Prepare Psmisc for compilation: ./configure --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/ The meaning of the configure option: --exec-prefix=/: This causes the binaries to be installed in /bin and not in /usr/bin. As the Psmisc programs are often used in bootscripts, they should be available also when the /usr filesystem isn't mounted. Compile the package: make And install it: make install By default Psmisc's pidof program isn't installed. Generally, this isn't a problem because we later install the Sysvinit package, which provides a better pidof program. But if you're not going to use Sysvinit, you should complete the installation of Psmisc by creating the following symlink: ln -s killall /bin/pidof