The util-linux package contains agetty and login. We need
both of these to be able to log in and get a bash prompt. After it is
instlalled, make a symlink from agetty to getty in the
target /sbin directory. getty is one of the programs
that is supposed to be there on all Unix-like systems, so the link
is a better idea than hacking inittab to run agetty.
I have one remaining problem with the compilation of util-linux. The
package also contains the program more, and I have not been
able to persuade the make process to have more
link against the ncurses 5 library on the target system rather than
the ncurses 4 on the source system. I'll be having a closer look at
that.
You will also need a /etc/passwd file on the target system.
This is where the login program will check to find out if
you are allowed in. Since this is only a toy system at this stage,
we can do outrageous things like setting up only the root user,
and not requiring any password!! Just put this in the target
/etc/passwd
root::0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
The fields are separated by colons, and from left to right they are user id, password (encrypted), user number, group number, user's name, home directory and default shell.