Run kermit in the background

[geebs]

I can run the following in a terminal.....

$>kermit myCommandFile.txt >> outputFile.txt

This captures the text from my serial port (/dev/ttyS0) and puts it into outputFile.txt

But I need this command to start at bootup and run in the background. By adding a "&" at the end of my command, kermit *does* run in the background but it stops and doesn't output anything (boooo!) and I have to kill -9 the process.

Also I've tried to have this command run via /etc/rc.local and/or my users .bashrc file (without the "&") and it just hangs and prevents proper logins or new shell processes to open.

Any ideas?
If there's a better way to capture data from serial ports that I can script and run in the background at bootup, let me know!

Thanks for any help.