i am trying to start a program at startup in Slackware 9.1
the problem is that by default this program sends debugging messages continuously. i can execute it fine and leave it in a konsole window as long as i want after logging in but i want it to start at startup.
now here is what i did.

1. i edited rc.local file and added the entry for the program, but when rc.local is executed at boot up the debugging messages start appearing just before X is started. so i don't have either a command line or GDM to login and i m stuck there only.

2. i boot from my 1st Slack CD and removed the part from rc.local. now i try to add it to rc.4 (yes i m using GDM); but if i add the command after executing /usr/bin/gdm, i won't get the program executed as the part ends with "fi" and script won't read after that. while if i add it before executing /usr/bin/gdm then i m back to square one as the situation is similar to rc.local.

any ideas as to how should i go about it?
thanx for reading

If its a GUI program your trying to make startup in X, you'll need to make it start from your .xinitrc file, etc. You can't start a X program from rc.local or have it startup before you even login to X in runlevel 4 and so on.

More details though will get better responses.

If you're using KDE with Slack you can start up a program after KDE loads like this: for example abiword..

ln -s /usr/bin/abiword /home/your_username/.kde/Autostart

thanx mate. that works flawlessly