Installing Alpine in a virtual machine

2025-03-17T09:39:49Z

Ayrat162:

This page will walk you through how to setup a virtual machine for AlpineLinux installation

= VirtualBox =

This guide describes a standard install of Alpine within a Virtual Box VM. (virtual machine)

Oracle VM [https://virtualbox.org VirtualBox] runs one or more virtual x86 or x64 guests on a host computer.<BR>
This enables you to install and test Alpine on your main computer almost as you would any other program.

== Preparation ==

== Install Virtual Box on host ==

First you'll need to download and install Virtual Box on your host computer. Either from the official homepage (for Windows, OS X or Solaris) or from your distribution’s repository (for Linux).

Virtual Box consists of two components:

* VirtualBox platform package
* Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack

Install both and start VirtualBox to check for proper operation. If you have problems, consult the VirtualBox user manual or one of the support sites for Virtual Box.

== Download Alpine ==

Download the [https://www.alpinelinux.org/downloads/ Virtual Alpine ISO], which is optimized for virtual systems, from the Alpine Download section. Save it in a location where you can find it easily.

== Setting up virtual PC ==

Start Virtual Box. You will see a mostly empty window with a couple symbols in the upper left corner. The leftmost icon is a multi pointed star. If you hover your mouse over it, the tooltip will say “New”.

Click on the multi pointed star to create a new machine. A window will pop up, asking you some questions about the virtual (guest) computer you want to create.

# Name: Choose anything you like. e.g. “Alpine”.
# Type: Linux
# Version: Other Linux, either 64 bit or 32 bit. Choose 64 bit if you downloaded the x86_64 Alpine-ISO, or 32 bit if you downloaded the x86 Alpine-ISO.
# Use the default values for the other questions, simply click “next” or “create” until the dialogue finishes.

You will see a new entry in Virtual Box, called Alpine (or the name you chose during step 1 in the dialogue above). Click on it for more information about your guest.

One of the entries should read Mass storage, and offer an IDE controller with a primary master (the virtual hard disc) and a secondary master (the virtual optical drive).

Click on the secondary master. A context menu will pop up. Select the entry “choose image” and open the Alpine ISO you downloaded earlier.

Once that is done, click on the green start arrow on the menu bar.

== Install Alpine on the virtual computer ==

Follow the steps described in the [[Installation#Installation_Handbook|Installation Handbook]], just as if you were installing Alpine on a real PC.

{{Tip|Do not reboot your virtual box after the installation. Instead, shut down the virtual machine, remove the Alpine ISO from the virtual optical drive, then restart the virtual machine.}}

== Install drivers for Virtual Box ==

Once you successfully reboot into the Alpine VM, there are two steps left:

# Enable the [[Repositories#Enabling_the_community_repository|Community Repository]]
# Enable [[VirtualBox_shared_folders|VirtualBox shared folders]]

These two steps install all drivers that other programs might request, and activate several comfort functions.

{{Note|The Virtualbox webcam driver is not present in the kernel provided with the Virtual Alpine ISO. To use the webcam whilst keeping the installation footprint small, install the <code>linux-firmware-none</code> package using <b>apk</b>, then install the <code>linux-lts</code> package to download a kernel with the appropriate drivers without pulling in hundreds of MB of uneeded firmware files. Uninstall the <code>linux-virt</code> package and reboot to use the new kernel.}}

<br>

= KVM / QEMU =
{{Main|QEMU#Install Alpine Linux in QEMU}}
{{:Install_Alpine_in_QEMU}}

= VMware =

See instructions for installing Alpine on [[Install_Alpine_on_VMware|VMware]] and [[Install_Alpine_on_VMware_ESXi|VMware ESXi]].

== See Also ==

* [[Installation]]
* [[Installation#Post-Install|Post Install]]

[[Category:Virtualization]]

Alpine Linux - User contributions [en]

Installing Alpine in a virtual machine