You must have root privs to access "/dev/mem" (on my SBC anyway). For that reason, I have set the suid bit and then I compile as root in order to make root the owner. You can only chown to root if you are root. It's just as easy to su and compile as root as it is to compile as "user" then su then chown.

And the only reason that I say that the daemon must use ethernet is that in the case of a daemon, it is obviously not proper to interract over STDIN and STDOUT. In this case networking makes more sense.

You seen to feel that I am trying to buck everything linux and do some kind of "wierd thing". Really, I just have an enbedded system with a single use in mind. The application runs just fine when I log in as a regular user and uses the console to interract with the user. Currently you login and type "appname" and it runs, dumping some info to the console as it runs. If you press "q" it quits and drops back to the command line. I just dont think it's that big of a stretch to ask if there is some way to get this embedded box to automatically log in as "user" and not force a person to be available to run the app. I know that in the larger world of linux there is so much hatred and flaming, that it is almost impossible to ask such questions, but I was hoping that here on the empeg bbs where we all have a device that does exactly what I want to do, my question would be welcomed with open arms. Really I am not trying to attack the way linux works or any other negative thing. I just want a simple way to make my program run automatically since it already works so nicely when I first login as a user and then run it. I am reluctant to give up my console access to the application and move it to another serial port or a network port. If I can get this auto-login business to work my development is done, otherwise I still have work to do.

--Steve