New to manjaro: Cannot save /etc/x11/xorg.conf. file

Just installed manjaro/xfce.
I have 2 gt1030 + 4 monitors
I know that xfce will support multiple gpus/monitors as I have had it working with xubuntu.
I can configure my displays in the nvidia x-server settings, but I cannot save the file to
"/etc/x11/xorg.conf’

  1. Do I need to save it someplace else.
  2. Do I need to I need to use thunar root, or is the terminal easier >* don’t Know the command<

No

DO NOT RUN GUI APPLICATIONS AS ROOT (OR WITH SUDO).

You need permissions.
For example, my preferred editor is micro (you probably have nano installed)
So … sudo micro /etc/x11/xorg.conf

Though really… you should set your 'SUDO_EDITOR" and “EDITOR” variables and use sudo -e FILE or sudoedit FILE (same thing).

I guess if you havent set them you could make use of it with

SUDO_EDITOR=nano sudoedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

(note … lin/unix systems care about cases … X11 is valid, x11 is not)


… and if you want this all fancy and not needing this stuff?
Then you would need to use a polkit-ready editor like kate that pretty much does this for you and will simply ask for credentials if you try to save somewhere you dont have privileges for.

3 Likes

thank you for the info.
I tried to edit the > /etc/X11/xorg.conf < file — it does not exist. I tried to use kate.
how do you use polkit-kate

Oh yeah … I forgot to mention …
/etc/X11/xorg.conf is not really a file you should use.

Well you need to create it.
But, again, dont.
I suppose you might be following some old ubuntu tutorial or something.
But you should be using something like /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-myconfigurations.conf

Hello,

My suggestion is to use /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf = default config, to add your custom layout config. The Nvidia X Server Settings provides a Preview of what by default it calls xorg.conf.
Copy that content and add it to the default, but replace only what is different and keep the last 3 Sections at the bottom of the original file. Always keep a backup before you modify and test it.

This can probably be overwritten by updates or other packages … especially without a numeral denominator (like 99-) to assert its rank in loading.

Actually looking it seems no package owns the file … but still the numeral issue is applicable.

Also … is there a reason a user should be encouraged to use mhwd space instead of the more generic xorg.conf.d ? Even if it makes no difference … it seems more proper for mhwd things to go there, and nothing else.
Also … I will give example of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d to illustrate the original point:

$ ls /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
00-keyboard.conf  11-quirks.conf  71-synaptics.conf  99-amdgpu.conf
1 Like

Indeed is regenerated to a default one once the video driver is removed/reinstalled, or when changing from 440xx to 450xx for example, but after that it remains as is. In case of Nvidia GPU the 90-mhwd.conf inside /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ is a symlink to the /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf
Not sure why was chosen to be done this way, but for me is no issue anymore.

The only way I found to make the xorg.conf file take effect in my Manjaro Cinnamon is to place it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d and in a specific reading order. To do this I create xorg.conf anywhere with write permissions and then move it to:

sudo mv xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/80-screen.conf