kpsewhich not reading texmf.cnf file

I just installed teTeX 3.0 on my RH Linux 9 platform, and have reached the stage
where I am configuring/testing the installation.  The install seemed to proceed
smoothly, but it seems that my texmf.cnf file is not being read:

# which kpsewhich
/usr/local/teTeX/bin/kpsewhich
# kpsewhich -expand-var='$TEXMFCNF'
/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
# kpsewhich -expand-var='$SELFAUTODIR'
/usr/local/teTeX
# kpsewhich -expand-var='$TEXMFMAIN'
 
The last command returned null, even though $TEXMFMAIN is clearly defined:
# grep '^TEXMFMAIN' /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
TEXMFMAIN = $SELFAUTODIR/share/texmf

Does anyone know why kpsewhich (and texconfig) isn't reading texmf.cnf?

Thanks,
Mike