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Installation

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If using Alpine Linux 2.2.3 or later

Warning: This will erase everything on your machine's harddisk. Don't blame me if someone sues you for this, your cat dies etc. You are warned.

The following is meant to be an absolute newbie guide

Burn the Alpine ISO image to a CD
Put the CD into the new computer and turn on the power. Make sure the computer is capable to boot from a CD. Your manual for the computer or the BIOS can help.
Wait for the text login: to appear, type root and press enter.
Run the setup-alpine script
- Choose your keyboard layout. If you don't know your keyboard layout choose us. Here us was chosen.
  - Then I chose the us variant.
- Host name, which will be the name of your computer, you can just press enter if you want to use the default name
- Choose your network card, most people can just go with the default (press enter)
  - Most people will use DHCP, so press enter again, or you can enter in your static IP address
  - You will be asked if you want to do any manual network configuration, press enter for no
- Type in your root password twice.
- Choose a time zone, you can get a list by pressing ?. If you want a sub zone, e.g. Africa, type in Africa and press enter, ? will give you a list of sub zones in Africa.
- Press f to choose the fastest mirror.
- Choose an SSH server, this allows you to remotely manage your machine. OpenSSH is what the big distro's use, Dropbear is a tiny SSH replacement. Choose none for best security.
- Choose an NTP client, this keeps your machine's time accurate using an Internet time server. Openntpd is what the big distro's use, while Chrony is a tiny replacement.
- Choose a disk you want to install Alpine onto, as an example, sda is the first disk in your computer.
  - Now choose how you would like to use it, for this guide, choose sys, this will install the entire OS onto your hard drive
  - You are given a final chance to back out, type in Y to continue
The installation is now complete and you will be asked to reboot. Type in reboot and press enter

Take out the CD, and your computer should boot into Alpine using your hard drive.

Continue Setting up your Computer

Alpine Linux package management (How to add/remove packages on your Alpine)
OpenRC (Configure a service to automatically boot at next reboot)
Setting up a SSH server (Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)
Tutorials and Howtos (Various tutorials, including how to setup a XFCE desktop)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+#REDIRECT [[Installation]]
+{{Delete|All substantive content here is now in the [[Installation]] article. In addition no pages link to this article.}}
 = If using Alpine Linux 2.2.3 or later =
-{{:Installing Alpine on HDD overwriting everything}}
-= If using Alpine Linux 2.2.2 or earlier =
+{{Warning|This will erase '''everything''' on your machine's harddisk. Don't blame me if someone sues you for this, your cat dies etc. You are warned.}}
-A number of steps are nowadays included in the setup-disk and setup-lbu scripts, which are invoked by setup-alpine. But in these older systems, these steps have to be performed manually.
+The following is meant to be an absolute newbie guide
-Run <code>setup-alpine</code> to configure the keyboard, hostname and networking.
+* [[Burning ISOs|Burn the Alpine ISO image to a CD]]
-{{Cmd|setup-alpine}}
+* Put the CD into the new computer and turn on the power. Make sure the computer is capable to boot from a CD. Your manual for the computer or the BIOS can help.
+* Wait for the text '''login:''' to appear, type '''root''' and press enter.
+* Run the '''setup-alpine''' script
+** Choose your keyboard layout. If you don't know your keyboard layout choose '''us'''. Here '''us''' was chosen.
+*** Then I chose the '''us''' variant.
+** Host name, which will be the name of your computer, you can just press enter if you want to use the default name
+** Choose your network card, most people can just go with the default (press enter)
+*** Most people will use DHCP, so press enter again, or you can enter in your static IP address
+*** You will be asked if you want to do any manual network configuration, press enter for no
+** Type in your root password twice.
+** Choose a time zone, you can get a list by pressing '''?'''. If you want a sub zone, e.g. Africa, type in Africa and press enter, '''?''' will give you a list of sub zones in Africa.
+** Press '''f''' to choose the fastest mirror.
+** Choose an SSH server, this allows you to remotely manage your machine. OpenSSH is what the big distro's use, Dropbear is a tiny SSH replacement. Choose '''none''' for best security.
+** Choose an NTP client, this keeps your machine's time accurate using an Internet time server. Openntpd is what the big distro's use, while Chrony is a tiny replacement.
+** Choose a disk you want to install Alpine onto, as an example, '''sda''' is the first disk in your computer.
+*** Now choose how you would like to use it, for this guide, choose '''sys''', this will install the entire OS onto your hard drive
+*** You are given a final chance to back out, type in '''Y''' to continue
+* The installation is now complete and you will be asked to reboot. Type in '''reboot''' and press enter
+Take out the CD, and your computer should boot into Alpine using your hard drive.
-Now for the manual steps. Create partitions with <code>fdisk</code>.
+=== Continue Setting up your Computer ===
-{{Cmd|fdisk /dev/sda}}
-You should have 2 partitions: {{Path|/dev/sda1}} as "Linux" (type 83) and {{Path|/dev/sda2}} as "linux swap" (type 82). The {{Path|/dev/sda1}} must be bootable (command "a" within <code>fdisk</code>).
+* [[Alpine Linux package management]] ''(How to add/remove packages on your Alpine)''
+* [[OpenRC]] ''(Configure a service to automatically boot at next reboot)''
-Install needed programs for the setup:
+* [[Setting up a SSH server]] ''(Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)''
-{{Cmd|apk add e2fsprogs syslinux mkinitfs}}
+* [[Tutorials and Howtos]] ''(Various tutorials, including how to setup a [[XFCE Setup|XFCE desktop]])''
-Create filesystem and swap:
-{{Cmd|mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
-mkswap /dev/sda2}}
-Mount filesystem:
-{{Cmd|mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt}}
-Clone the current running config created by <code>setup-alpine</code> (hostname, networking root password):
-{{Cmd|<nowiki>lbu package - | tar -C /mnt -zx</nowiki>}}
-Install base packages on harddisk:
-{{Cmd|<nowiki>apk add --root=/mnt --initdb $(cat /etc/apk/world)</nowiki>}}
-Append the / and swap to {{Path|/etc/fstab}}:
-{{Cmd|echo -e "/dev/sda1 /    ext4  defaults 1 1" &gt;&gt; /mnt/etc/fstab
-echo -e "/dev/sda2 none swap  sw       0 0" &gt;&gt; /mnt/etc/fstab}}
-Configure the boot loader, <code>extlinux</code>. We use the provided {{Path|syslinux.cfg}} as base.
-{{Cmd|cp /media/cdrom/syslinux.cfg /mnt/boot/extlinux.conf
-vi /mnt/boot/extlinux.conf}}
-It should contain something like:
- timeout 20
- prompt 1
- default grsec
- label grsec
-     kernel /boot/grsec
-     append initrd=/boot/grsec.gz root=/dev/sda1 modules=ext4 quiet
-Install the bootloader:
-{{Cmd|extlinux -i /mnt/boot}}
-Install syslinux bootloader at the beginning of the MBR so its bootable (note that its <code>sda</code> and not <code>sda1</code>)
-{{Cmd|<nowiki>dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda</nowiki>}}
-Unmount, remove cdrom, and reboot. (If you can't eject, just remove it manually as the machine reboots)
-{{Cmd|umount /mnt
-umount /.modloop
-eject
-reboot}}
-After reboot, you should be able to log in as root with the password you created in <code>setup-alpine</code>.
 [[Category:Installation]]