When the Xorg server is started by the "root" user, the config file search locations are as follows: <cmdline> /etc/X11/<cmdline> /usr/X11R6/etc/X11/<cmdline> $XORGCONFIG /etc/X11/$XORGCONFIG /usr/X11R6/etc/X11/$XORGCONFIG $HOME/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf-4 /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/xorg.conf /usr/X11R6/etc/X11/xorg.conf.<hostname>