Usage

Following instructions assume that you have busybox with full set of symlinks installed on device. Feel free to modify them according to your taste.

Install good terminal emulator (this one is recommended) and uncheck "Close window on exit" checkbox in it's settings. Recommended TERM value is "screen-256color". If you do not yet have appropriate keyboard get one as well. Presence of capable file manager/editor (I recommend Ghost Commander) is also assumed from now on. Create directory on any partition without noexec flag (following example uses /data/local/bin) and assign convenient access rights:

# mkdir -p /data/local/bin
# cd /data/local/bin
# chown sdcard .
# touch init.rc
# chmod 755 init.rc

Then use your preferred text editor to populate script with suitable content, for example:

#!/system/bin/sh
if [ ! -f /fhs/etc/arch-release ]; then
  mount -o remount,rw /
  mkdir -p /fhs
  mount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /fhs
  mount -o remount,ro /
fi

[ -f /dev/fd ] || ln -s /proc/self/fd /dev/fd

unset MKSH
export USER=root
export HOME=/fhs/root
export SHELL=/fhs/bin/bash
cd $HOME
su -c "$SHELL -l" --shell $SHELL

and add "su -c init.rc" to startup commands in emulator settings. Now you can start emulator and enjoy view of Bash root prompt. Unfortunately, system is messed up (package installation scripts weren't executed), so let's perform proper initialization:

# pacman -S filesystem -r /
# pacman -S base

Some errors may emerge, but generally everything should end fine. Now follow usual steps to configure rest of the system.

For list of things you may want to try out now see [Use Cases].