I am trying to run a game server on a Linux machine and what i would like is for it to start automatically when i boot the machine, which i have figured out, however, what i would also like is for it to switch users before it runs so that it is not running as root, but no matter what i try, it seems to switch the user then stall. It never actually starts the game. Any suggestions? Please help me!

I just wrote a little test script and it worked.

When the script is run as root it will create a file called dude that is owned by crabboy. This means that crabboys shell is actully calling touch; thus working correctly. Have you tried this yet?

If this does not help, then post what you have tried and the exact symptoms.

Gary

Gary,
Thanx for the info on both, however I'm not sure that i understand this one. The file that I have now looks like this. (without the switch user)

#!/bin/sh
cd /home/hlds_l
./hlds_run -game cstrike +maxplayers 18 +map cs_militia &

And i have a link to this in the SysV init config, so that it starts when i boot the machine.

My problem is that when I tried switching users it would boot the computer, switch user, but would not run the game. It is supposed to be in the background as designated by the "&" but what i found was happening is that after it would switch user the shell prompt would come up in the login field and i couldn't do anything after that. It looked something like this:

Login: bash$

and that is all i can get. So if i was to use yours as an example where would i put the name of the game? Also there is a symbollic link to this script called "cstrike" would it be better for me to create the switch user something like yours and call cstrike in that? If so where do i then call cstrike in your script.

Sorry to be so dumb, but thanx for all your help.
Brian

Gary,
I figured it out, that script you wrote is awesome, thank you so much nevermind that last one. This is awesome thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!