@DavidDraper I'm sorry to hear that it is not working for you.

First off, you definitely shouldn't edit the .bak file, stick with only the .cfg file. Sorry if I wasn't clear there. I'm not sure what the .bak even does, or how to revert it.

Second, remember to only overwrite the button mappings. For example, in the .cfg file there are 2 lines above the mappings that I left intact. For me it reads:
input_device = "SealieComputing N64 RetroPort"
input_driver = "udev"

This of course would change depending on what controller you are using.

If you've done all of the above correctly, then the only other thing that I can think of is that it might be because you are using a "Generic USB" controller rather than an original N64 controller with an adapter.
Perhaps this means your buttons are in a different order, or are labeled differently, I'm not really sure as I don't own a Dragon Rise controller to test with.

Still, if you'd like, feel free to copy what your original dragon rise.cfg file was (prior to copy / pasting my info), and I'll see if I can translate it into something that may work for you.

Otherwise, good luck, and I hope that other solution works for you!

@hawkes_84 Thanks will do. The controller should be here in a week.

the default emulator is not a libretro core so doesn't have the retroarch gui. You can try "lr-glupen64" from optional packages though if you require a libretro emulator.