Peter,

This sounds like the simplest solution I have found so far. It does not have to be a root shell, it can be some other user. I currently log in a a simple user, but "su" to root to compile so the app is owned by root so that it can access "/dev/mem".

So, my current inittab has the follwoing:

T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyAM0 115200 vt100
T1:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyAM1 115200 vt100

I have tried the -n option, but it did not help, so I'd like to try this shell on console trick. I'd just go ahead and try it, but I'm affraid if I screw it up, I won't be able to log back in and fix it! Of course I looked at the bash man page after reading your post, but it's about a mile long and has a many options. Can you tell me how to invoke this properly?

Thanks,

--Steve