When logged in as user root, making a
single mistake can damage or destroy a system. Therefore, we
recommend building the packages in this chapter as an unprivileged
user. You could use your own user name, but to make it easier to set
up a clean working environment, create a new user called lfs as a member of a new group (also named
lfs) and use this user during the
installation process. As root, issue
the following commands to add the new user:
groupadd lfs useradd -s /bin/bash -g lfs -m -k /dev/null lfs
The meaning of the command line options:
-s
/bin/bash
This makes bash
the default shell for user lfs.
-g
lfs
This option adds user lfs to
group lfs.
-m
This creates a home directory for lfs.
-k
/dev/null
This parameter prevents possible copying of files from a
skeleton directory (default is /etc/skel) by changing the input location to
the special null device.
lfs
This is the actual name for the created group and user.
To log in as lfs (as opposed to
switching to user lfs when logged in
as root, which does not require the
lfs user to have a password), give
lfs a password:
passwd lfs
Grant lfs full access to $LFS/tools by making lfs the directory owner:
chown -v lfs $LFS/tools
If a separate working directory was created as suggested, give user
lfs ownership of this directory:
chown -v lfs $LFS/sources
Next, login as user lfs. This can be
done via a virtual console, through a display manager, or with the
following substitute user command:
su - lfs
The “-” instructs su to start a login shell as
opposed to a non-login shell. The difference between these two types
of shells can be found in detail in bash(1) and info
bash.