Installation

The following information will assist you with the installation of Alpine Linux.

Installation Quick-Start in 3 Easy Steps

1st

Download the latest stable-release ISO.

2nd

Burn the ISO onto a blank CD using your favorite CD burning software.

3rd

Boot from the CD, login as root with no password, and voilà! Enjoy Alpine Linux!

Tip: One of the first commands you might want to use is setup-alpine.

Installation Handbook

Basics

Alpine can be used in any of three modes:

tmpfs mode

You'll boot from read-only medium such as the installation CD, a USB key, or a Compact Flash card. (To prepare either of the latter two, you can use the setup-bootable script; see the linked pages for details.) When you use Alpine in this mode, you will use Alpine Local Backup (lbu) to save your modifications between reboots. This will require some writable partition, usually on a removable medium. The setup-alpine script will, among other things, let you specify what medium to use.

data mode

this is like tmpfs mode, except that all of /var is stored on your writable partition, here usually on a hard drive. The /var partition is accessed directly, rather than copied into a tmpfs; so this is better-suited to uses where large amounts of data need to be preserved between reboots.

sys mode

This is a traditional hard-disk install. Both the boot system and your modifications are written to the hard disk, in a standard Linux hierarchy. (The setup-alpine script handles installing Alpine in this mode, too.)

Advanced

• Setting up storage with RAID, LVM, LUKS encryption, iSCSI, or suchlike
• Details about Alpine setup scripts

• Install to HDD with dual-boot
• Replacing non-Alpine Linux with Alpine remotely

• Installing Alpine Linux in a chroot

• Install Alpine on VirtualBox, VMware, coLinux, or Qemu

• Xen Dom0 Setting up Alpine as a dom0 for Xen hypervisor
  • Xen Dom0 on USB or SD
  • Create Alpine Linux PV DomU

• Setting up a basic vserver
• Setting up the build environment on HDD
• Setting up a compile vserver for official or for third party packages

Post-Install

• Setting up Networking
• Package Management (apk) (How to add/remove packages on your Alpine)
• 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

• Upgrading Alpine using the stable or edge repositories

• Setting up a ssh-server (Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)
• setup-acf (Configures ACF (webconfiguration) so you can manage your box through https)

Further Help and Information

• FAQs
• Tutorials and Howtos
• How to Contribute
• Developer Documentation