diff --git a/bin/key-mapper-control b/bin/key-mapper-control
index edf92b96..d22a232c 100755
--- a/bin/key-mapper-control
+++ b/bin/key-mapper-control
@@ -205,7 +205,12 @@ def main(options):
 
     logger.debug('Call for "%s"', sys.argv)
 
-    if options.command == AUTOLOAD and num_logged_in_users() == 0:
+    from keymapper.paths import USER
+    during_boot = num_logged_in_users() == 0  # for the lack of a better method
+    is_root = USER == "root"
+    is_autoload = options.command == AUTOLOAD
+    config_dir_set = options.config_dir is not None
+    if is_autoload and during_boot and is_root and not config_dir_set:
         # No user logged in, this is probably happening during boot time and got
         # triggered by udev. There is no need to try to inject anything if the
         # service doesn't know where to look for a config file. This avoids a lot