Ethernet

Ethernet is a relatively generic term that mostly means "wired internet". WiFi is wireless, ethernet involves some sort of wire (usually an RJ45 style jack with copper cables inside).

When installing Alpine linux, the setup-alpine script should have given you the option to setup ethernet/networking. If you need to setup ethernet after installation you can use setup-interfaces script.

setup-interfaces

Start the script by running this command:

# setup-interfaces

Available interfaces are: eth0 wlan0.
Enter '?' for help on bridges, bonding and vlans.
Which one do you want to initialize? (or '?' or 'done') [eth0]

choose eth0 (or your Ethernet device, Ethernet devices usually start with e )

if asked:

Ip address for eth0? (or 'dhcp', 'none', '?') [dhcp]

choose dhcp

Now it will ask Do you to do any manual network configuration? (y/n) [n]

unless you need to do manual network configuration choose n, if you need to do manual network configuration choose y and it will open the /etc/network/interfaces file.

Configuration

The above script generally configures Networking service by adding the networking service to boot run level and starts the service.

If for some reason, this needs to be done manually, here are the steps:

To start (or restart) the networking service:

# rc-service networking --quiet start &

To add networking service so that it starts on boot:

# rc-update add networking boot

Troubleshooting

Sometimes an ethernet interface will not be detected by the installation media. In this case, you may have to use an alternate interface for installation (e.g. a usb to ethernet adapter) upon which after install / reboot the interface will display. You may also try installing any missing packages that contain the drivers.