Alpine on Compact Flash

Starting with Alpine Linux 1.9, the ISO image is (mostly) compatible with Compact Flash. These instructions assume you are starting with a running Linux System (Alpine Linux 1.8.x, debian, Gentoo, Redhat, etc.)

Download a iso-file containing Alpine
Insert the Compact Flash Card, and format as vfat; for example:

 mkdosfs /dev/sda1
 syslinux /dev/sda1

Mount the iso, and copy the files to the CF Card:

 su
 mkdir loopfs
 mount alpine-1.9*.iso loopfs
 mount /media/sda1
 cp -av loopfs/* /media/sda1
 umount loopfs

Change the syslinux.cfg on the Compact Flash Card

Most cards are mounted as IDE drives (sda1) and not as usbdrives. Edit /media/sda1/syslinux.cfg and replace usbdrive with sda1

Also, many CF card readers don't support DMA correctly, so you may need to add nodma to the append line.

boot Alpine

Insert the CF Card and reboot.

When your computer has booted you will get prompted for a username.
On a clean AlpineLinux you just enter root and no password and you will get logged on to your Alpine linux.

Alpine Linux has some special applications that helps you to use it in the way you want.
Some of the first scripts you are suggested to use is:

setup-alpine (Configures all basic things on your Alpine Linux)
setup-acf (was named setup-webconf before Alpine 1.9 beta 4) (Configures ACF (webconfiguration) so you can manage your box through https)

Note: Just type any of the above commands on your console and hit Enter to execute the script.

Other useful pages

Configure Networking
Setting up a SSH server (Using ssh is a good way to administer your box remotely)
Package Management (apk) (How to add/remove packages on your Alpine)
Init System (rc) (Configure a service to automatically boot at next reboot)
Alpine local backup (lbu) (Permanently store your modifications in case your box needs reboot)