Installation
Usual Hardware Requirements
- At least 100 MB of RAM (A desktop system may require up to 1 GB.)
- The "sys" or "data" run modes (see below) require a storage device.
Install Procedure
Similar to many other distributions, the first installation steps usually consist of
- Downloading one of the latest stable-release ISOs, and comparing the downloaded image's
sha265sumchecksum to the one in the corresponding*.sha256checksum file, and to verify its GPG signature. - Either burning the ISO onto a blank CD with your favorite CD burning software, or creating a bootable USB drive.
- Booting from the CD or USB drive, and logging in to the command line as user
rootwith its initally empty password.
(For installing on ARM systems, see Alpine on ARM.)
However, contrary to most other distributions, this initially booted Alpinelinux system (command line environment) is first copied entirely into RAM, and runs completely independent from the (slow) initial boot media.
And then, the setup-alpine script, and other tools, are used to configure the initial Alpinelinux system, install further packages, and prepare the system for the next boot.
The system can boot into three general Alpinelinux run modes:
diskless mode This is the default boot mode of the .iso images. With the setup-alpine selection "disk=none" the whole system runs from RAM. Customized configuration and package selections may still be preserved on permanent storage media by using lbu, the "local backup tool", and by using a local package cache. The boot device may, for example, be some read-only CD, a USB drive, or a Compact Flash or SD card.
data mode This mode also runs mostly from RAM, with the exception of a selected writable data partition that gets mounted as /var. This mode is better-suited when some larger amount of data needs to be preserved between reboots, e.g. mailspools, databases, or log files.
sys mode This is a traditional hard-disk install. The setup-alpine script defaults to creating three partitions on the selected disk, for /boot, swap and / (filesystem root). This mode may, for example, be used for generic desktop, and development machines.
Additional Hints
Booting from external devices
Insert the media to the proper drive or port of the computer and turn on the computer. But depending on the computer it may be necessary, e.g. to press the `F12` key to get a selection to choose the media to boot from.
The setup-alpine questions
The setup-alpine script will ask to configure several things, including:
- Keyboard map (e.g. us and variant of us-nodeadkeys)
- Hostname (The name for the computer.)
- Network options
- DNS options: Not recommended to use 8.8.8.8 (google servers).
- Timezone
- Proxy ("None" to connect directly to the internet.)
- SSH (Openssh is part of the default images.)
- NTP (Chrony is part of the default images.)
- Mode (Select between "diskless", "data" or "sys" as described above.)
Booting and using the new system
After the installation is completed, depending on the run mode, the initial installation media may be removed and the system can be booted from the newly installed device. After booting one may read Alpine post install packages and setup configurations for new users and find further areas to customize the new system.
Further Documentation
Post-Install
- Alpine post install packages and setup configurations for new users
- 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)
- Init System (OpenRC) (Configure a service to automatically boot at next reboot)
- Setting up Xorg
- 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)
- Hosting services on Alpine(Links to several mail/web/ssh server setup pages)
- Changing passwords
- Setting the timezone (Not needed for the default musl- or uClibc-based installs)