autoexec.bat equivalent in linux?

here is how to track it yourself
/etc/inittab
it will say in it
id:3:initdefault:
or some number in their
they are start up options
in their also their is an option
rc:2345:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.M
or somethign like that
the 2345 is the options like choice in ms-dos
and /etc/rc.d/rc.M is my file that it called
in teh file your system calls is where you can edit things
don't mess much with inittab because it is what boots your system.  Just use it to get you info about how your system is set up to boot.

rc.M is for multiuser only, if you always start in single user mode rc.S , it won't work. Besides that, the files rc.M rc.S rc.K and so on do exist on slackware systems only. why i know this? because i use slackware myself :)
Try to search for a like like rc.local it exists on almost every linux-system. type: find / -name rc.local or find / -name rc.*
now your system starts a search for the file
if it's found, for example in: /etc/rc.d/rc.local
just take a text-edit like vi and type vi /etc/rc.d/rc.local and add the file you want to execute.

make sure, you have the complete path in your rc.local
for example /usr/sbin/modprobe (options)

Good luck,

Greetz spurgeon

when dou you want to start you your programs:
  1) at/after boot of system
  2) when a user logs in
these are 2 completely different things

It would be helpful if you said what programs you wanted to run and when you wanted them to start. However, here are some general pointers.

As already mentioned, the /etc/rc.d/rc.local or /etc/rc.d/boot.local in SUSE, will start programs after booting but before going to the final runlevel.For SUSE you just create a link in the /etc/rc.d/rc[runlevel].d/  to the startup script to start an application at startup.

The /etc/profile contains commands that start after the runlevel is reached. These commands become global in nature. I do things like setting up alaises, exporting some variables and setup the $PATH there.

Then there is the the /home/username/.profile file. It will run each time the user logs on. It only runs applications that the user has permission to run.

If you are using X-windows the desktop will have its own startup file as well.

you must edit /etc/rc.d/rs.sysinit
and then restart system

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