90    59.82  
   960x600       59.93    60.00  
   960x540       59.96    59.99    59.63    59.82  
   800x600       60.00    60.32    56.25  
   840x525       60.01    59.88  
   864x486       59.92    59.57  
   800x512       60.17  
   700x525       59.98  
   800x450       59.95    59.82  
   640x512       60.02  
   720x450       59.89  
   700x450       59.96    59.88  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
   720x405       59.51    58.99  
   684x384       59.88    59.85  
   680x384       59.80    59.96  
   640x400       59.88    59.98  
   576x432       60.06  
   640x360       59.86    59.83    59.84    59.32  
   512x384       60.00  
   512x288       60.00    59.92  
   480x270       59.63    59.82  
   400x300       60.32    56.34  
   432x243       59.92    59.57  
   320x240       60.05  
   360x202       59.51    59.13  
   320x180       59.84    59.32  
VGA-1-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
  1680x1050 (0x50) 146.250MHz -HSync +VSync
        h: width  1680 start 1784 end 1960 total 2240 skew    0 clock  65.29KHz
        v: height 1050 start 1053 end 1059 total 1089           clock  59.95Hz
  1280x1024 (0x58) 108.000MHz +HSync +VSync
        h: width  1280 start 1328 end 1440 total 1688 skew    0 clock  63.98KHz
        v: height 1024 start 1025 end 1028 total 1066           clock  60.02Hz
  1440x900 (0x59) 106.500MHz -HSync +VSync
        h: width  1440 start 1520 end 1672 total 1904 skew    0 clock  55.93KHz
        v: height  900 start  903 end  909 total  934           clock  59.89Hz
  1280x960 (0x5c) 108.000MHz +HSync +VSync
        h: width  1280 start 1376 end 1488 total 1800 skew    0 clock  60.00KHz
        v: height  960 start  961 end  964 total 1000           clock  60.00Hz
  1280x800 (0x65) 83.500MHz -HSync +VSync
        h: width  1280 start 1352 end 1480 total 1680 skew    0 clock  49.70KHz
        v: height  800 start  803 end  809 total  831           clock  59.81Hz
  1024x768 (0x6d) 65.000MHz -HSync -VSync
        h: width  1024 start 1048 end 1184 total 1344 skew    0 clock  48.36KHz
        v: height  768 start  771 end  777 total  806           clock  60.00Hz
  800x600 (0x7c) 40.000MHz +HSync +VSync
        h: width   800 start  840 end  968 total 1056 skew    0 clock  37.88KHz
        v: height  600 start  601 end  605 total  628           clock  60.32Hz
  640x480 (0x8b) 25.175MHz -HSync -VSync
        h: width   640 start  656 end  752 total  800 skew    0 clock  31.47KHz
        v: height  480 start  490 end  492 total  525           clock  59.94Hz