Ch. 4.3 of the manual.
Add LFS user and group
sudo groupadd lfs
sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -g lfs -m -k /dev/null lfs
This adds user lfs, -m creates a home directory for user lfs
-k /dev/null prevents something
-s /bin/bash makes bash its default shell.
Add user lfs password
sudo passwd lfs
It responds “bad password” and wants 8 characters, but it takes it. (Bad, bad password!)
See all users and groups:
cat /etc/passwd
cat /etc/group
I see my uid/gid is 1000 and lfs’s is 1001
Make user lfs the owner of all directories of $LFS
So – I did this wrong. And in fact, I wasn’t supposed to be using “sudo” but instead using “sudo -s”. Corrected it on 11/27/2025 after a long break (the long break was not my fault, really! really!) Editing the edit: No, I was supposed to be using sudo su –
Apparently using sudo probably didn’t affect anything before this point of creating the user lfs.
except I guess $LFS/sources.
sudo chown -v lfs $LFS/{usr{,/*},var,etc,tools}
verbose output:
Changed ownership of ‘/mnt/lfs/usr’ from root to lfs
Changed ownership of ‘/mnt/lfs/usr/bin’ from root to lfs
Changed ownership of ‘/mnt/lfs/usr/lib’ from root to lfs
Changed ownership of ‘/mnt/lfs/usr/sbin’ from root to lfs
Changed ownership of ‘/mnt/lfs/var’ from root to lfs
Changed ownership of ‘/mnt/lfs/etc’ from root to lfs
Changed ownership of ‘/mnt/lfs/tools’ from root to lfs
Oh oh a mystery “case” again in the manual:
case ${uname -m} in x86_64 chown -v lfs $LFS/lib 64 ;; esac
I’m substituting
uname -m
Checking one more time in case miniPC transformed while I wasn’t looking
sudo chown -v lfs $LFS/lib64
verbose output
Changed ownership of ‘/mnt/lfs/lib64’ from root to lfs
Start a login shell running as user lfs
su - lfs
- login shell for lfs
- loads lfs’s environment
- working directory will be lfs home directory
If the prompt “lfs:~$” does not appear immediately, enter the fg command.
It does appear immediately:
lfs@heidi-GK41:~$
How do I switch back to me as user?
exit
logout
Google AI Mode says that I should have removed access to the /etc/bash.bashrc file before logging in for the first time. Unfortunately that was covered in Ch. 4.4 whereas logging in was instructed in Ch. 4.3. We’ll just have to see what happens.
11/27/2025 – What happened was nothing good, but not the end of the world either. Will add new post.