Create Alpine Linux PV DomU

To create an Alpine Linux PV DomU you will need a Dom0 and an Alpine Linux iso, here we will use the "mini" iso. The first step it to mount the image and extract the kernel and initramfs images:

# mkdir -p /mnt/alpine_iso
# mount -o loop /path/to/the/iso /mnt/alpine_iso
# cp /mnt/alpine_iso/boot/grsec /path/to/save/kernel/
# cp /mnt/alpine_iso/boot/grsec.gz /path/to/save/kernel/
# umount /mnt/alpine_iso
# rm -f /mnt/alpine_iso

Now we have the kernel at /path/to/save/kernel/grsec and the initramfs at /path/to/save/kernel/grsec.gz. Now we should create an empty file, that will be the hard drive of the DomU, you can also use a physical partition if you like (in this example we are using a 2GB disk):

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/disk.img bs=1M count=2000

The next step is to create a basic configuration file, so we can launch the DomU (save it where you like, although the most common place is /etc/xen/).

# Alpine Linux PV DomU

# Kernel paths for install
kernel = "/path/to/save/kernel/grsec"
ramdisk = "/path/to/save/kernel/grsec.gz"
extra="alpine_dev=xvdc:iso9660 modules=loop,squashfs,sd-mod,usb-storage modloop=/boot/grsec.modloop.squashfs console=hvc0"

# Path to HDD and iso file
disk = ['file:/path/to/disk.img,xvda,w']
disk = ['file:/path/to/the/iso,xvdc:cdrom,r']

# Network configuration
vif = ['bridge=br0']

# DomU settings
memory = 128
name = "alpine"
vcpus = 1

Now that we have all the necessary files, we can start the DomU to proceed with the install:

# xl create -c /path/to/conf