i'm not sure how to add something to desktop-environment initialization script-- how do you do that? I was interested in making tinycore automatically open my web browser and putting it in bootlocal.sh doesn't work (although the browser opens if you run bootlocal.sh again after startup)
If you are using LXDE, edit /home/tc/.config/lxsession/LXDE/autostar file with a text editor. By deafault it looks like:
@lxpanel --profile LXDE
@pcmanfm -d
These commands are executed when LXDE starts. My startup script with WICD:
@sudo wicd-start
@lxpanel --profile LXDE
@pcmanfm -d
@wicd-client
First will start WICD daemon, last will add WICD client to panel. To open it just double click on the panel icon at bottom right. And backup the two directories to remember network settings. If proper settings saved, it will autoconnect to network. Of course you can add other programs as well to the startup list.
With Xfce4 there is a tool to configure startup, see settings menu.