Ciao Giovanni, I suggest to update the startskype.sh script by adding a "su username" statement, in this way: instead of starting skype as echo "myskypeuser xxx" | DISPLAY=:101 /usr/bin/skype --pipelogin & is better to do: su unixusername -c "echo 'myskypeuser xxx' | DISPLAY=:101 /usr/bin/skype --pipelogin &" for two reason: you can easily put config into a non-root user AND the startskype.sh will work also if called from init. in fact, a plain echo "myskypeuser xxx" | DISPLAY=:101 /usr/bin/skype --pipelogin & will not work when called from init script, you have to do (even with root) su root -c "echo 'myskypeuser xxx' | DISPLAY=:101 /usr/bin/skype --pipelogin &" in any other way skype will not get the user home directory... This is my 2c experience on centos 5.2. regards, matteo.