why is my /etc/X11/xorg.conf continually being removed?

[JVD]

Please could anyone suggest how to prevent whatever ubuntu 14.04.2 x86_64 upgrade / drivers package is removing
my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file from removing it, or what this component might be .

Everytime this happens, which appears to be triggered by the periodic package management update check ,
I lose my second monitor, and have to reboot .

My system is a fully up-to-date ubuntu 14.04.2 x86_64 8-core Haswell system with 16GB RAM and a 1TB hard disk.

The applications which were displaying on my second monitor remain running, but as I can never
access the screen on which they were displayed until rebooting, this problem has resulted in
me losing some work in those applications before I could save what I was working on.

This problem started happening a few weeks ago with an xorg system related upgrade - but would
it be the xserver or some driver's package scripts that are doing this ?

There is nothing in the syslog about replacement of xorg.conf . This fact in itself is a bug .

I have maintained this xorg.conf file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf , and I have a link to it as
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/000-screens.conf :

{quote}
{noformat}
<pre>
Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "Jason's Multi-Monitor XDisplay Configuration"
 Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
 Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Monitor0"
 Option "DPMS" "true"
 Option "Primary" "true"
        Option "LeftOf" "DVI-1"
        Modeline "1920x1080@60.0" 148.50 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Monitor1"
 Option "DPMS" "true"
        Option "RightOf" "DVI-0"
        ModeLine "1600x1200@60.0" 162.00 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
# Modeline "1280x1024@60.0" 108.00 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Card0"
 Driver "radeon"
 BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
 Screen 0
        Option "Monitor-DVI-0" "Monitor0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Card0"
 Driver "radeon"
 BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
 Screen 1
        Option "Monitor-DVI-1" "Monitor1"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Screen0"
 Device "Card0"
 Monitor "Monitor0"
 DefaultDepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Depth 24
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Screen1"
 Device "Card0"
 Monitor "Monitor1"
 DefaultDepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Depth 24
 EndSubSection
EndSection
</pre>
{noformat}
{quote}

What could be so objectionable about this file to which Ubuntu component's package scripts ?

Anyway, when it happens, the only way to regain my second screen is to reboot .

What a time waster !

At least the xorg.conf is backed up to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.MMDDYYYY .

But it a pain to have to reboot to regain the second screen , especially as your
boot scripts are unable to fsck the root filesystem , and so each time I reboot
I must go into recovery mode, fsck the filesystems, and poweroff, because if I don't
poweroff after rebooting into recovery mode, I get X-windows. Gee, what a "trusty" operating system!

I have done, as root:
  $ chmod a-w /etc/X11/ /etc/X11/*
meaning that even the root user can't remove files in
that directory without being prompted, but still something is removing
that file.

Does anyone have any idea what virus-like entity might be removing my file ?

[JVD (jason-vas-dias)]

typo fix: because if I don't poweroff after rebooting into recovery mode, I get NO X-windows.
this is a side issue though - I'd just like to stop my configuration files being removed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.