2 XF86 files?

[dthom]

i just noticed that i have 2 xf86config files...
1 in the root and one in etc/ x11.

is this right or did i mess up some where?

[teeitup]

XFree86 searches for the config file in the following places in this order:
/etc/X11/<cmdline>
/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/<cmdline>
/etc/X11/$XF86CONFIG
/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/$XF86CONFIG
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
/etc/X11/XF86Config
/etc/XF86Config
/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/XF86Config.<hostname>
/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/XF86Config
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.<hostname>
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config-4
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config

It will use the one it finds first.

There is no reason to have one in root.

Excellent reading:
man XFree86
man XF86Config

[JohnT]

The one you have in root comes from re-configuring your XF86Config file and when it was saved the default directory, /etc/X11 wasn't designated. Compare the two and see which one you want to keep. the command " man diff" will describe a tool for doing this. It's OK to delete the one in root, if you don't want to use it.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by dthom
i just noticed that i have 2 xf86config files...


XF86Config or xf86config?

XF86Config is the X config file (text based) while xf86config is a executable that is used for configuring X.

# whereis xf86config
xf86config: /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config /usr/bin/X11/xf86config /usr/X11/bin/xf86config /usr/X11/man/man1/xf86config.1x.gz

# ls -al /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 129771 Sep 23 2003 /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config

# file /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config
/usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped

# file /etc/X11/XF86Config
/etc/X11/XF86Config: ASCII English text