Alpine setup scripts
Feature descriptions for available Alpine Linux setup scripts (/sbin/setup-*).
These scripts can be installed by using apk
to install the alpine-conf
package.
If you don't have an Alpine Linux install, you can find and examine the scripts in their git repository.
setup-alpine
This is the main Alpine configuration and installation script.
The script interactively walks the user through executing several auxiliary setup-*
scripts, in the order shown below.
The bracketed options represent example configuration choices, formatted as they may be supplied when manually calling the auxiliary setup scripts, or using a setup-alpine
"answerfile" (see below).
setup-keymap
[us us]- setup-hostname [-n alpine-test]
- setup-interfaces [-i < interfaces-file]
rc-service networking --quiet start &
- if none of the networking interfaces were configured using dhcp, then:
setup-dns
[-d example.com -n "192.168.0.1 [...]"] - set the root password
- if not in quick mode, then:
setup-timezone
[-z UTC | -z America/New_York | -p EST+5] - enable the new hostname (
rc-service hostname --quiet restart
) - add
networking
andseedrng
(also referred to asurandom
in versions prior to OpenRC 0.45) to the boot rc level, andacpid
andcrond
to the default rc level, and start the boot and default rc services - extract the fully-qualified domain name and hostname from /etc/resolv.conf and
hostname
, and update /etc/hosts setup-proxy
[-q "http://webproxy:8080"], and activate proxy if it was configuredsetup-apkrepos
[-r (to select a mirror randomly)]- setup-user
- if not in quick mode, then:
setup-sshd
[-c openssh | dropbear | none] - if not in quick mode, then:
setup-ntp
[-c chrony | openntpd | busybox | none] - if not in quick mode, then:
DEFAULT_DISK=none
setup-disk
-q
[-m data /dev/sda] (see Installation#Installation_Overview about the disk modes) - if installation mode selected during setup-disk was "data" instead of "sys", then:
setup-lbu
[/media/sdb1] - if installation mode selected during setup-disk was "data" instead of "sys", then:
setup-apkcache
[/media/sdb1/cache | none]
setup-alpine
itself accepts the following command-line switches:
- -h
- Shows the up-to-date usage help message.
- -a
- Create an overlay file: this creates a temporary directory and saves its location in ROOT; however, the script doesn't export this variable so I think this feature isn't currently functional.
- -c answerfile
- Create a new answerfile with default choices. You can edit the file and then invoke
setup-alpine -f answerfile
. - -f answerfile
- Use an existing answerfile, which may override some or all of the interactive prompts. You can also specify a HTTP(S) or FTP URL for
setup-alpine
to download an answerfile from. Doing so will spin up a temporary networking config if one is not already active.
- -q
- Run in "quick mode".
setup-hostname
setup-hostname
[-h] [-n hostname]
Options:
-h Show help
-n Specify hostname
This script allows quick and easy setup of the system hostname by writing it to /etc/hostname. The script prevents you from writing an invalid hostname (such as one that used invalid characters or starts with a '-' or is too long).
The script can be invoked manually or is called as part of the setup-alpine
script.
setup-interfaces
setup-interfaces [-i < interfaces-file]
Note that the contents of interfaces-file has to be supplied as stdin, rather than naming the file as an additional argument. The contents should have the format of /etc/network/interfaces, such as:
Contents of /etc/network/interfaces
setup-dns
setup-dns
[-h] [-d domain name] [-n name server]
Options:
-h Show help
-d specify search domain name
-n name server IP
The setup-dns script is stored in /sbin/setup-dns and allows quick and simple setup of DNS servers (and a DNS search domain if required). Simply running setup-dns
will allow interactive use of the script, or the options can be specified.
The information fed to this script is written to /etc/resolv.conf
Example usage (with 192.168.0.1 being the local router/dns-forwarder):
setup-dns -d example.org -n 192.168.0.1
Example /etc/resolv.conf:
Contents of /etc/resolv.conf
It can be run manually but is also invoked in the setup-alpine
script unless interfaces are configured for DHCP.
setup-timezone
setup-timezone
[-z UTC | -z America/New_York | -p EST+5]
Can pre-select the timezone using either of these switches:
-z subfolder of /usr/share/zoneinfo
-p POSIX TZ format
To manually change the time-zone, see Setting the timezone.
setup-proxy
setup-proxy
[-hq] [PROXYURL]
Options:
-h Show help
-q Quiet mode prevents changes from taking effect until after reboot
This script requests the system proxy to use in the form http://<proxyurl>:<port>
for example:
http://10.0.0.1:8080
To set no system proxy use none
.
This script exports the following environmental variables:
http_proxy=$proxyurl
https_proxy=$proxyurl
ftp_proxy=$proxyurl
where $proxyurl
is the value input.
If none
was chosen then the value it is set to a blank value (and so no proxy is used).
setup-apkrepos
setup-apkrepos
[-fhr] [REPO...]
Setup apk
repositories.
options:
-c Enable the community repo
-f Detect and add fastest mirror
-h Show help
-r Add a random mirror and do not prompt
-1 Add first mirror on the list (normally a CDN)
This is run as part of the setup-alpine
script.
setup-user
setup-user
[-h] [-a] [-u] [-f FULLNAME] [-g GROUPS] [-k SSHKEY] [USERNAME]
Options:
-h Show help
-a Create admin user. Add to wheel group and setup doas.
-u Unlock the user automatically (eg. create the user non-interactively with an ssh key for login)
-f Set the full name for the user
-g Comma or space separated list of groups to add user to
-k ssh key or URL to ssh key (eg. https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/user.keys) or none
for no key
If USERNAME is not specified user will be prompted.
The setup-user script is stored in /sbin/setup-user and allows quick and simple setup of user accounts.
It can be run manually but is also invoked in the setup-alpine
script.
setup-sshd
setup-sshd
[-h] [-c choice of SSH daemon]
Options:
-h Show help
-c SSH daemon where SSH daemon can be one of the following:
openssh
install the openSSH daemon
dropbear
install the dropbear daemon
none
Do not install an SSH daemon
Example usage:
setup-sshd -c dropbear
The setup-sshd script is stored in /sbin/setup-sshd and allows quick and simple setup of either the OpenSSH or Dropbear SSH daemon & client.
It can be run manually but is also invoked in the setup-alpine
script.
setup-ntp
From Wikipedia:
The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a networking protocol for clock synchronization between computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks.
usage: setup-ntp [-h] [busybox|openntpd|chrony|none] Setup NTP time synchronization options: -h Show this help User is prompted if no NTP daemon is specified
setup-ntp
script is stored in /sbin/setup-ntp and allows quick and simple setup of the NTP client,
It can be run manually but is also invoked in the setup-alpine
script.
setup-disk
DEFAULT_DISK=none setup-disk -q
[-m data | sys] [mountpoint directory | /dev/sda ...]
In "sys" mode, it's an installer, it permanently installs Alpine Linux on the disk, in "data" mode, it provides a larger and persistent /var volume.
This script accepts the following command-line switches:
- -k kernel flavor
- -o apkovl file
- Restore system from apkovl file
- -m data | sys
- Don't prompt for installation mode. With -m data, the supplied devices are formatted to use as a /var volume.
- -r
- Use RAID1 with a single disk (degraded mode)
- -L
- Create and use volumes in a LVM group
- -s swap size in MB
- Use 0 to disable swap
- -q
- Exit quietly if no disks are found
- -v
- Verbose mode
The script honors the following environment variables:
Environment Variables
The following environment variables can be combined and used.
If BOOTLOADER
is specified, the specified bootloader will be used.
If no bootloader is specified, the default bootloader is syslinux(extlinux)
except when EFI is detected or explicitly set by USE_EFI
which will select grub.
Supported bootloaders are: grub, syslinux
If KERNELOPTS
is specified, it will be appended to the kernel boot parameters.
Default is: quiet
If DISKLABEL
is specified, the specified partition label will be used.
if no partition label is specified, the default label will be dos
except when EFI is detected or explicitly set by USE_EFI
which will select gpt.
Supported partition labels are: dos, gpt
If BOOTFS
, ROOTFS
, VARFS
are specified, then format a partition with specified filesystem. If not specified, the default filesystem is ext4. VARFS
is used, only if -m data is specified or interactively selected whereas BOOTFS
and ROOTFS
are used only if -m sys is specified or interactively selected.
Supported filesystems for
boot: ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, xfs, vfat(EFI) root: ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, xfs var : ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, xfs
If BOOT_SIZE
is specified, sets the size of the boot partition in MB; defaults to 100. Only used if -m sys is specified or interactively selected.
If SWAP_SIZE
is specified, sets the size of the swap volume in MB; set to 0 to disable swap. If not specified, will default to twice RAM, up to 4096, but won't be more than 1/3 the size of the smallest disk, and if less than 64 will just be 0. Only used if -m sys is specified or interactively selected.
If SYSROOT
is specified, sets the Mountpoint to use when creating volumes and doing traditional disk install (-m sys). Defaults to /mnt.
If MBR
is specified, sets the Path of MBR binary code, defaults to /usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin.
Partitioning
If you have complex partitioning needs, that go beyond environment variables for setup-alpine
, you can partition, format, and mount your volumes manually, and then just supply the root mountpoint to setup-disk
. Doing so implicitly behaves as though -m sys had also been specified.
RAID
setup-disk
will automatically build a RAID array if you supply the -r switch, or if you specify more than one device. The array will always be RAID1 (and --metadata=0.90) for the /boot volumes, but will be RAID5 (and --metadata=1.2 for non-boot volumes when 3 or more devices are supplied.
If you instead want to build your RAID array manually, see Setting up a software RAID array. Then format and mount the disks, and supply the root mountpoint to setup-disk
.
LVM
setup-disk
will automatically build and use volumes in a LVM group if you supply the -L switch. The group and volumes created by the script will have the following names:
- volume group: vg0
- swap volume: lv_swap (only created when swap size > 0)
- root volume: lv_root (only created when -m sys is specified or interactively selected)
- var volume: lv_var (only created when -m data is specified or interactively selected)
The lv_var or lv_root volumes are created to occupy all remaining space in the volume group.
If you need to change any of these settings, you can use vgrename
, lvrename
, lvreduce
or lvresize
.
If you instead want to build your LVM system manually, see Setting up Logical Volumes with LVM. Then format and mount the disks, and supply the root mountpoint to setup-disk
.
setup-lbu
This script will only be invoked for by setup-alpine
when installing data
installation types (ramdisk)
It configures where lbu commit
will store the .apkovl backup. See Alpine local backup for more information.
When started, setup-lbu
will prompt where to store your data. The options it will prompt for will be taken from the directories found in /media
(except for cdrom
). [not sure how these are mounted: are they automatically mounted by setup-lbu? Does the user have to manually mount using another tty?]
setup-apkcache
This script will only be invoked for by setup-alpine
when installing data
installation types (ramdisk)
It configures where to save the apk package files. The apkcache is where apk stores downloaded packages, such that the system does not need to download them again on each reboot, and doesn't have to depend on the network. See Local APK cache for a detailed explanation.
You should be able to use a partition that you set up in the previous steps.
setup-bootable
This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine
but must be run manually.
It allows to create boot media that boots the system running from RAM memory (diskless) like the installation images, but using a writable (i.e. not iso9660) filesystem. So that it can also serve to store local customizations (e.g. apkovl files and cached packages).
First, the script copies files from an ISO image (as file on a CD/DVD/USB etc.) onto a USB-Stick/CompactFlash/SDCard etc., or harddisk partition. And then, it installs the syslinux bootloader to make the device bootable.
However, its current syslinux installation seems to fail on non-FAT32 partitions. So in these cases, you may start over with a FAT32 filesystem, or rather with the desired filesystem and using setup-bootable
only with the -u
option, to skip the syslinux install, and then refer to the manual method to fix the problem, or use one of the other bootloader options, instead.
The setup-bootable script accepts the following arguments and command-line switches (you can run setup-bootable -h
to see a usage message).
setup-bootable source [dest]
The argument source can be a directory or an ISO (will be mounted to MNT
or /mnt) or a URL (will be downloaded with WGET
or wget
). The argument dest can be a directory mountpoint, or will default to /media/usb if not supplied.
- -k
- Keep alpine_dev in syslinux.cfg; otherwise, replace with UUID.
- -u
- Upgrade mode: keep existing syslinux.cfg and don't run
syslinux
- -f
- Overwrite syslinux.cfg even if -u was specified.
- -s
- Force the running of
syslinux
even if -u was specified.
- -v
- Verbose mode
The script will ensure that source and dest are available; will copy the contents of source to dest, ensuring first that there's enough space; and unless -u was specified, will make dest bootable.
Suppose the target device is /dev/sdXY, then this partition can be prepared for booting with
# setup-bootable -v /media/<installation-media-device> /dev/sdXY
For the manual way to set up boot media see Manually_copying_Alpine_files.
setup-xorg-base
This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine
but must be run manually.
It configures a graphical environment, installing basic Xorg packages and eudev (replacing mdev), and is also required for Wayland sessions.
The script installs, among other packages, e.g.: xorg-server xf86-input-libinput xinit eudev
.
Additional packages to install may be supplied as arguments.
setup-xorg-base [additional package(s) to install]
Input packages
If the Numlock settings are not working, or getting 'setleds not found' errors:
# apk add kbd
If some input device is not working at all, the available xf86-input drivers can be listed with:
$ apk search xf86-input
You probably at least want
xf86-input-libinput
or
xf86-input-evdev
libinput is for Wayland with wrapper for Xorg. evdev is Xorg only.
Typical legacy drivers (not packaged. at least as of 2/2022):
# apk add xf86-input-mouse xf86-input-keyboard
And for touchpad tapping support on many laptops, also:
# apk add xf86-input-synaptics
Configure xorg-server (optional)
On most systems, xorg should be able to autodetect all devices. However you can still configure xorg-server by hand by launching:
# Xorg -configure
This will create a /root/xorg.conf.new file. You can modify this file to fit your needs.
(When finished modifying and testing the above configuration file, move it to /etc/X11/xorg.conf for normal usage.)
Keyboard Layout (optional)
If you use a keyboard layout different than "us", and you are using a window manager or desktop environment that does not support to configure the keyboard layout itself, then you need to
and install setxkbmap:
# apk add setxkbmap
Then try
# setxkbmap <%a language layout from /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.lst%>
In order to make it persistent add this section to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "InputClass" Identifier "Keyboard Default" MatchIsKeyboard "yes" Option "XkbLayout" "<%a language layout from /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.lst%>" EndSection
Another way to change the keymap when logging into X is to use ~/.xinitrc. The following example loads a British keymap, simply add this line to the beginning of the file:
setxkbmap gb &
If you need to create the ~/.xinitrc file, you may also want to add a second line like exec openbox-session
to still start the window manager with startx
or xinit
.
setup-desktop
This script is used to set up a desktop environment. This is a replacement for the now-removed alpine-desktop
package.
- Create a non-privileged user account for security reasons, if you skipped this step during Installation.
- Enable community repository. Setup-desktop script automatically does this for you.
- Install graphics driver for your video hardware.
Installation using setup-desktop
The Alpine Linux script for setting up a desktop quickly is setup-desktop.
# setup-desktop
On running the above command, you will be prompted to select a desktop environment.
Which desktop environment? ('gnome', 'plasma', 'xfce', 'mate', 'sway', 'lxqt' or 'none') [none]
Once you have chosen a desktop environment, this script installs the chosen desktop along with necessary packages, firefox browser and adds the necessary services to run on startup. You can reboot when complete and the system will boot into a graphical login screen with the desktop environment. Depending on the desktop chosen, the script also activates the necessary services like dbus, elogind, login manager etc..
To view all the packages that are installed by the script for the chosen desktop you can issue the below command:
# cat /usr/sbin/setup-desktop
Documentation needed
setup-xen-dom0
setup-mta
Uses ssmtp.
This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine
but must be run manually.
setup-acf
setup-acf
[-ahn] [-e email] [-l address] [PACKAGE...]
Options:
-a Which acf-* packages to install
-h Show help
-n Don't create /etc/acf/passwd
-e email address (for TLS certificate)
-l hostname for mini_httpd
This is a standalone script; it's not invoked by setup-alpine
but must be run manually.
This script was named setup-webconf
before Alpine 1.9 beta 4.
See ACF pages for more information.