Alpine setup scripts

This page summarizes the low-level behavior of the /sbin/setup-* scripts on the Alpine ISO (and in a normal Alpine install).

setup-alpine

For a higher-level walkthrough (using the "sys" installmode), see Basic HDD install.

This script accepts the following command-line switches (you can run setup-alpine -h to see a usage message).

-a: Create an overlay file: this creates a temporary directory and saves its location in ROOT; however, the script doesn't export this variable so I think this feature isn't currently functional.

-c answerfile: Create a new "answerfile", with default choices. You can edit the file and then invoke setup-alpine -f answerfile.
-f answerfile: Use an existing "answerfile", which may override some or all of the interactive prompts.

-q: Run in "quick mode." See below for details.

The script's behavior is to do the following, in order. Bracketed options represent extra configuration choices that can be supplied when running the auxiliary setup scripts manually, or by supplying an "answerfile".

setup-keymap [us us]
setup-hostname [-n alpine-test]
setup-interfaces [-i < interfaces-file]
/etc/init.d/networking --quiet start &
if none of the networking interfaces were configured using dhcp, then: setup-dns [-d example.com -n "8.8.8.8 [...]"]
set the root password
if not in quick mode, then: setup-timezone [-z UTC | -z America/New_York | -p EST+5]
enable the new hostname (/etc/init.d/hostname --quiet restart)
add networking and urandom to the boot rc level, and acpid and cron to the default rc level, and start the boot and default rc services
extract the fully-qualified domain name and hostname from /etc/resolv.conf and hostname, and update /etc/hosts
setup-proxy [-q "http://webproxy:8080"], and activate proxy if it was configured
setup-apkrepos [-r (to select a mirror randomly)]
if not in quick mode, then: setup-sshd [-c openssh | dropbear | none]
if not in quick mode, then: setup-ntp [-c chrony | openntpd | busybox | none]
if not in quick mode, then: DEFAULT_DISK=none setup-disk -q [-m data /dev/sda]
if installation mode selected during setup-disk was "data" instead of "sys", then: setup-lbu [/media/sdb1]
if installation mode selected during setup-disk was "data" instead of "sys", then: setup-apkcache [/media/sdb1/cache | none]

setup-hostname

setup-hostname [-h] [-n hostname]

Options:

-h Show help

-n Specify hostname

This script allows quick and easy setup of the system hostname by writing it to /etc/hostname. The script prevents you from writing an invalid hostname (such as one that used invalid characters or starts with a '-' or is too long). The script can be invoked manually or is called as part of the setup-alpine script.

setup-interfaces

setup-interfaces [-i < interfaces-file]

Note that the contents of interfaces-file has to be supplied as stdin, rather than naming the file as an additional argument. The contents should have the format of /etc/network/interfaces, such as:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
    hostname alpine-test

setup-dns

setup-dns [-h] [-d domain name] [-n name server]

Options:

-h Show help

-d specify search domain name

-n name server IP

The setup-dns script is stored in /sbin/setup-dns and allows quick and simple setup of DNS servers (and a DNS search domain if required). Simply running setup-dns will allow interactive use of the script, or the options can be specified.

The information fed to this script is written to /etc/resolv.conf

Example usage:

setup-dns -d example.org -n 8.8.8.8

Example /etc/resolv.conf:

search example.org
nameserver 8.8.8.8

It can be run manually but is also invoked in the setup-alpine script unless interfaces are configured for DHCP.

setup-timezone

setup-timezone [-z UTC | -z America/New_York | -p EST+5]

Can pre-select the timezone using either of these switches:

-z subfolder of /usr/share/zoneinfo

-p POSIX TZ format

setup-proxy

setup-proxy [-hq] [PROXYURL]

Options:

-h Show help

-q Quiet mode prevents changes from taking effect until after reboot

This script requests the system proxy to use in the form http://<proxyurl>:<port> for example: http://10.0.0.1:8080

To set no system proxy use none. This script exports the following environmental variables:

http_proxy=$proxyurl

https_proxy=$proxyurl

ftp_proxy=$proxyurl

where $proxyurl is the value input. If none was chosen then the value it is set to a blank value (and so no proxy is used).

setup-sshd

setup-sshd [-h] [-c choice of SSH daemon]

Options:

-h Show help

-c SSH daemon where SSH daemon can be one of the following:

openssh install the openSSH daemon

dropbear install the dropbear daemon

none Do not install an SSH daemon

Example usage:

setup-sshd -c dropbear

The setup-sshd script is stored in /sbin/setup-sshd and allows quick and simple setup of either the OpenSSH or Dropbear SSH daemon & client. It can be run manually but is also invoked in the setup-alpine script.

setup-disk

DEFAULT_DISK=none setup-disk -q [-m data | sys] [mountpoint directory | /dev/sda ...]

This script accepts the following command-line switches:

-k kernel flavor
-o apkovl file: Restore system from apkovl file
-m data | sys: Don't prompt for installation mode. With -m data, the supplied devices are formatted to use as a /var volume.

-r: Use RAID1 with a single disk (degraded mode)

-L: Create and use volumes in a LVM group

-s swap size in MB: Use 0 to disable swap

-q: Exit quietly if no disks are found

-v: Verbose mode

The script also honors the following environment variables:

BOOT_SIZE

Size of the boot partition in MB; defaults to 100. Only used if -m sys is specified or interactively selected.

SWAP_SIZE

Size of the swap volume in MB; set to 0 to disable swap. If not specified, will default to twice RAM, up to 4096, but won't be more than 1/3 the size of the smallest disk, and if less than 64 will just be 0. Only used if -m sys is specified or interactively selected.

ROOTFS

Filesystem to use for the / volume; defaults to ext4. Only used if -m sys is specified or interactively selected. Supported filesystems are: ext2 ext3 ext4 btrfs.

BOOTFS

Filesystem to use for the /boot volume; defaults to ext4. Only used if -m sys is specified or interactively selected. Supported filesystems are: ext2 ext3 ext4 btrfs.

VARFS

Filesystem to use for the /var volume; defaults to ext4. Only used if -m data is specified or interactively selected. Supported filesystems are: ext2 ext3 ext4 btrfs.

SYSROOT

Mountpoint to use when creating volumes and doing traditional disk install (-m sys). Defaults to /mnt.

MBR

Path of MBR binary code, defaults to /usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin.

Partitioning

If you have complex partitioning needs, you can partition, format, and mount your volumes manually, then just supply the root mountpoint to setup-disk. Doing so implicitly behaves as though -m sys had also been specified.

See Setting up disks manually for more information.

RAID

setup-disk will automatically build a RAID array if you supply the -r switch, or if you specify more than one device. The array will always be RAID1 (and --metadata=0.90) for the /boot volumes, but will be RAID5 (and --metadata=1.2 for non-boot volumes when 3 or more devices are supplied.

If you instead want to build your RAID array manually, see Setting up a software RAID array. Then format and mount the disks, and supply the root mountpoint to setup-disk.

LVM

setup-disk will automatically build and use volumes in a LVM group if you supply the -L switch. The group and volumes created by the script will have the following names:

volume group: vg0
swap volume: lv_swap (only created when swap size > 0)
root volume: lv_root (only created when -m sys is specified or interactively selected)
var volume: lv_var (only created when -m data is specified or interactively selected)

The lv_var or lv_root volumes are created to occupy all remaining space in the volume group.

If you need to change any of these settings, you can use vgrename, lvrename, lvreduce or lvresize.

If you instead want to build your LVM system manually, see Setting up Logical Volumes with LVM. Then format and mount the disks, and supply the root mountpoint to setup-disk.

setup-bootable

This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine but must be run manually.

Its purpose is to create media that boots into tmpfs by copying the contents of an ISO onto a USB key, CF, or similar media.

For a higher-level walkthrough, see Creating a bootable Alpine Linux USB Stick from the command line.

This script accepts the following arguments and command-line switches (you can run setup-bootable -h to see a usage message).

setup-bootable source [dest]

The argument source can be a directory or an ISO (will be mounted to MNT or /mnt) or a URL (will be downloaded with WGET or wget). The argument dest can be a directory mountpoint, or will default to /media/usb if not supplied.

-k: Keep alpine_dev in syslinux.cfg; otherwise, replace with UUID.

-u: Upgrade mode: keep existing syslinux.cfg and don't run syslinux

-f: Overwrite syslinux.cfg even if -u was specified.

-s: Force the running of syslinux even if -u was specified.

-v: Verbose mode

The script will ensure that source and dest are available; will copy the contents of source to dest, ensuring first that there's enough space; and unless -u was specified, will make dest bootable.

setup-xorg-base

This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine but must be run manually.

Installs the following packages: xorg-server xf86-video-vesa xf86-input-evdev xf86-input-mouse xf86-input-keyboard udev.

Additional packages can be supplied as arguments to setup-xorg-base. You might need, for example, some of: xf86-input-synaptics xf86-video-something xinit. For QEMU, see Qemu. For Intel GPUs, see Intel Video.

Documentation needed

setup-xen-dom0

setup-gparted-desktop

Uses openbox.

This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine but must be run manually.

setup-mta

Uses ssmtp.

This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine but must be run manually.

setup-acf

This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine but must be run manually.

This script was named setup-webconf before Alpine 1.9 beta 4.

See ACF pages for more information.

setup-ntp