> The ini is in the same directory as the app.
And, perhaps thats the underlying problem ? This is Linux, we don't do that here. Ultimately, when the rest of the world discovers how great your application is and everyone wants a copy, you will find that the binary (ie, what you might call the exe file) lives somewhere like /usr/bin and the config files live in $HOME/.config/$APPNAME/.
You see, the binary is in a read only area and each individual user has their own separate config area. You cannot put the ini file up in /usr/bin because the app, running with your permissions, would not be able to change it. And other users might need different settings. So, following the binary back to where it lives hoping to find the ini file is a bad approach. And then there might be symlink issues ....
This strict rule about where things go might seem over the top right now but you are better doing things correctly right from the start than having, at some stage, to backtrack.
Davo