Alpine Install: from a iso to a virtualbox machine with external disc

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Revision as of 23:04, 18 August 2019 by Mckaygerhard (talk | contribs) (→‎Preparing the medium origin to install: use netboot due are more common for all flavours)
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Overall description: Alpine Installation from a official disc/iso downloaded to a real hard disk by the usage of VirtualBox machine as the real machine, where will be single OS only.

This document will guide you to install Alpine into a real hard disk device but through the VirtualBox virtual machine acting as real machine, use if want to install to a real hard disk device externally but no way to boot it so can use in VirtualBox virtual machine . For others ways to install see at the Alpine_newbie_install_manual

Terminology

  • Host machine: will be your real machine with installed operating system that have installed the VirtualBox software and "will host" the target operating system, in that case Alpine.
  • Guest machine: will be your target machine where Alpine will be installed, emulated by the host operating system using the VirtualBox software installed in the real machine.
  • Reserved RAM: will be the amount of RAM that will be need to share exclusively to the virtual machine created by the VirtualBox software in the host machine, stolen from the real RAM.
  • External disc: will be the storage medium device attached as target for the emulated machine or "guest machine", where the Alpine will be installed.

Requirements

  • In the host machine we need installed the virtualbox program from VirtualBox software
  • In the host machine we need at least 1Gb of RAM, recommended 2Gb of RAM installed
  • The guest machine need 512Mb RAM, but recommended 1Gb reserved if desktop software will be installed
  • In the host machine we need installed wget or a web browser to download install medium

Preparing the medium origin to install

Download the source medium to install and put into your home, there's more hardware medium sources to download, like the s390x and ppc64le, but due VirtualBox only emulates x86, x64 and arm hardware only, will list those here.

The source medium to install will be as following format: http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v<VERSION>/releases/<ARCH>/alpine-netboot-<VERSION>.0-<ARCH>.iso where ARCH and VERSION could be the following for VirtualBox virtual machines:

  • <ARCH> can be
    • x86: The most and well know i386 to i686 of 32-bit machines.
    • x86_64: The popular AMD64 compatible 64-bit x86 based machines.
    • armhf: The newer ARM hard-float for newer, more powerful 32-bit devices alongside 64-bit
  • <VERSION> can be
    • latest-stable for a more up to date without taking care of numbered
    • 3.10 where the UEFI started to become a option supported
    • 3.8 the most recommended for machines between 2012 to 2016
    • 3.6 the most recommended for machines very older

Currently most modern hardware are 64-bit and AMD64 or ARM based; so the downloaded iso can be a url as:

  • For "x86_64" <ARCH> and "3.10" <VERSION> will be:

http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.10/releases/x86_64/alpine-netboot-3.10.0-x86_64.iso

  • For "armhf" <ARCH> and "3.9" <VERSION> will be:

http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.10/releases/armhf/alpine-netboot-3.10.1-armhf.tar.gz

Graphical download: Just point the web browser to that url and the download of the iso file will start. A file with .iso extension type, with name like "alpine-netboot-..." will be downloaded. So launch your browser as: firefox http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/releases/</nowiki> and choose the arch (armhf or x86_64) and then get the netboot iso or the netboot tarball.

Command line method: just open a terminal and ejecuted: wget -c -t8 --no-check-certificate http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v<VERSION>/releases/<ARCH>/alpine-netboot-<VERSION>.0-<ARCH>.iso, so for example:

  • For "x86" <ARCH> and "3.8" <VERSION> will be:

wget -c -t8 --no-check-certificate http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.8/releases/x86/alpine-netboot-3.8.0-x86.iso

  • For "x86_64" <ARCH> and "3.10" <VERSION> will be:

wget -c -t8 --no-check-certificate http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.10/releases/x86_64/alpine-netboot-3.10.0-x86_64.iso

You must take care the place where you run the command, in that place will be downloaded the file.

Preparing the medium target to install

Please take care of your attached devices.. for best care results only use those involved in the process, so only put the disc (that can be a USB flash, MMC card or external drive) attached, and remove all others that will no to be use. We will assume only one internal disc (that obviously cannot be removed) and one external disk attached.

The external disc will be detected and the operating system will create a new device representation, such like /dev/sdb commonly. In Linux systems you an detect the recently attached disk with following command:

/bin/dmesg | tail -n 50| grep 'Attached SCSI' | cut -d' ' -f4

This will output [sde] for our example installation. Caution due that previously command only will work if you recently attached the new external disk where the system will be installed.

Later with the detection of the disk, create the representation for the VirtualBox virtual machine, the detection will be put in /dev/ parameter.. so if the disk was detect as [sde] you must use it without "["/"]" sings, the command for creating the virtual disk will be:

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/sde -filename $HOME/rawdisk-sdb.vmdk

Tip: in Linux if you don't have "disk" group access need to perform permission to device to 666, so take care of
Warning: We assume there are only two disk, the internal and the external, here detected as [sde] for practical reasons, commonly will be detected as [sdb]


Preparing the virtual machine to install

Start the VirtualBox software program.

  1. In the main window create a new virtual machine by clicking the blue spark New button. Will open a new window with the following questions:
    1. Will ask for a name for the virtual like "alpine-desktop-try1".
    2. The Type of the Operating system choose "linux"
    3. The version choose "other linux" and must match with the <ARCH> choosed (like x86)
    4. By push "Next" button to continue to create the machine
  2. Second are RAM of the virtual machine, choose memory as 512MB minimum amount of. and push "Next" button.
  3. A new windows with a Hard disk assistant will opened
    1. First choose the option "Choose a existing hard disk drive" and push the "Folder button" aside.
    2. An open file dialog window will be opened, search for the "VMDK" file rawdisk-sdb.vmdkand choose it
    3. Choose the dynamically allocated and push the "Next" button.
    4. By push on "Create" the virtual machine will be ready to use
  4. Now the main window show you the "alpine-desktop-try1" created virtual machine, select them
    1. By push on "Configuration" yellow button go to the storage part and push it over
    2. Select the disc drive icon for CD/DVD rom and push on the again CD/DVD drive icon at the right
    3. Mini menu will opened, choose to select and external file event the host CD/DVD drive
    4. A file open dialog will open.. search to the downloaded iso of Alpine and select it
    5. Once defined the iso file to boot, push on the "Ok" button and virtual machines are finished.
  5. Push on the green arrow that said "Start" to start the virtual machine and boot up the iso
Alpine configuration commonly used of a virtual machine on virtual box virtual machine
Alpine configuration commonly used of a virtual machine on virtual box virtual machine

Booting the Alpine ISO disc

When the machine start, you must be sure to choose the Optical drive (commonly named CD/DVD Rom drive), so the disc/iso will boot and after a while a command line shell will show you:

Tip: If your system are not configure to boot from a CD/DVD drive must be configure in the BIOS, ask to your vendor or technical support, VirtualBox need to hit the F12 key to choose boot medium
After boot up.. a command line shell of a complete ready to use Alpine will show you
After boot up.. a command line shell of a complete ready to use Alpine will show you

The setup install process

After boot up.. a command line shell of a complete ready to use Alpine will show you

  • At the login: to appear, type root and press enter.
  • Run the setup-alpine script
    • Choose your keyboard layout. If you don't know your keyboard layout choose us. By example for most Latin American a es are enough, for Russian (an maybe Cirilyc ones) ru are enough.
    • Host name, which will be the name of your computer, a good format are pcv-alp32-virtual1 where "pcv means "PC virtual", "alp32" means "Alpine 32bit" and "virtual1" means the first virtual machine to try.
    • Choose your network card, most people can just go with the default (press enter), take in consideration that Wired connections are more stable and faster rather than Wireless connections, also at the most modern the Wireless card, the lest supported or still not well tested.
      • Most people will use DHCP, so press enter again, if you have Internet connection fro ISP most settings are just DHCP so all will be configured automatically
      • You will be asked if you want to do any manual network configuration, press enter for no
    • Type in your root password twice.
    • Choose a time zone, you can get a list by pressing ?. If you want a sub zone, e.g. Africa, type in Africa and press enter, if again you type ? and enter, it will give you a list of sub zones in Africa. By example for Venezuela the zone are "America/Caracas" .
    • Press f to choose the fastest mirror; those mirrors something for strange reason are not available in some countries. (WIP put here a good mirror that never fail)
    • Choose an SSH server, this allows you to remotely manage your machine. OpenSSH is what the big distro's use, Dropbear is a tiny SSH replacement. Choose openssh for able to connect using command line from Unix-like systems.
    • Choose an NTP client, this keeps your machine's time accurate using an Internet time server. Openntpd is what the big distro's use, while Chrony is a tiny replacement.
    • Choose a disk you want to install Alpine onto, as an example, sda is the first disk in your computer.
      • Now choose how you would like to use it, for this guide, choose sys, this will install the entire OS onto your hard drive
      • You are given a final chance to back out, type in Y to continue
  • The installation is now complete and you will be asked to reboot. Type in poweroff and press enter

After install the system emulated will turn off (virtual machine will goes down and close the window), now you can remove the external disk and use it in another machine (by puting into the target machine as first internal disk), or just always use the VirtualBox virtual machine with that disk.

Finishing the installation

If you try to start that installation maybe you cannot see a graphical window system? take easy and get calm down.. in Alpine all are made by the right way.. so if user need a desktop.. user can install a desktop follow the next: Alpine newbie apk packages or bypass and go directly to Alpine newbie desktops

For others ways to install see at the Alpine_newbie_install_manual

Documents series

Previous required What's next to read
Alpine newbie install manual Alpine newbie apk packages

See Also

  1. Newbie_Alpine_Ecosystem
  2. Alpine newbie apk packages
  3. Alpine newbie desktops
  4. Alpine newbie developer
  5. Alpine newbie lammers