Setting KDEROOTHOME helps when running as root. Trinity did not create a new /root/.kde3 directory. I made the change in my proposed startkde. An updated proposed script is attached. I added the following test: # Run a quick test for root. if [ -z "$KDEROOTHOME" ] && [ "$UID" = "0" ]; then echo "startkde: User ID is $UID. Setting KDEROOTHOME to $KDEHOME." export KDEROOTHOME=$KDEHOME fi So setting KDEROOTHOME will help and I hope my change cures the problem. However, in addition to running my conky display from /root/.kde/Autostart, I realized that KPersonalizer was not running. That provides confirmation that Trinity starts out honoring $KDEHOME for root but then changes sometime after. Trinity must be reading the startupconfig file from /root/.kde in order to not run KPersonalizer. So although KDEROOTHOME helps avoid some of the problems I described, there remains something awry with the way Trinity starts out correctly and then veers off course.