OMG: lucida, coplate, knc1 - I <3 you all!
Between the three of you, my machine is alive!
problem 1 - #mount -o bind wasn't working b/c mntroot was not rw. Busybox wasn't reporting anything and files appeared to be altered, but it wasn't working.
As such, nothing stuck.
That said, xorg.conf is a forced symbolic link from /var/local/xorg.conf and var/local/xorg.conf is always rewritten by upstart when doing 'restart x'
Problem 2 - broken xorg.conf from makexconfig - honestly, I don't know what happened. I do not understand the file interactions well enough to figure out why I was generating those weird conf files using @coplate's cursor2 scripts. Especially because root was not mounted rw when I tried the bind mount.
Solution (inelegant, kludged together, but working for now):
lucida's usb otg kindlet (start otg service, then plug in hub/keyboard)
coplate's makexconfig copied to /var/local/kindlekbd per knc1 and:
Code:
# mntroot rw
# mount -o bind /var/local/kindlekbd /etc/upstart/makexconfig
# mntroot ro
# restart x
And now I can write in vim to my heart's delight :-) Thank you all!!!