Post installation

This material is work-in-progress ...

This page "should" contain accurate and up to date information but is a work in progess
(Last edited by Guest09248 on 5 Jan 2022.)

General Notes

When # is displayed before a command that means the command needs to be run with root privileges,

Anything in < > is likely just a placeholder that you need to replace (example: <editor> file.txt)

Some information in here might be a repeat of information in other wiki pages, if you find a section where that is the case please add a link to the original wiki page.

Network setup

Wi-Fi

Ethernet (Wired)

This material needs expanding ...

Documentation on Ethernet (Wired) internet setup needs to be created/expanded, maybe information from other wiki's/docs might be helpful?

Creating a new user account

After installing Alpine by default you only get a root account. You will probably want to create an account that is not root,

# adduser <YourUsername>

Note: replace <YourUsername> with the username of your choice

You will probably want to install doas so you can allow <YourUsername> to use root privileges

# apk add doas

If you want your user to be able to use root privileges add them to the Wheel group

# adduser <YourUsername> wheel

Allow members of the Wheel group to use root privileges with doas:

# <editor> /etc/doas.d/doas.conf

add this to a new line:

permit persist :wheel

Switch to the new account type exit in the shell and login with the new user,

Groups

Groups are needed for certain operations on your system (e.g audio to manage your system audio), below is a list of groups,

Note: may be incomplete, if you see a group missing please add it along with a description

disk:x:6:root,adm Only if need usage vith virtual machines and access to other partitions over new disks for lp:x:7:lp If will need to use printing services and printers management floppy:x:11:root Backguard compatible group, use only if need access to external special devices audio:x:18: Need for audio listening and management of sound volumes as normal user cdrom:x:19: For access to disck writers and mounting DVD, BR or CD rom disk as normal user dialout:x:20:root Need for dial private connections and use of modems as normal users tape:x:26:root Need have into this if plan to use special devices for backup.. rarelly in no servers video:x:27:root For usage of cameras, mor thant one GPU special features, as normal user netdev:x:28: For network connections management as normal user kvm:x:34:kvm Only if as normal user will manage graphically virtual machines.. rarelly on no servers games:x:35: Need if you want to play games also specially need if will share score between users cdrw:x:80: To write RW-DVD, RW-BR or RW-CD disk on a disk writing device apache:x:81: Need if you will perfom development as normal user and want to publish locally on web server usb:x:85: Need to access to special usb devices, deprecated group users:x:100:games If you plan to used common files for all users, mandatory as desktop usage

To add your user to a group use the following command:

# adduser <YourUsername> <group>

Note: you need to log out for the group change(s) to take effect

Shell

Note: No other shells besides ash is included with Alpine by default, you will need to install another shell if you want a different one

By default AlpineLinux uses the ash shell, but many users may prefer bash, zsh, fish or another shell, to change this run the following command:

$ chsh

enter your password and you should get the following output:

Contents of $ chsh

Changing the login shell for user
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
	Login Shell [/bin/ash]:

now enter the path for the shell you want to use (e.g /bin/bash) and press enter to confirm this change,

Note: You may need to log out or reboot for this change to take effect, ash is a part of busybox so you can revert back to ash at anytime with the same steps

Repositories

The Alpine software repositories have three branches:

Main: Main packages are the Alpine software that has direct support and updates from the Alpine core and main team. They also have official special documentation, are always available for all releases and will have substitutions if some are not continued from upstream. Commonly, those packages are selected due to their responsibility and stability with respect to upstream availability. When those in testing perform well or are mature, they go to the main branch.
Community: Community packages are those made by users in concert with the official developers and integrated into the Alpine packages. They are user supported. Support could end if the user ends support with respect to Alpine work. For example, could not include substitution in next release due to lack of support by the upstream author. They are in edge and when accepted, go to the community branch.
Edge: New packages come into testing repositories of the edge Alpine version and are those made by any contributor or man power on Alpine. The edge contains unstable current development content. This branch has no release linked or related to Alpine. They are in testing and when accepted, go to the community branch.

By default only the main repository is enabled, most users will probably want to enable the community repository, to enable a repository remove the # in front of the url along with any blank space.

(Example) Disabled: