You may also need to create a user account if you have not done this already. It is important to do this because the root account gives you access to all files on your system. What this means is that a few careless strokes on the keyboard whilst you are logged in as root could result in an unusable system (rm is a potentially disastrous command to use although its effect can be lessened with the -i switch). In your early adventures with ARMLinux it would therefore be better if you learnt about your system from the relative safety of a user account. To create a user account, follow the instructions below:
Login as root,
or
su root
if logged in as an ordinary user,
type
adduser fred
at the prompt where fred is our hypothetical user,
You will be asked to set a password, (which can be done for an existing user with the
passwd command)
and follow the instructions.
Assuming that you are logged in as root do the following:
adduser majcon
Linux will set up the new user with a password, user id, a group membership (id) and a login name, home directory and mailbox. You can then enter the password twice as instructed.
A detailed discussion of Linux systems administration is outside the scope of this manual but consult The Linux Systems Administrators' Manual which is available from http://www.tcm.hut.fi/~viu/linux/sag/ for more information. What you must remember is that your password must be as ingenious as you can make it if you wish to avoid the possibility of your files being read by a stranger. Your password should make use of a mixture of upper and lower-case letters as well as numbers and symbols. But again, be sure to remember what you have actually typed!
You might think that this discussion of user accounts is not really relevant to you but it becomes an important consideration when your ARMLinux machine is being used concurrently by other users in a business or educational setting.