Create a Bootable Device: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:51, 12 October 2017

Creating a bootable Alpine Linux USB Stick from the command line

This process applies to Alpine Linux 1.9.0 or later, and results in a run-from-ram style installation.

Warning: This process can potentially totally or partly erase the contents of your hard drive. For this reason, it is recommended to do this procedure using VirtualBox rather than your own computer.

Requirements

In order to follow this document, you will need:

Alpine Linux CD-ROM (Download a .iso file containing an Alpine release.)
A USB drive (flash, external HD, card reader, etc.)

Alpine Linux from 3.3.0 and later

From Alpine Linux 3.3.0, the generated ISO's are a hybridISO, which means they contain a valid MBR and can be raw copied directly to the USB stick, Hard Drive (If you really know what you're doing), or burnt to a CD/DVD.

The following dd instructions follow helpful guidance from https://wiki.voidlinux.eu/Live_Images wholly or in part.

If the USB stick is in a Unix/Linux/OSX system, you will need to find out what the USB device is. There are various utilities to determine the device name (e.g. /dev/sdx) for your USB device. One way is:

$ sudo fdisk -l

If it is still unclear which is your USB's device name, in Linux you could try sudo lsblk -a ; or use parted (sudo parted -l).

Then, ensure that your usb drive is not mounted to dd the iso, as various desktop environments automatically mount usb pen drives:

$ sudo umount /dev/sdx

Next, change to the directory where your Alpine .iso file is located, for example:

$ cd ~/Downloads

Warning: The following instruction will destroy data on the device being written to - be sure that you have identified your USB device name correctly first!

Then you can use dd to copy the iso to it. Assuming that you determined that your pen drive's device name was /dev/sdx:

 $ sudo dd if=alpine.iso of=/dev/sdx && sync

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Slow USB Devices

Specifying the 'waitusb=X' option at the end of the syslinux.cfg line might help with certain USB devices that take a bit longer to register. X stands for the amount of seconds kernel will wait before looking for the installation media.

append initrd=/boot/grsec.gz alpine_dev=usbdisk:vfat modules=loop,cramfs,sd-mod,usb-storage quiet waitusb=3

Configure Networking
Setting up a SSH server (Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)
Package Management (apk) (How to add/remove packages on your Alpine)
Init System (rc) (Configure a service to automatically boot at next reboot)
Alpine local backup (lbu) (Permanently store your modifications in case your box needs reboot)

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 From Alpine Linux 3.3.0, the generated ISO's are a hybridISO, which means they contain a valid MBR and can be raw copied directly to the USB stick, Hard Drive (If you really know what you're doing), or burnt to a CD/DVD.
+The following '''dd''' instructions follow helpful guidance from https://wiki.voidlinux.eu/Live_Images wholly or in part.
 If the USB stick is in a Unix/Linux/OSX system, you will need to find out what the USB device is.  There are various utilities to determine the device name (e.g. {{Path|/dev/sdx}}) for your USB device.  One way is:
@@ Line 29: / Line 31: @@
   $ cd ~/Downloads
-{{Warning|The following instruction will '''destroy''' data on the device name being written to - be sure you have identified your USB device name correctly first!}}
+{{Warning|The following instruction will '''destroy''' data on the device being written to - be sure that you have identified your USB device name correctly first!}}
 Then you can use '''dd''' to copy the iso to it.  Assuming that you determined that your pen drive's device name was '''/dev/sdx''':
    $ sudo dd if=alpine.iso of=/dev/sdx && sync