vba-over.ini needs to be installed in SYSCONFDIR or sdlFindFile in src/sdl/SDL.cpp needs to be amended to include a search in DATA_INSTALL_DIR, because on execution, vba-m can't find it:
Searching for file vba-over.ini
Searching current directory: /home/user
Searching home directory: /home/user/.vbam
Searching system config directory: /usr/pkg/etc
Searching PATH
vba-over.ini NOT FOUND (using emulator settings)
The latter makes more sense to me, as i'm not sure the file belongs in SYSCONFDIR. It's currently being installed in share/vbam/.
resolving as duplicate and reopening the previous bug