Executing a program at startup using a script

init scripts can be tricky. I haven't used suse in a long time, but it seems you're missing something like this at the top of your init script: ### BEGIN INIT INFO # Provides: FOO # Required-Start: $syslog $remote_fs # Required-Stop: $syslog $remote_fs # Default-Start: 3 5 # Default-Stop: 0 1 2 6 # Description: Start FOO to allow XY and provide YZ ### END INIT INFO On top of that init scripts usually need to take arguments like stop/start/restart, I'm not sure how suse is going to handle it w/o those. From what I understand there should be an init script in /etc/init.d/skeleton that you can use as a template. The other option is if scmon doesn't need to be started before networking then, add it to /etc/init.d/boot.local

Is it necessary to use chkconfig and add the program to bootup?

Tried the format suggested. But that script doesn't get executed at start up. Copied existing scripts and edited. Doesn't work. Used names starting from S. Copied to init.d and inserted links in rc3.d, rc5.d. Nothing works!! My script doesn't get executed. If I insert the code in boot.local, then it works, but, I don't get any visual indications etc. Like, the popups which were supposed to come doesn't come !! But then probably , that is the default behaviour, since boot.local is executed before all runlevels. In red hat, it works fine if I insert the code in rc.local. But in Suse, rc.local is doesn't exist. If I create rc.local (by copying boot.local and editing it, or by copying rc.local from redhat and editing it), then that is totally ignored by Suse. I am trying the event.d suggestion now, and hope it works...