8. Installing login utilities

8.1 Installing agetty + login

You need the Util Linux package again for this section. If you haven't deleted the Util Linux source directory, you can skip the first two steps.

• Unpack the Util Linux archive (if you have deleted it since last time we've used it)
• Configure the package by running configure
• Go to the login-utils directory
• Compile agetty and login by running make agetty login
• Copy the following binary to /sbin: agetty
• Copy the following binary to /bin: login

8.2 Modifying $LFS/etc/inittab

You have to reboot back into your normal Linux system for this step because we need a text editor which isn't installed yet.

The next step is modifying the $LFS/etc/inittab file so that agetty is started on a virtual console every time we start the system. This is how it works on most if not every Linux system.

• Edit the $LFS/etc/inittab file
• Find this line and remove it: 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/sulogin
• Where the previous line was, put the following lines:

   1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty1 9600
   2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty2 9600
   3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty3 9600
   4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty4 9600
   5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty5 9600
   6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty6 9600

8.3 Creating the UTMP record file

Every time you log onto a Linux system, the /var/run/utmp file is modified. When this file isn't present, a lot of programs will start complaining, including agetty and login. So we just create an empty $LFS/var/run/utmp file and those programs won't complain anymore.

• Create the $LFS/var/run directory
• Create an empty file by running touch $LFS/var/run/utmp

8.4 Testing the system

If you want you can test the system now. Restart the system and boot into the LFS system. After the kernel and sysvinit are done loading, agetty should start and prompt you with a username. Since the only user we currently have is 'root', you login as root.