Installing Alpine

2008-04-28T08:24:22Z

Joru: Changed the link to syslinux.exe to .../alpine/v1.6/....

vivividomc
There are currently two supported ways of running Alpine, from CDROM or from USB stick.

== Preparing the media ==

=== CDROM ===
Download the latest iso image from the [http://www.alpinelinux.org/mediawiki/index.php/Downloads download] area and burn it.

=== USB ===
Alpine is shipped in compressed tar.gz archives for USB.

==== From windows ====
* Download a alpine-x.x.x-yyyyyy.tar.gz package.
* Unpack all the files to your usb drive using a unpacker like [http://www.7-zip.org 7-zip].
* Download the [http://dl.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v1.6/usbdrive/syslinux.exe syslinux.exe] utility.
* Start a command prompt (Start->run, type ''cmd'' and press >enter>)
* Run syslinux with your USB drive as parameter. If your USB drive is E:, then you type:
syslinux E:

USB drive os ready for booting.

==== From Linux ====
* Download a alpine-x.x.x-yyyyyy.tar.gz package.
* Unpack all the files to your usb drive.
* install syslinux (I.E ''sudo apt-get syslinux'' or ''emerge apt-get syslinux'')
* Run syslinux with your USB drive as parameter. If your USB drive is /dev/sda1, then you type:
sudo syslinux /dev/sda1

== Initial setup ==
After booting up you will see a login prompt. Log in as ''root''.

To do the basic initial configuration run:
setup-alpine

There you will set the hostname, configure the network and set the root password.

To save the configuration to floppy for next reboot run:
lbu_commit floppy

To save the config on an USB drive run:
lbu_commit usb

=== Managing software packages ===
To list all the packages that are available in repository, run:
apk_fetch -l
apk_fetch -v -l

To install a package run:
apk_add <PACKAGE>

To remove the package run:
apk_delete <PACKAGE>

To also remove the dependencies togehter with the package, run:
apk_delete -R <PACKAGE>

To list all installed packages run:
apk_info

=== Managing boot services ===

To start a service during boot run:
rc_add <service>

=== Managing local backups ===

To add a config file to the local backup list run:
lbu_add /path/to/file

To save all the files in the local backup list to floppy run:
lbu_commit floppy

To save the configs to USB drive run:
lbu_commit usb

To list files in the local backup list run:
cat /etc/backuplist

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Installing Alpine