[mythtv-users] Disappearing xorg.conf

[Stephen Worthington]

On Mon, 19 Jan 2015 13:20:06 -0800, you wrote:

>I have a frontend (mythbuntu 14.04).  Most of the time, the FE is 
>powered off.  When I boot it up, sometimes the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file 
>disappears and I end up with the super tiny font problem.  Each time 
>this happens, I restore from my backup copy and reboot and all is well 
>again, until the next time it happens.  I even tried making the file 
>read only, but no difference.
>
>Any ideas on why the xorg.conf file gets removed?  The most recent event 
>was with the last mythbuntu updates.  My master BE/FE system (also 
>mythbuntu 14.04) does not seem to have this problem, but then again, it 
>is up 24/7.
>
>Jay

Nvidia Prime overwrites the xorg.conf when you change from the Nvidia
GPU to the Intel GPU and back again on laptops with Nividia Optimus.
There are probably other things that have reason to do the same.

There is no need to reboot to restart X.  Just restart the display
manager.  For Mythbuntu 14.04, that defaults to lightdm.  So the
command "restart lightdm" from a terminal prompt will do that.  It
might need sudo in front.  If you are unable to work with the display
due to the font problem, do Ctrl-Alt-F1, login and do the restart
lightdm command from there.  It is also possible that logging off and
logging on again is sufficient.

You could try clearing all the write permissions on the xorg.conf
file.  Try:

  chmod a-w xorg.conf

If you need to change it after that, you would need to give yourself
write permission again.  And if the thing that is changing it has root
access, this will not help.