Tutorials and Howtos

Todo: This material needs to be re-organized .. as Howtos are smaller articles and tutorials are more detailed document both need to be reordered as independent sections

Welcome to Tutorials and Howtos, a place of basic and advanced configuration tasks for your Alpine Linux.

The tutorials are hands-on and the reader is expected to try and achieve the goals described in each step, possibly with the help of a good example. The output in one step is the starting point for the following step.

Howtos are smaller articles explaining how to perform a particular task with Alpine Linux, that expects a minimal knowledge from reader to perform actions.

IMPORTANT: contributions on those pages must be complete articles as well as requesting topics to be covered, don't override already made contributions. If you want to request a topic, please add your request in this page's Discussion.

New users and Newbies

• Newbie Alpine Ecosystem (for overall information in funny sections)

Installation: Use cases

• Alpine newbie install manual
  • Alpine Install: from a disc to a new computer single only boot
  • Alpine Install: from a disc to a old computer single only boot
  • Alpine Install: from a disc to a virtualbox machine single only
  • Alpine Install: from a iso to a virtualbox machine with external disc
• Ways to install listed by architectures
  • x86_64 x86_32 x86 s390
  • armhf armv7 aarch64
  • ppc64le others PPC

Postinstall: desktops and applications

• Overall info and minimal packages common to any working desktop
  • Desktop environments and Window managers (overall information only)
  • Xfce
  • LXQt
  • Openbox
  • MATE
• Alpine and UEFI Support Status and related topics

Developers: compilers, IDEs and tools

• Alpine newbie developer
  • Alpine newbie developer: Git management web frontend gitea
  • Alpine newbie developer: full stack web

Servers: deploy in production

• Alpine production deploy
  • Production Web server: Lighttpd‎‎
  • Production DataBases : mysql
  • Production LAMP system: Lighttpd + PHP + MySQL‎‎
• Alpine production monitoring
  • Cacti: traffic analysis and monitoring network
  • Zabbix - the professional complete manager

Storage

• Alpine local backup (lbu) (Permanently store your modifications in case your box needs reboot)
  • Back Up a Flash Memory Installation
  • Manually editing a existing apkovl

• Setting up disks manually
• Setting up a software RAID array
• Raid Administration
• Setting up encrypted volumes with LUKS
• Setting up LVM on LUKS
• Setting up Logical Volumes with LVM
  • Setting up LVM on GPT-labeled disks
  • Installing on GPT LVM
• Formatting HD/Floppy/Other

• Setting up iSCSI
  • iSCSI Raid and Clustered File Systems
• Setting up NBD
• Setting up ZFS on LUKS
• Setting up ZFS with native encryption
• High performance SCST iSCSI Target on Linux software Raid (deprecated)
• Linux iSCSI Target (TCM)
• Disk Replication with DRBD

• Burning ISOs
• Partitioning and Bootmanagers
• Migrating data
• Create a bootable SDHC from a Mac
• Alpine on ARM

Networking

• Configure Networking
• Connecting to a wireless access point
• Bonding
• Vlan
• Bridge
• Bridge wlan0 to eth0
• OpenVSwitch
• How to configure static routes
• Configure a Wireguard interface (wg)

• Alpine Wall - How-To Alpine Wall - Alpine Wall User's Guide (a new firewall management framework)

• PXE boot

• Using serial modem
• Using HSDPA modem
• Setting up Satellite Internet Connection
• Using Alpine on Windows domain with IPSEC isolation

• Setting up a SSH server (Using SSH is the preferred way to administer your box remotely)
  • HOWTO OpenSSH 2FA with password and Google Authenticator (A simple two factor setup for OpenSSH)
• How to setup a wireless access point (Setting up Secure Wireless AP w/ WPA encryption with bridge to wired network)
• How to set up Alpine as a wireless router (Setting up a firewalled, Wireless AP with wired network on a Pi Zero W)
• Setting up a OpenVPN server with Alpine (Allowing single users or devices to remotely connect to your network)
• Experiences with OpenVPN-client on ALIX.2D3

• Generating SSL certs with ACF
• Setting up unbound DNS server
• Setting up nsd DNS server
• TinyDNS Format
• Fault Tolerant Routing with Alpine Linux
• Freeradius Active Directory Integration
• Multi_ISP (Dual-ISP setup with load-balancing and automatic failover)
• OwnCloud (Installing OwnCloud)

• Seafile: setting up your own private cloud

• GNUnet

Post-Install

• Alpine newbie users post install and easy setups
  • First steps at post install
  • Enable repositories
  • Added the first user to use the system
  • First packages to install (need the previous Enable repositories) already done!

• Setting up a new user
• Enable Community Repository (Providing additional packages)
• Package Management (apk) (How to add/remove packages on your Alpine)
  • Comparison with other distros
• Alpine local backup (lbu) (Permanently store your modifications in case your box needs reboot)
  • Back Up a Flash Memory Installation
  • Manually editing a existing apkovl
• Init System (OpenRC) (Configure a service to automatically boot at next reboot)
  • Multiple Instances of Services
• Setting up Xorg
• Upgrading Alpine

• Setting up a ssh-server (Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)
  • HOWTO OpenSSH 2FA with password and Google Authenticator (A simple two factor setup for OpenSSH)
• setup-acf (Configures ACF (webconfiguration) so you can manage your box through https)
• Changing passwords
• Ansible (Configuration management)

• Enable Serial Console on Boot
• How to get regular stuff working some notes on need-to-know topics
• Installing Oracle Java
• Setting up periodic backups with rsnapshot

Virtualization

• Xen Dom0 (Setting up Alpine as a dom0 for Xen hypervisor)
• Xen Dom0 on USB or SD
• Create Alpine Linux PV DomU
• Xen PCI Passthrough
• Xen LiveCD
• QEMU
• KVM (Setting up Alpine as a KVM hypervisor)
• LXC (Setting up a Linux container in Alpine Linux)
• Docker
• Install_Alpine_on_VirtualBox
• Install Alpine on VMWare

Desktop Environment

• AwesomeWM
• dwm
• EyeOS (Cloud Computing Desktop)
• Gnome
• KDE
• MATE
• Oneye (Cloud Computing Desktop - Dropbox Alternative)
• Nextcloud (Self hostable cloud suite - Dropbox Alternative)
• Remote Desktop Server
• River
• Suspend on LID close
• Sway
• Xfce Desktop
• Sound Setup
• PipeWire
• Printer Setup
• Default applications

Raspberry Pi

• Raspberry Pi (Installation)
• Raspberry Pi - Headless Installation
• Classic install or sys mode on Raspberry Pi
• RPI Video Receiver (network video decoder using Rasperry Pi and omxplayer)
• Linux Router with VPN on a Raspberry Pi
• Linux Router with VPN on a Raspberry Pi (IPv6)
• Raspberry Pi 4 - Persistent system acting as a NAS and Time Machine
• Raspberry Pi 3 - Configuring it as wireless access point -AP Mode
• Raspberry Pi 3 - Setting Up Bluetooth
• Raspberry Pi 3 - Browser Client - kiosk or digital sign
• Raspberry Pi Zero W - Installation
• Raspberry Pi Bluetooth Speaker

PowerPC

• Powerpc64le (Installation)

IBM Z (IBM z Systems)

• s390x (Installation)

Applications

Telephony

• Setting up Zaptel/Asterisk on Alpine
  • Setting up Streaming an Asterisk Channel
• Freepbx on Alpine Linux
• FreePBX_V3 (FreeSWITCH, Asterisk GUI web acces tool)
• 2600hz (FreeSWITCH, Asterisk GUI web access tool)
• Kamailio (SIP Server, formerly OpenSER)

Mail

• Hosting services on Alpine (Hosting mail, webservices and other services)
  • Hosting Web/Email services on Alpine
• ISP Mail Server HowTo
  • ISP Mail Server Upgrade 2.x
  • ISP Mail Server 2.x HowTo (Beta, please test)
  • ISP Mail Server 3.x HowTo
• Roundcube (Webmail system)
• Setting up postfix with virtual domains
• Protecting your email server with Alpine
• Setting up clamsmtp
• Setting up dovecot with imap and ssl
• relay email to gmail (msmtp, mailx, sendmail

HTTP

• Lighttpd
  • Lighttpd Https access
  • Setting Up Lighttpd with PHP
  • Setting Up Lighttpd With FastCGI
• Cherokee
• Nginx
  • Nginx with PHP
  • Nginx as reverse proxy with acme (letsencrypt)
• Apache
  • Apache with php-fpm
  • Setting Up Apache with PHP
  • Apache authentication: NTLM Single Signon

• High Availability High Performance Web Cache (uCarp + HAProxy for High Availability Services such as Squid web proxy)

• Setting up Transparent Squid Proxy
  • SqStat (Script to look at active squid users connections)
  • Obtaining user information via SNMP (Using squark-auth-snmp as a Squid authentication helper)
• Setting up Explicit Squid Proxy

• Drupal (Content Management System (CMS) written in PHP)
• WordPress (Web software to create website or blog)
• MediaWiki (Free web-based wiki software application)
• DokuWiki
• Darkhttpd
• Tomcat
• Kopano (Microsoft Outlook compatible Groupware)

Other Servers

• Setting up a ssh-server (Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)
  • HOWTO OpenSSH 2FA with password and Google Authenticator (A simple two factor setup for OpenSSH)

• Setting up a nfs-server
• Setting up a samba-server (standard file sharing)
• Setting up a samba-ad-dc (Active Directory compatible domain controller)
• Phpizabi (Social Networking Platform)
• Statusnet (Microblogging Platform)
• Pastebin (Pastebin software application)
• Setting up Transmission (bittorrent) with Clutch WebUI

• Patchwork (Patch review management system)
• Redmine (Project management system)
• Request-Tracker (Ticket system)
• OsTicket (Ticket system)
• Trac (Enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects)

• Setting up Git management web frontend gitea
• Cgit
  • Setting up a git repository server with gitolite and cgit
• Roundcube (Webmail system)
• Glpi (Manage inventory of technical resources)

• How to setup a Alpine Linux mirror
• Cups
• NgIRCd (Server for Internet Relay Chat/IRC)
• How To Setup Your Own IRC Network (Using charybdis and atheme-iris)
• OpenVCP (VServer Control Panel)
• Mahara (E-portfolio and social networking system)
• Using chrony, gpsd, and a garmin LVC 18 as a Stratum 1 NTP source
• Sending SMS using gnokii
• Internet Protocol television (IPTV)
• UniFi_Controller
• DNSCrypt-Proxy Encrypt and authenticate DNS calls from your system
• Odoo

Monitoring

• Setting up collectd
• Traffic monitoring
• Setting up traffic monitoring using rrdtool (and snmp)
• Setting up monitoring using rrdtool (and rrdcollect)
• Cacti: traffic analysis and monitoring network (Front-end for rrdtool networking monitor)
• LTTng (Kernel and userspace tracing)
• Zabbix - the professional complete manager (Monitor and track the status of network services and hardware)
• Setting up A Network Monitoring and Inventory System (Nagios + OpenAudit and related components)
  • Setting up NRPE daemon (Performs remote Nagios checks)
• Smokeping (Network latency monitoring)
  • Setting up MRTG and Smokeping to Monitor Bandwidth Usage and Network Latency
• Ntop (NetFlow collection and analysis using a remote fprobe instance)
• Cvechecker (Compare installed packages for Common Vulnerabilities Exposure)

• IP Accounting
• Obtaining user information via SNMP (Using squark-auth-snmp as a Squid authentication helper)
• SqStat (Script to look at active squid users connections)

• Piwik (A real time web analytics software program)
• Awstats (Free log file analyzer)
• Intrusion Detection using Snort
  • Intrusion Detection using Snort, Sguil, Barnyard and more
• Dglog (Log analyzer for the web content filter DansGuardian)

• Webmin (A web-based interface for Linux system)
• PhpPgAdmin (Web-based administration tool for PostgreSQL)
• PhpMyAdmin (Web-based administration tool for MYSQL)
• PhpSysInfo (A simple application that displays information about the host it's running on)
• Linfo

• Setting up lm_sensors

• ZoneMinder video camera security and surveillance

Misc

• Category:Shell
• Category:Programming
• Running glibc programs
• Category:Drivers
• Category:Multimedia
• Kernel Modesetting
• CPU frequency scaling

Complete Solutions

• DIY Fully working Alpine Linux for Allwinner and Other ARM SOCs
• DIY Live-USB-Stick with Sway
• Alpine on the Aopen Chromebase or Chromebox Mini with Mainline Kernel
• Replacing non-Alpine Linux with Alpine remotely
• High performance SCST iSCSI Target on Linux software Raid
• Fault Tolerant Routing with Alpine Linux
• Experiences with OpenVPN-client on ALIX.2D3
• Building a cloud with Alpine Linux

• ISP Mail Server HowTo (Postfix+PostfixAdmin+DoveCot+Roundcube+ClamAV+Spamd - A full-serivce ISP mail server)
  • ISP Mail Server Upgrade 2.x
  • ISP Mail Server 2.x HowTo (Beta, please test)
• High Availability High Performance Web Cache (uCarp + HAProxy for High Availability Services such as Squid web proxy)
• Setting up A Network Monitoring and Inventory System (Nagios + OpenAudit and related components)
• Streaming Security Camera Video with VLC
• Dynamic Multipoint VPN (DMVPN) combined with Small_Office_Services