Hi all;

A rather obscure problem, clearly our understanding here is challenged!

On ubuntu (10.04 & earlier) we boot our apps under a user account from /etc/rc.local which runs under root. First the boot script installs drivers and does rooty things, then we launch the executable under the "myaccount" account:

su myaccount -c startPrg.bash (Inside is the actual /mybin/myprg &; )

and the program is left running (our goal of course)

BUT in debian (lenny) the exit from su terminates its child, which also seems right.

Now confused...

1) How can we spin off a child from /etc/rc.local that executes under a user account, but is not terminated when the su exits?

2) Why does the script act differently on ubuntu vs. debian?

THANKS A LOT!!!

Did you try?

sudo -u username /path/to/command

Works for me in Slackware, not sure about Ubuntu or Debian.