Install Alpine on VMware Workstation

There's at least 2 ways you can setup Alpine on a VMware box.

Option 1: sys mode, traditional hard-disk install (preferable for a dev box)

1. Create a virtual machine (linux, other 3.x kernel 64 bit)
   1. add a hard drive, with the size depending on your work
   2. add a cdrom to the vm that points to the alpine iso you downloaded (alpine-virt x86_64)
2. boot into the vm (username: root)
   1. run `alpine-install`
   2. choose `sys` when asked about the disk mode (this will permanently install Alpine on the disk)
   3. choose the default disk mounted by VMware
   4. reboot after the installation is complete

Option 2: USB mode, no data preserved between reboots

1. Create a virtual machine (linux, other 3.x kernel 64 bit)
   1. add a minimal hard drive, 100MB for saving configs, (like an usb stick)
   2. add a cdrom to the vm that points to the alpine iso you downloaded (alpine-virt x86_64)
2. boot into the vm
3. press f2 on boot to enter the BIOS
   1. change the boot order so that it boots from cd, then hd, then floppy (or whatever - as long as cd is first)
4. boot the machine
5. now run the following commands:
   1. mkfs.vfat /dev/sda
   2. mount /dev/sda /media/usb (Or try: mount -t vfat /dev/sda /media/usb)
   3. grep /dev/sda /proc/mounts >> /etc/fstab
   4. setup-alpine (select no disk, save configs to 'usb')
   5. lbu ci usb

If the VM hangs at the boot prompt, reboot the VM, and when the boot prompt appears again, type pax_nouderef (i.e. append it to the kernel options) and press Enter. This should allow normal boot-up.

Now you should be able to reboot and it should retain your settings because they were saved to your "usb"-disk.

VMware Tools

More info on this page: Open-vm-tools

For VMware Tools support you need to install the package open-vm-tools.