Alpine newbie apk packages

Packages provide the basic components of an operating system, along with shared libraries, applications, services, and documentation.

This document will guide new users through basic needs about:

1. installing packages (software to install) and ..
2. minimal started setups (configurations to the system).

If more in depth information is needed, see the Alpine package management behavior section in this document page.

New users: hostname and network wired connection

After installing Alpine Linux, you might need to configure your system to properly work for your use case, since Alpine's main utilities are busybox-based:

Setting the hostname

A hostname is a unique name created to identify a machine on a network, configured in /etc/hostname. To change the computer's hostname edit the /etc/hostname file or execute the following command (make sure to replace myhostname with your desired hostname):

# echo "myhostname" > /etc/hostname

You should also add the hostname to your hosts file (/etc/hosts):

127.0.0.1   localhost localhost.localdomain
127.0.1.1   myhostname myhostname.localdomain
::1         localhost localhost.localdomain

Network configuration

There are three types of internet connections: wired (Ethernet), wireless (WiFi) and PPTP (modems). This section will focus only on wired connections, for wireless configuration read the Connecting to a wireless access point article.

This section will help to update and configure your network interfaces, please plug your network cable in and then go to the console and run the DNS and interfaces configuration scripts.

cat > /etc/network/interfaces << EOF
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
EOF

setup-interfaces -a

echo -e "\n" | setup-dns 8.8.8.8

rc-service networking restart

Note: Due you just install we will assumed you already have network available by wired connection, if you have speciall need respect newtworking please read Alpine newbie network and internet connections to property setup your internet connection

Default root configurations

The root user are the god of the Linux Alpine system, run only the most deep in task, and must not be used as normal user neither for common task. For common users the last section of this page document will show you all the needs.

When Alpine Linux is first installed by default it comes with the user root with no password set so the first step after boot into alpine fresh install are set a password to the user root, if during install was run setup-alpine to change root password, that will be already set and can be changed with those setup steps described here. More info in the Setting users wiki page.

cat > /root/.cshrc << EOF
unsetenv DISPLAY || true
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth
EOF

cp /root/.cshrc /root/.profile

echo "secret_new_root_password" | chpasswd

Of course you must changed "secret_new_root_password" by a proper password provided by you.

New users: common needed package to install

Packages and programs on alpine are described on Alpine_newbie: Packages overall info.

Note: if you do not wired and only have modems or wifi, runs in any case those commands previusly described in network setup, and later after go to specific wiki pages Alpine newbie network and internet connections for that configurations. alpine linux need network internet connection available due still does not distribute a complete media install disc only minimal isos due extended isos are only for x86 and x64 machines

enable repository packages

Repositories are need due are where will be retrieve those packages of programs as described on Alpine_newbie: Packages overall info, run:

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
EOF

apk update

install basic tools

As explain in Alpine Linux:Overview, the system always will be minimalist, so if you expected a behavior like others linux those will be provided a minimal similitude to, runs:

apk add attr dialog dialog-doc bash bash-doc bash-completion grep grep-doc

apk add util-linux util-linux-doc pciutils usbutils binutils findutils readline

apk add man man-pages lsof lsof-doc less less-doc nano nano-doc curl curl-doc

export PAGER=less

manpages in alpine

You noted in previous section, that some packages has a "xxx-doc" related.. as explained beforein Alpine Linux:Overview, the system always will be minimalist, and if you wants a manpage of any program on a package of software, always must install the "program" and also "program-doc" related part package.

Take in consideration that in some earlier version of alpine not all package have a doc package yet available.

coreutils libc and utmps in alpine

Some programs like wall(1) depends on a libc feature named "utmp", that cannot be implemented in the libc in a secure way. For this reason, musl (the libc that Alpine uses) does not implement utmp; instead, it provides stubs that do nothing.

That is why programs that use utmp - such as wall, who or w - output nothing but still exit successfully. This is expected, a feature, and cannot be quick-fixed.

Some has pretty solution, by example a utmps login monitoring are only in "edge" repositories, so let's do that for some functionality aware, lest activate edge repository, install temporally software and later deactivating:

Warning: Do not install "all/always" packages from edge, just only those not present in main/community, in the commands, coreutils ad/or ubase must be installed before change to edge mixed, if not, then future security patches not will be installed due edge are unstable only and security patches are applied to mains estable ones, so that's why in the next commands we first install coreutils and later the change to edge to install the utmps package.

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
EOF

apk update

apk add  coreutils coreutils-doc

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community
EOF

apk update

apk add utmps

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
EOF

apk update

Note: take in consideration that there's a more little thin alternative to coreutils named ubase (with a doc also packaged) that provides better functionality rather than build-in busybox but less than coreutils offers

fonts and fonts configuration

Default internal fb fonts (tty console) or xorg fonts (desktops) are enough for defaulters, but if you can't see your language, you need to install the font that has glyphs (little picture) created for it; font-misc-misc are installed with X server so fonts for most languages (Japanese, Korean, Latin, Cyrillic) are already covered except for Arabic, Persian, Thai, Tamil, etc from inspecting the Wikipedia Page left column on languages for article translation. For complete info about fonts in alpine see Fonts configurations and settings in Alpine this section will resume and configure most usefully needs for users:

Those selection will cover most used languages and best fit for many setups:

apk add terminus-font ttf-inconsolata ttf-dejavu font-bitstream-* font-noto font-noto-* ttf-font-awesome font-noto-extra

Those selection will added special support for cirilyc like russian and serbian or similar setups:

apk add font-vollkorn font-misc-cyrillic font-mutt-misc font-screen-cyrillic font-winitzki-cyrillic font-cronyx-cyrillic

Those selection will cover special language for Asiatic like Japanese or similar setups:

apk add terminus-font font-noto font-noto-thai font-noto-tibetan font-ipa font-sony-misc font-daewoo-misc font-jis-misc

Following will added some Chinese partial support fonts setups:

apk add font-isas-misc

Those selection will cover in most manner Arabic, Thai, Ethiopic, Hebrew, Romanian, Persian, Korean Hangul, Greek, Persian, Russian/Slavic Cyrillic, Macedonian/Serbian, Armenian, Georgian, Lao, Devanagari, Urdu (Hindustani as in Northern India and Pakistan), Cherokee, Thaana languajes support for desktops setups:

apk add terminus-font font-bitstream-* font-noto font-noto-extra font-arabic-misc 

apk add font-misc-cyrillic font-mutt-misc font-screen-cyrillic font-winitzki-cyrillic font-cronyx-cyrillic

apk add font-noto-arabic font-noto-armenian font-noto-cherokee font-noto-devanagari font-noto-ethiopic font-noto-georgian

apk add font-noto-hebrew font-noto-lao font-noto-malayalam font-noto-tamil font-noto-thaana font-noto-thai

The system font directory is located at /usr/share/fonts; user font location is at ~/.font due security. Configurations are reign by X server, using the ~/.Xresources file as main first reading of.

Configuration are made per user into ~/.fonts.confbut are XLM made and hard to configure.. more cheap and easy are into the ~/.Xresources file.

The following will setup for all users a minimal resource usage for fonts.. no antialiasing.. no hint... :

cat > /home/*/.Xresources << EOF
Xft.antialias: 0
Xft.rgba:      rgb
Xft.autohint:  0
Xft.hinting:   1
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
EOF

apk packages for sound base

Currently alsa packages are the minimal for linux Alpine sound, in desktops theres the gstreamer, phonon and pulseaudio frameworks but that's will be managed into the desktops wiki pages:

apk add alsa-utils alsa-utils-doc alsa-lib alsaconf

Tip: Moder machines have dual GPU and dual Sound cards, the second ones are always as primary and are a HDMI class sound card, commonly are bad detected and must be take care of that

Alsa service is not started on install, you need to start it and to add it on rc.

rc-service alsa start
rc-update add alsa

New users: management of users and logins

When Alpine Linux is first installed by default it comes with the user root with no password set so the first step after boot into alpine fresh install are set a password to the user root, if during isntall was run setup-alpine to change root password, that will be already assigned and can be changed with those setup steps described here. More info in the Setting users wiki page.

Users creation and defaults

Only root can manage users. Creating an account allows it to have it's own $HOME directory and allows you to limit access to the configuration of the operating system for security reasons. So the following commands will first setup root environment login and then assing a new password:

cat > /root/.cshrc << EOF
unsetenv DISPLAY || true
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth
EOF

cp /root/.cshrc /root/.profile

echo "secret_new_root_password" | chpasswd

The remote management cannot be done with root directly by default, due ssh security, so we need to setup an remote connection account to made "su" once connected.

The most recommended it's having a access user here named "remote" and normal general usage user here named "general" for convenience, in the next commands we will setup a very hardened limited environment for any new user and created those two users:

mkdir -p /etc/skel/

cat > /etc/skel/.logout << EOF
history -c
/bin/rm -f /opt/remote/.mysql_history
/bin/rm -f /opt/remote/.history
/bin/rm -f /opt/remote/.bash_history
EOF

cat > /etc/skel/.cshrc << EOF
set autologout = 30
set prompt = "$ "
set history = 0
set ignoreeof
EOF

cp /etc/skel/.cshrc /etc/skel/.profile

adduser -D --home /opt/remote --shell /bin/ash remote

echo "secret_new_remote_user_password" | chpasswd

adduser -D --shell /bin/bash general

echo "secret_new_general_user_password" | chpasswd

Tip: "general" and "remote" are the names of the users, MUST be only lowercase, no spaces with no symbols

Note that those users are created with minimal settings. Of course you must changed "secret_new_remote_user_password" by a proper password provided by you, also equaly with "secret_new_general_user_password" too.

Users management and system access

But this user will not have enough privileges for a desktop made purposes, Alpine comes with high security so administrator (the root account owner) must perform the management of that user. Take care, for a server made there's no similar procedure!

Management of users can be made with the default busybox, but there's some packages that makes the life easy of the admins, lest use the libuser package now from testing repository:

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF
http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/alpinelinux/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/alpinelinux/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/alpinelinux/edge/testing/
EOF

apk update

apk add libuser

cat > /etc/apk/repositories << EOF
http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/alpinelinux/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/main
http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/alpinelinux/v$(cat /etc/alpine-release | cut -d'.' -f1,2)/community
EOF

apk update

touch /etc/login.defs

touch /etc/default/useradd

Now we can changes some defaults and added to proper groups to access devices or perform connections so, those are the recommended groups where the user must have in:

for u in $(ls /home); do for g in disk lp floppy audio cdrom dialout video netdev games users; do addgroup $u $g; done;done

• disk:x:6:root,adm Only if need usage vith virtual machines and access to other partitions over new disks for
• lp:x:7:lp IF will need to use printing services and printers management
• floppy:x:11:root Backguard compatible group, use only if need access to external special devices
• audio:x:18: Need for audio listening and management of sound volumes as normal user
• cdrom:x:19: For access to disck writers and mounting DVD, BR or CD rom disk as normal user
• dialout:x:20:root Need for dial private connections and use of modems as normal users
• tape:x:26:root Need have into this if plan to use special devices for backup.. rarelly in no servers
• video:x:27:root For usage of cameras, mor thant one GPU special features, as normal user
• netdev:x:28: For network connections management as normal user
• kvm:x:34:kvm Only if as normal user will manage graphically virtual machines.. rarelly on no servers
• games:x:35: Need if you want to play games also specially need if will share score between users
• cdrw:x:80: To write RW-DVD, RW-BR or RW-CD disk on a disk writing device
• apache:x:81: Need if you will perfom development as normal user and want to publish locally on web server
• usb:x:85: Need to access to special usb devices, deprecated group
• users:x:100:games If you plan to used common files for all users, mandatory as desktop usage

Now we have libuser also can change default shell:

• If you want to change the current user's shell, log in as that user and then inside their terminal session execute::

  lchsh

• If you want to change a different user's shell, run as administration or as root:

  lchsh general

Where "general" was the name of a created user login in previous sections.

Continue to Desktop

Before you continue, you must have at least already done the previously described steps in the section New users: common needed package to install!

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

Alpine package management behavior

This section are not for new users, please go next to Alpine newbie desktops or Alpine Newbies: Xorg and Openbox if you only want to setup your system.

The programs, the software installed to Alpine comes from two places, a repository with the following structure: http://<host>/alpine/<version>/<brach> (an URl that can be invoked with apk listed in the /etc/apk/repositories file) and original upstream sources (those compiled as Unix-like traditional way).

As new user you can read the Alpine newbie apk packages page.. but please read the rest of this section to introduce to:

Alpine Software Packages

Alpine software repositories have main packages and contributions made:

• About the main packages: Main packages are the Alpine package software that have direct support and updates from the Alpine core and main team, also have official special documentation. Are always available for all releases and will have almost substitutions if some are not continued from upstream. Commonly those packages are selected due their responsibility and stability respect upstream availability.
• About the contribution ones: User package contribution repositories are those made by users in team with the official developers and well near integrated to the Alpine packages. Those have supported by those user contributions and could end if the user also ends respect with Alpine work, by example could not have substitution in next release due lack of support by upstream author.

Alpine APK user resources

Alpine new users have two resources for the packaging management, the https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages page for search friendly way, and the Alpine newbie apk packages page that describes how to use the apk-tool easy.

Alpine APK quick infrastructure

Software packages for Alpine Linux are digitally signed tar.gz archives containing programs, configuration files, and dependency metadata. They have the extension .apk, and are often called "a-packs".

The apk command are located at /sbin/apk, admin and manages the getting of the packages of software, it uses /etc/apk/ place for the configurations files, and stores all downloaded "a-packs" files in /etc/apk/cache from the repositories before unpacks and put the package files compiled into the installed system.

Table of comparison with other Linux for packages

OS	File Format	Tools
Alpine	.apk	apk
Debian	.deb	apt,aptitude
Geento	.tbz2	emerge
FreeBSD	.txz	pkg

Tutorial series

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

See Also

• Alpine newbie
• Alpine newbie install manual
• Alpine newbie desktops
• Alpine newbie developer
• Alpine newbie lammers