When building your ROOT (5.34/32), do you use the “prefix” (i.e. “fixed location”) based method or the “location independent” method?
If it was the “prefix” (i.e. “fixed location”) based method … check the output of “root-config --etcdir” and see if it points to the “./etc/…” subdirectory which you mention in your post (e.g. it is possible that it points to “/etc/root”).