user specific xorg.conf?

[Gary Aitken]

On 08/19/12 15:01, Polytropon wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:38:13 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
>> Combining a couple of responses into one to cut down traffic...
>>
>> On 08/19/12 11:51, Polytropon wrote:
>>> On Sun, 19 Aug 2012 11:44:15 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
>>>> In attempting to zero in on my system crash problem,
>>>> I need to customize xorg.conf.
>>>> As I read the documentation,
>>>> there is no way for an ordinary user to provide an xorg.conf;
>>>> Xorg looks for files in the normal server search path,
>>>> which does not include any user directories --
>>>> unless the user is root.
>>>
>>> What if you do (as a user) the "startx" command and try
>>> to hand the -config <file> to the program, like this:
>>>
>>> 	% Xorg -file /home/user/test/xorg.conf
>>>
>>> I haven't tried that myself, but according to "man Xorg"
>>> this option does exist. However, I'm not sure if xinit
>>> or startx honors this option if you use them (to make
>>> use of ~/.xinitrc).
>>
>> According to the man page:
>>    "This option will work for any file when the server is run as root
>>     (i.e, with real-uid 0),
>>     or  for files relative to a directory in the config search
>>     path for all other users."
>> The config search path only includes system directories, not user directories.
> 
> Read: "config search path". In my interpretation, this applies
> to _path names_ in where config files (default name: xorg.conf)
> will be searched. This does _not_ contradict to explicitely
> naming a _file_ as in:
> 
> 	% X -config /home/someuser/test/xorg.conf
> 
> It could also be possible to give the file a totally different
> name. However, the X server might refuse to use that file. You
> could easily try it. I have prefixed the example with "%" indicating
> that this command could be executed from a user (non-root) terminal,
> just the same way you would usually call
> 
> 	% xinit
> 
> or the
> 
> 	% startx
> 
> script to benefit from the ~/.xinitrc startup file. Also you
> could try to add the -config option to the two commands mentioned.
> I haven't looked into their specific implementation on if and how
> they will allow X parameters to be included.

I thought about that path vs file distinction;
looks like my original interpretation was correct:

%startx -- -config ~/xorg.conf
Fatal server error:

Invalid argument for -config
        For non-root users, the file specified with -config must be
        a relative path and must not contain any ".." elements.
        Using default xorg.conf search path.

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
         at http://wiki.x.org
 for help.

xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: server error

>> Again, I think that is for security reasons, but I'm not certain.
> 
> Primarily it is, but also about complexity. Imagine the X server
> would scan the whole (!) directory structure, beginning in /, to
> find a valid configuration file...

I assumed if no user directories were in the search path,
you would have to specify a complete path, not a relative one.
I never expected it to search all possible paths.
I was surprised to see that no user directories are in the default path,
but upon reflection decided it was probably because of security concerns.

>> On 08/19/12 12:38, Jeff Tipton wrote:
>>> Gary, why do you need user-specific xorg.conf?
>>> By default, there's no xorg.conf file,
>>> so if you generate one and put it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf,
>>> your file will be used instead of the default options.
>>> And before putting the file there, you can test it,
>>> as suggested in the Manual:
>>>
>>> X -config /root/xorg.conf.new -retro
>>
>> I wanted a user-specific xorg.conf for test purposes.
>> The server already generated one when I first installed it, IIRC.
> 
> No. The server can generate a file that is then typically
> placed as /root/xorg.conf.new which you'd have to copy to
> /etc/X11/ in order to have further X starts recognize and
> use it (in case you are _not_ explicitely calling the X server
> with the config file at the location in /root).

Bad memory on my part for what occurred when I originally installed.
IIRC remapped to IRI (I recalled incorrectly...)