Installation on a headless host: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:32, 28 March 2025

This page documents the installation procedure for Alpine Linux on a headless host i.e a system without keyboard, mouse & display to interact with but otherwise available only through a network connection.

Note: These steps still require physical access to the headless host. Somebody has to insert the Install media and power up the headless host.

Headless bootstrap

The Headless bootstrap repo provides a ready to use overlay file to bootstrap a headless system.

Note: The author of above repo macmpi also maintains a number of raspberrypi* packages for Alpine Linux.

To Install Alpine Linux on a headless host, a bootstrapping configuration overlay file headless.apkovl.tar.gz may be added as-is at the root of Alpine Linux Installation media.

To enable wifi, create a file wpa_supplicant.conf in the install media as follows:

Contents of wpa_supplicant.conf

country=FR

network={
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	ssid="mySSID"
	psk="myPassPhrase"
}

Alternately, wpa_passphrase utility from wpa_supplicant package can be used to create the encrypted version of the above file as follows: wpa_passphrase 'mySSID' 'myPassPhrase' > wpa_supplicant.conf The above encrypted version of the wpa_supplicant.conf file may be placed in the Install media.

With the above setup, the usual Installation steps can be performed remotely using ssh. Use the nmap tool from nmap package as follows: nmap -v -sn 192.168.1.0/24 to find the ip of your headless host.

Custom install media preparation steps

A Custom-made headless apkovl file can be created as per the below process.

This material needs expanding ...

Please feel free to help us complete it.

Booting the install media on some computer with a display and keyboard attached, or in a virtual machine, and doing an intermediate "diskless" setup of just the boot media (more details below), i.e. using the offical setup-alpine to configure the system's network, possibly for dhcp if needed, a ssh server, and a login user.
Choosing "disks=none" for now, yet, configure to store configs on the boot media (if it is writable, otherwise on a separate storage media).
Use lbu commit to store the configs as local backup. Then your completed setup, including its securely created own private keys, will readily get (re)loaded on every subsequent (headless) boot from your custom-build <hostname>.apkovl.tar.gz stored on the boot media (or on an auxilary media or server location, in case the boot media is read-only).

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 {{Note| These steps still require physical access to the headless host. Somebody has to insert the Install media and power up the headless host.}}
-== Custom install media preparation steps==
+== Headless bootstrap ==
-A Custom-made headless [[Diskless Mode#Apkovl|apkovl]] file can be created as per the below process.
+The [https://github.com/macmpi/alpine-linux-headless-bootstrap Headless bootstrap] repo provides a ready to use overlay file to bootstrap a headless system.
-{{Expand}}
-* Booting the install media on some computer with a display and keyboard attached, or in a virtual machine, and doing an intermediate "diskless" setup of just the boot media (more details below), i.e. using the offical <code>[[Alpine_setup_scripts#setup-alpine|setup-alpine]]</code> to configure the system's network, possibly for dhcp if needed, a ssh server, and a login user.
-* Choosing "disks=none" for now, yet, configure to store configs on the boot media (if it is writable, otherwise on a separate storage media).
-* Use <code>[[Alpine_local_backup|lbu commit]]</code> to store the configs as local backup. Then your completed setup, including its securely created own private keys, will readily get (re)loaded on every subsequent (headless) boot from your custom-build <code><hostname>.apkovl.tar.gz</code> stored on the boot media (or on an auxilary media or server location, in case the boot media is read-only).
-== Headless bootstrap ==
-{{Note| The author of [https://github.com/macmpi/alpine-linux-headless-bootstrap Headless bootstrap] repository is macmpi, maintainer of a number of {{pkg|raspberrypi*|arch=|maintainer=macmpi}} packages.}}
+{{Note|The author of above repo macmpi also maintains a number of {{pkg|raspberrypi*|arch=|maintainer=macmpi}} packages for Alpine Linux.}}
 To Install Alpine Linux on a headless host, a bootstrapping configuration overlay file [https://github.com/macmpi/alpine-linux-headless-bootstrap  headless.apkovl.tar.gz] may be added as-is at the root of Alpine Linux [[Installation#Preparing_installation_media|Installation media]].
@@ Line 29: / Line 23: @@
 With the above setup, the usual [[Installation#Installation_Step_Details|Installation steps]] can be performed remotely using <code>ssh</code>. Use the {{ic|nmap}} tool from {{pkg|nmap}} package as follows: {{Codeline|nmap -v -sn 192.168.1.0/24}} to find the ip of your headless host.
+== Custom install media preparation steps==
+A Custom-made headless [[Diskless Mode#Apkovl|apkovl]] file can be created as per the below process.
+{{Expand}}
+* Booting the install media on some computer with a display and keyboard attached, or in a virtual machine, and doing an intermediate "diskless" setup of just the boot media (more details below), i.e. using the offical <code>[[Alpine_setup_scripts#setup-alpine|setup-alpine]]</code> to configure the system's network, possibly for dhcp if needed, a ssh server, and a login user.
+* Choosing "disks=none" for now, yet, configure to store configs on the boot media (if it is writable, otherwise on a separate storage media).
+* Use <code>[[Alpine_local_backup|lbu commit]]</code> to store the configs as local backup. Then your completed setup, including its securely created own private keys, will readily get (re)loaded on every subsequent (headless) boot from your custom-build <code><hostname>.apkovl.tar.gz</code> stored on the boot media (or on an auxilary media or server location, in case the boot media is read-only).
 ==See also==