Tutorials and Howtos

Todo: This material needs to be re-organized .. as Howtos are smaller articles and tutorials are more detailed document both need to be reordered as independent sections

Welcome to Tutorials and Howtos, a place of basic and advanced configuration tasks for your Alpine Linux.

The tutorials are hands-on and the reader is expected to try and achieve the goals described in each step, possibly with the help of a good example. The output in one step is the starting point for the following step.

Howtos are smaller articles explaining how to perform a particular task with Alpine Linux, that expects a minimal knowledge from reader to perform actions.

IMPORTANT: contributions on those pages must be complete articles as well as requesting topics to be covered, don't override already made contributions. If you want to request a topic, please add your request in this page's Discussion.

Howtos

Warning: Work in Progress: reorganizing as asked in oldid 16474

Applications

• Ansible (Configuration management)

Servers: deploy in production

• Alpine production deploy
  • Production web server: Lighttpd‎‎
  • Production database: MySql
  • Production LAMP system: Lighttpd + PHP + MySQL‎‎
• Alpine production monitoring
  • Cacti: traffic analysis and monitoring network
  • Zabbix - the professional complete manager
• Kubernetes
  • K8s Building a K8s Cluster on Alpine Linux

Telephony

• Setting up Zaptel/Asterisk on Alpine
  • Setting up Streaming an Asterisk Channel
• Freepbx on Alpine Linux
• FreePBX_V3 (FreeSWITCH, Asterisk GUI web acces tool)
• 2600hz (FreeSWITCH, Asterisk GUI web access tool)
• Kamailio (SIP Server, formerly OpenSER)

Mail

• Small-Time Email with Exim and Dovecot (A simple configuration for your home network.)
• Hosting services on Alpine (Hosting mail, webservices and other services)
  • Hosting Web/Email services on Alpine
• ISP Mail Server HowTo
  • ISP Mail Server Upgrade 2.x
  • ISP Mail Server 2.x HowTo (Beta, please test)
  • ISP Mail Server 3.x HowTo
• Roundcube (Webmail system)
• Setting up postfix with virtual domains
• Protecting your email server with Alpine
• Setting up clamsmtp
• Setting up dovecot with imap and ssl
• relay email to gmail (msmtp, mailx, sendmail

HTTP

• Lighttpd
  • Lighttpd Https access
  • Setting Up Lighttpd with PHP
  • Setting Up Lighttpd With FastCGI
• Cherokee
• Nginx
  • Nginx with PHP
  • Nginx as reverse proxy with acme (letsencrypt)
• Apache
  • Apache with php-fpm
  • Setting Up Apache with PHP
  • Apache authentication: NTLM Single Signon

• High Availability High Performance Web Cache (uCarp + HAProxy for High Availability Services such as Squid web proxy)

• Setting up Transparent Squid Proxy (Covers Squid proxy and URL Filtering system)
  • SqStat (Script to look at active squid users connections)
  • Obtaining user information via SNMP (Using squark-auth-snmp as a Squid authentication helper)
• Setting up Explicit Squid Proxy

• Drupal (Content Management System (CMS) written in PHP)
• WordPress (Web software to create website or blog)
• MediaWiki (Free web-based wiki software application)
• DokuWiki
• Darkhttpd
• Tomcat
• Kopano (Microsoft Outlook compatible Groupware)

Other Servers

• Setting up a ssh-server (Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)
  • HOWTO OpenSSH 2FA with password and Google Authenticator (A simple two factor setup for OpenSSH)

• Configure OpenLDAP (Installing and configuring the Alpine package for OpenLDAP)
• Setting up a nfs-server
• Setting up a samba-server (standard file sharing)
• Setting up a samba-ad-dc (Active Directory compatible domain controller)
• Phpizabi (Social Networking Platform)
• Statusnet (Microblogging Platform)
• Pastebin (Pastebin software application)
• Setting up Transmission (bittorrent) with Clutch WebUI

• Patchwork (Patch review management system)
• Redmine (Project management system)
• Request-Tracker (Ticket system)
• OsTicket (Ticket system)
• Trac (Enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects)

• Cgit
• Roundcube (Webmail system)
• Glpi (Manage inventory of technical resources)

• How to setup a Alpine Linux mirror
• Cups
• NgIRCd (Server for Internet Relay Chat/IRC)
• How To Setup Your Own IRC Network (Using charybdis and atheme-iris)
• OpenVCP (VServer Control Panel)
• Mahara (E-portfolio and social networking system)
• Using chrony, gpsd, and a garmin LVC 18 as a Stratum 1 NTP source
• Sending SMS using gnokii
• Internet Protocol television (IPTV)
• UniFi_Controller
• DNSCrypt-Proxy Encrypt and authenticate DNS calls from your system
• Odoo

Monitoring

• Setting up collectd
• Traffic monitoring
• Setting up traffic monitoring using rrdtool (and snmp)
• Setting up monitoring using rrdtool (and rrdcollect)
• Cacti: traffic analysis and monitoring network (Front-end for rrdtool networking monitor)
• LTTng (Kernel and userspace tracing)
• Zabbix - the professional complete manager (Monitor and track the status of network services and hardware)
• Setting up A Network Monitoring and Inventory System (Nagios + OpenAudit and related components)
  • Setting up NRPE daemon (Performs remote Nagios checks)
• Smokeping (Network latency monitoring)
  • Setting up MRTG and Smokeping to Monitor Bandwidth Usage and Network Latency
• Ntop (NetFlow collection and analysis using a remote fprobe instance)
• Cvechecker (Compare installed packages for Common Vulnerabilities Exposure)

• IP Accounting
• Obtaining user information via SNMP (Using squark-auth-snmp as a Squid authentication helper)
• SqStat (Script to look at active squid users connections)

• Piwik (A real time web analytics software program)
• Awstats (Free log file analyzer)
• Intrusion Detection using Snort
  • Intrusion Detection using Snort, Sguil, Barnyard and more
• Dglog (Log analyzer for the web content filter DansGuardian)

• Webmin (A web-based interface for Linux system)
• PhpPgAdmin (Web-based administration tool for PostgreSQL)
• PhpMyAdmin (Web-based administration tool for MYSQL)
• PhpSysInfo (A simple application that displays information about the host it's running on)
• Linfo

• Setting up lm_sensors

• ZoneMinder video camera security and surveillance

Backup and data migration

• 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
• Migrating data
• Rsnapshot - setting up periodic backups

Desktop

• Alpine and UEFI
• Default applications
• Desktop cloud
  • EyeOS (Cloud Computing Desktop)
  • Nextcloud (Self hostable cloud suite - Dropbox Alternative)
  • Oneye (Cloud Computing Desktop - Dropbox Alternative)
  • OwnCloud (Installing OwnCloud)
  • Seafile: setting up your own private cloud
• Desktop environments and Window managers (overall information only)
  • Desktop Environments
    • Gnome
    • KDE
    • LXQt
    • MATE
    • Xfce
  • Stacking (floating) window managers
    • X11
      • Openbox
    • Wayland
      • LabWC
  • Tiling (dynamic) window managers
    • X11
      • AwesomeWM
      • dwm
    • Wayland
      • River
      • Sway
• Printer Setup
• Remote Desktop Server
• Sound Setup
  • PipeWire
• Suspend on LID close
• Xorg Setup

Networking

• Configure Networking
• Connecting to a wireless access point
• Bonding
• Vlan
• Bridge
• Bridge wlan0 to eth0
• OpenVSwitch
• How to configure static routes
• Configure a Wireguard interface (wg)

• Alpine Wall - How-To Alpine Wall - Alpine Wall User's Guide (a new firewall management framework)

• PXE boot

• Using serial modem
• Using HSDPA modem
• Setting up Satellite Internet Connection
• Using Alpine on Windows domain with IPSEC isolation

• Setting up a SSH server (Using SSH is the preferred way to administer your box remotely)
  • HOWTO OpenSSH 2FA with password and Google Authenticator (A simple two factor setup for OpenSSH)
• How to setup a wireless access point (Setting up Secure Wireless AP w/ WPA encryption with bridge to wired network)
• How to set up Alpine as a wireless router (Setting up a firewalled, Wireless AP with wired network on a Pi Zero W)
• Setting up a OpenVPN server with Alpine (Allowing single users or devices to remotely connect to your network)
• Experiences with OpenVPN-client on ALIX.2D3

• Generating SSL certs with ACF
• Setting up unbound DNS server
• Setting up nsd DNS server
• TinyDNS Format
• Fault Tolerant Routing with Alpine Linux
• Freeradius Active Directory Integration
• Multi_ISP (Dual-ISP setup with load-balancing and automatic failover)
• GNUnet

Other Architectures

ARM

• Alpine on ARM

Raspberry Pi

• Raspberry Pi - Bluetooth Speaker
• Raspberry Pi - Installation
• Raspberry Pi - Router with VPN
• Raspberry Pi - Router with VPN (IPv6)
• Raspberry Pi - Sys mode install
• Raspberry Pi - Video Receiver (network video decoder using Rasperry Pi and omxplayer)
• Raspberry Pi 3 - Browser Client - kiosk or digital sign
• Raspberry Pi 3 - Configuring it as wireless access point -AP Mode
• Raspberry Pi 3 - Setting Up Bluetooth
• Raspberry Pi 4 - Persistent system acting as a NAS and Time Machine

IBM Z (IBM z Systems)

• s390x - Installation

PowerPC

• Powerpc64le - Installation

Post-Install

• CPU frequency scaling
• Enable Community repository (Providing additional packages)
• Enable Serial Console on Boot
• Init System (OpenRC) (Configure a service to automatically boot at next reboot)
  • Init System - Multiple Instances of Services
  • Init System - Writing Init Scripts
• Oracle Java (installation)
• Package Management (apk) (How to add/remove packages on your Alpine)
  • Package Management - Comparison with other distros
• Running glibc programs
• Setting up a new user
• Upgrading Alpine

Remote Administration

• ACF
  • ACF - changing passwords
  • ACF - setup (Configures ACF (webconfiguration/webmin) so you can manage your box through https)
• ssh-server setup (Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)
  • OpenSSH 2FA (A simple two factor setup for OpenSSH)

Storage

• Disk setup (manual)
• DRBD: Disk Replication
• Filesystems
  • Burning ISOs
• iSCSI Setup
  • iSCSI Raid and Clustered File Systems
  • iSCSI Target (TCM)/LinuxIO (LIO)
• LVM Setup
  • LVM on GPT-labeled disks
  • LVM on GPT-labeled disks (updated)
  • LVM on LUKS
• RAID
  • Raid Administration
  • Setting up a software RAID array
• ZFS
  • Root on ZFS with native encryption
  • Setting up ZFS on LUKS

Virtualization

• Xen Dom0 (Setting up Alpine as a dom0 for Xen hypervisor)
• Xen Dom0 on USB or SD
• Create Alpine Linux PV DomU
• Xen PCI Passthrough
• Xen LiveCD
• QEMU
• KVM (Setting up Alpine as a KVM hypervisor)
• LXC (Setting up a Linux container in Alpine Linux)
• Docker
• Install Alpine on VirtualBox
• Install Alpine on VMWare

Tutorials

Warning: Work in Progress: reorganizing as asked in oldid 16474

• DIY Fully working Alpine Linux for Allwinner and Other ARM SOCs
• Replacing non-Alpine Linux with Alpine remotely
• High performance SCST iSCSI Target on Linux software Raid
• Fault Tolerant Routing with Alpine Linux
• Experiences with OpenVPN-client on ALIX.2D3

• ISP Mail Server HowTo (Postfix+PostfixAdmin+DoveCot+Roundcube+ClamAV+Spamd - A full-serivce ISP mail server)
  • ISP Mail Server Upgrade 2.x
  • ISP Mail Server 2.x HowTo (Beta, please test)
• High Availability High Performance Web Cache (uCarp + HAProxy for High Availability Services such as Squid web proxy)
• Setting up A Network Monitoring and Inventory System (Nagios + OpenAudit and related components)
• Streaming Security Camera Video with VLC
• Dynamic Multipoint VPN (DMVPN) combined with Small_Office_Services

Newbie corner

• Alpine newbie (overall information)
• Alpine newbie developer (Developers: compilers, IDEs and tools)
  • Alpine newbie developer: full stack web
  • Alpine newbie developer: Git management web frontend gitea
• How to get regular stuff working some notes on need-to-know topics