Install Alpine on VirtualBox

How To Install Alpine on VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a Sun/Oracle virtualization product for x86 architecture. This document describes one way to install alpine to that platform.

Before You Start

First [{{#latestalp:alpine|url}} download latest Alpine CD image].

Create the Virtual Machine

Start by creating new VM and setting it to run linux with 2.6 series kernel.


Set amount of memory. Since alpine runs in memory the recommended 256 MB might be too little for your needs.


Create a disk. I wanted to emulate a Compact Flash system, so the setting is 2GB. This could be much higher if you like.

Start the Virtual Machine

After Starting the virtual machine, the first run wizard will ask for a cd image. Mount your downloaded alpine.iso image here.

Install Alpine

After Alpine boots type root to login.
Find out the virtual harddisk ID.

dmesg | grep disk

With default settings in the VirtualBox this will be sda.

I made the actual installation using CF installation instructions, but basic HD installation should work too.

Note: With CF install remember to edit /media/sda1/syslinux.cfg to boot from the HD (alpine_dev=sda1:vfat)

vi /media/sda1/syslinux.cfg

Configure Installation

Stop Alpine:

halt

After Alpine has been stopped, unmount the CD image in VirtualBox (Devices menu).
Start the virtual machine again and it should now boot from the virtual disk.

Setup Alpine:

setup-alpine

Configure Alpine local backup to use the virtual disk:
Edit /etc/lbu/lbu.conf to have line: LBU_MEDIA=sda1
Commit your setup:

lbu commit

Optional: to debug any problems in startup, activate the rc-system logging:

echo 'rc_logger="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

Results will be in /var/log/rc.log

Setup Alpine package management to cache any downloaded packages in the HD:

mkdir /media/sda1/cache

ln -s /media/sda1/cache /etc/apk/cache

lbu commit

Setup APK to use a network source and update your system:

apk update

apk upgrade

lbu commit

Development Environment

I use VirtualBox to compile and test programs for a actual Alpine box. To setup a compilation environment:

apk add alpine-sdk

lbu commit

I also like to save any local files to survive next boot:

apk add /usr/local

lbu commit

Tip: Remember to lbu commit often :-)