diff --git a/package/petitboot/Config.in b/package/petitboot/Config.in
index 66836f31ac..50d5a4da70 100644
--- a/package/petitboot/Config.in
+++ b/package/petitboot/Config.in
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 config BR2_PACKAGE_PETITBOOT
 	bool "petitboot"
 	depends on BR2_PACKAGE_KEXEC_ARCH_SUPPORTS || BR2_PACKAGE_KEXEC_LITE_ARCH_SUPPORTS
-	depends on BR2_USE_MMU # lvm2
+	depends on BR2_USE_MMU # lvm2, agetty
 	depends on BR2_USE_WCHAR # elfutils, kexec-lite
 	depends on !BR2_STATIC_LIBS # elfutils, kexec-lite, lvm2
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS # elfutils, kexec-lite, lvm2
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_PETITBOOT
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBXCRYPT if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_GLIBC
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_NVME if ( BR2_powerpc || BR2_powerpc64 || BR2_powerpc64le )
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_POWERPC_UTILS if ( BR2_powerpc || BR2_powerpc64 || BR2_powerpc64le )
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_UTIL_LINUX
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_UTIL_LINUX_AGETTY
 	help
 	  Petitboot is a small kexec-based bootloader
 
diff --git a/package/petitboot/S15pb-discover b/package/petitboot/S15pb-discover
index 71ab62d998..9e8f6c87f8 100644
--- a/package/petitboot/S15pb-discover
+++ b/package/petitboot/S15pb-discover
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ fi
 
 start() {
 	printf 'Starting %s: ' "$DAEMON"
-	mkdir -p /var/log/petitboot
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2174 # only apply -m to deepest dir
+	mkdir -p -m 0775 /var/log/petitboot
+	chown petituser:petitgroup /var/log/petitboot
 
 	# shellcheck disable=SC2086 # we need the word splitting
 	start-stop-daemon -S -q -b -m -p "$PIDFILE" -x "/usr/sbin/$DAEMON" \
diff --git a/package/petitboot/pb-console b/package/petitboot/pb-console
index 407ff3b302..8b23b2233d 100644
--- a/package/petitboot/pb-console
+++ b/package/petitboot/pb-console
@@ -3,14 +3,16 @@
 DAEMON="pb-console"
 
 PB_CONSOLE_PORT=${2:-"console"}
-PB_CONSOLE_ARGS="--getty --detach -- -n -i 0 $PB_CONSOLE_PORT linux"
+PB_CONSOLE_ARGS="--getty=/sbin/agetty --detach -- -a petituser -n -i $PB_CONSOLE_PORT linux"
 
 # shellcheck source=/dev/null
 [ -r "/etc/default/petitboot" ] && . "/etc/default/petitboot"
 
 start() {
 	printf 'Starting %s on %s: ' "$DAEMON" "$PB_CONSOLE_PORT"
-	mkdir -p /var/log/petitboot
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2174 # only apply -m to deepest dir
+	mkdir -p -m 0775 /var/log/petitboot
+	chown petituser:petitgroup /var/log/petitboot
 
 	# shellcheck disable=SC2086 # we need the word splitting
 	start-stop-daemon -S -q -x "/usr/libexec/petitboot/$DAEMON" \
diff --git a/package/petitboot/petitboot.mk b/package/petitboot/petitboot.mk
index 6f7789b185..a6588a68e9 100644
--- a/package/petitboot/petitboot.mk
+++ b/package/petitboot/petitboot.mk
@@ -97,6 +97,8 @@ define PETITBOOT_POST_INSTALL
 		$(TARGET_DIR)/etc/init.d/pb-console
 	$(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(PETITBOOT_PKGDIR)/pb-shell \
 		$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/libexec/petitboot/pb-shell
+	$(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(PETITBOOT_PKGDIR)/shell_profile \
+		$(TARGET_DIR)/home/petituser/.profile
 
 	mkdir -p $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/udev/rules.d
 	for port in $(PETITBOOT_GETTY_PORT); do \
@@ -111,4 +113,8 @@ endef
 
 PETITBOOT_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS += PETITBOOT_POST_INSTALL
 
+define PETITBOOT_USERS
+	petituser -1 petitgroup -1 * /home/petituser /bin/sh - petitboot user
+endef
+
 $(eval $(autotools-package))
diff --git a/package/petitboot/shell_profile b/package/petitboot/shell_profile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a958ca4402
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/petitboot/shell_profile
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+if [ "$PPID" = "1" ]; then
+	exec /usr/libexec/petitboot/pb-console
+fi