Create the Root Home Directory

You need to use HP-UX commands, rather than HP SMH.

Create a home directory for the root user. This directory must reside in the system root directory (/), since it must be available whenever the system is running. A useful directory name is /homeroot. Create it and make it accessible only by root.
# mkdir /homeroot # chmod 700 /homeroot

Modify /etc/passwd to make this new directory the home directory for the root user, as follows. The steps are shown in the example below.

Use the vipw command to load /etc/passwd into vi.
Insert homeroot after the / in field 6 of line 1.
Identify the system in comments field 5.
Save the file and exit.

# vipw
root:3ngTYOiNJA.Mc,/0WR:0:3::/:/sbin/sh
                              ihomerootEsc
root:3ngTYOiNJA.Mc,/0WR:0:3::/homeroot:/sbin/sh
                            iMySystem Root UserEsc
root:3ngTYOiNJA.Mc,/0WR:0:3:MySystem Root User:/homeroot:/sbin/sh
:wq
#




	IMPORTANT: Points of interest: The `root` entry must be the first line of the `/etc/passwd` file. The user ID in field 3 is 0. Conventionally, the group ID in field 4 is 3 for group `sys`. The system entry in field 5 can identify which `root` user on printouts to networked printers. The absolute home directory is in field 6. The login shell in field 7 must be `/sbin/sh`.

When NIS is configured, run /var/yp/ypmake to build or synchronize the passwd maps.
Move any private files into root’s home directory. For example, dot files (/.[A-zA-Z]*).
# mv /.[A-zA-Z]* /homeroot
Verify that you can log in as root or su - root from a different session. If you can’t, you still have this session to make corrections.

Create the Root Home Directory

Technical documentation

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