Hi aus9,
To answer your questions, I will use my experience with designing the Quick-Save-Live Rescue CD (
https://sourceforge.net/projects/quick-save-live/ ) wherein :
1. I have added automount filesystem commands in the bootlocal.sh file and they get executed first
2. I have autostarted spacefm file manager using a .sh file under .X.d folder and it gets started after the xsession starts. By the way, this concept is similar to the autostart folder of other linux systems, wherein you add the .desktop file there.
3. I have used the plain vanilla tiny core base for creating this live cd, for maximum compatibility, which means it uses Xvesa instead of Xorg and it works well
4. You can test/check this live cd, by writing it on to a CD/USB drive ( For USB, use the MultiBootUSB-Live DVD at
https://sourceforge.net/projects/multibootusb-live/ )
P.S. For a quick video preview of this Rescue CD, Watch :
https://youtu.be/CXRZiwJlqgsHope this helps.
Regards,
Nathan SR