How to solve "You must NOT be root to run crosstool-NG" when using ct-ng?

c, cross-compiling

Solution

`CT_ALLOW_BUILD_AS_ROOT=y`

As of d5900debd397b8909d9cafeb9a1093fb7a5dc6e6 (Jun 2018) that option allows you to allow you to build as root if you really know what you are doing:

CT_EXPERIMENTAL=y
CT_ALLOW_BUILD_AS_ROOT=y
CT_ALLOW_BUILD_AS_ROOT_SURE=y

They can accessed on the menus from:

- Paths and misc options

- Try features marked as EXPERIMENTAL

- Allow building as root user (READ HELP!)

- Are you sure?

However, I would recommend you to read the help for that option carefully:

  │ You normally do *not* need to be root to build a toolchain using                                                                                                                                           │  
  │ crosstool-NG. In fact, it is *VERY* dangerous to run as root, as                                                                                                                                           │  
  │ crosstool-NG will, as part of the build process, remove a few                                                                                                                                              │  
  │ directories. If anything goes wrong, running as root can ruin                                                                                                                                              │  
  │ your host distribution.                                                                                                                                                                                    │  
  │                                                                                                                                                                                                            │  
  │ I can't stress it enough:  DO  NOT  RUN  AS  ROOT  !!                                                                                                                                                      │  
  │                                                                                                                                                                                                            │  
  │ Do not run as root, you've been warned.                                                                                                                                                                    │  
  │ Do not come whining, if it nukes your host system.                                                                                                                                                         │  
  │ Do not come whining, if you lose any data.                                                                                                                                                                 │  
  │ Do not run as root.                                                                                                                                                                                        │  
  │                                                                                                                                                                                                            │  
  │ Do not run as root, you've been warned.                                                                                                                                                                    │  
  │ Do not come whining, if the Earth stops rotating.                                                                                                                                                          │  
  │ Do not come whining, if kittens are smashed.                                                                                                                                                               │  
  │ Do not run as root.                                                                                                                                                                                        │  
  │                                                                                                                                                                                                            │  
  │ Do not run as root, do not run as root!                                                                                                                                                                    │  
  │ (ad libitum)                                                                                                                                                                                               │  
  │

Maybe the most acceptable use case for this is to run crosstool-NG run within Docker as I'm doing here. It works.

Found by grepping the error message in the source code :-)

Problem

when I follow the steps here to create a cross complie env, [http://crosstool-ng.org/ ] I got such an error: ``` root@gpl-vm:~# ct-ng build [ERROR] You must NOT be root to run crosstool-NG [00:00] / make: *** [build] Error 1 ``` When I switch to a common user, it says I have no right to perform the command.

Original source