--> Question

Can the simulator be started in the background or at Linux boot time?

There is an advanced procedure for starting the simulator in the background or for boot purposes.

The script bgrun.sh runs the runsim.sh script using expect to force the simulator to run in the background without any console access. Once the simulator has started you should only shut it down with a telnet/rsh into the simulator followed by a halt. In emergency situations you can kill the maytag.L process but this is not generally recommended.

You must not attempt to run the same simulator again either via bgrun.sh or via runsim.sh unless you are sure that the previous simulator has shut down. Check the .bglog log file in the simuator folder to see if it shut down and/or ps -ef | grep maytag to see if a simulator is running. If you are running multiple simulators you'll need to work out if your specific simulator is running by reading the top of the .bglog file for the ppid process and see if that bash process is running.

The steps are:

Ensure that expect is installed. Depending on your flavour of Linux this is either pre-installed or available for manual installation.
Get the simulator working and available on the network using the normal runsim.sh script.
Test the simulator running in background with the bgrun.sh script.
Create an entry in the /etc/init.d/ folder for the correct runlevel as root. Most Linux distributions use rc5.d (X display) or rc3.d (console only).
```
  linux:/etc/init.d/rc5.d # cat S99startsim
  cd /sim
  ./bgrun.sh
  linux:/etc/init.d/rc5.d #
```
Reboot Linux.