Raspberry Pi Zero W - Installation

Write image to SD

Format an SD card with fat filesystem first.

tar -xzvf alpine-rpi-3.9.2-armhf.tar.gz -C /run/media/sodface/0AA7-5C18/

Edit cmdline.txt and add line for serial console (Optional)

This is for my use case and optional if you are using a local keyboard and monitor. I do not connect a keyboard and monitor but rather do the setup via the Pi's serial GPIO pins.

modules=loop,squashfs,sd-mod,usb-storage quiet dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1 console=ttyAMA0,115200

Create usercfg.txt and edit (Optional)

This is mostly optional I believe and applies to my use case where I will be running the pi in a headless appliance type mode. I reduce the memory allocated for the GPU, turn off audio (not sure I still need this on the zero w), disable bluetooth (which I think puts the serial console back on the real uart, again, need to double check), add w1 for a temperature sensor, and set the enable_uart to 1 (may not be necessary, need to verify and add comments).

gpu_mem=16 dtparam=audio=off dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt dtoverlay=w1-gpio enable_uart=1

Create cache folder and add rng-tools packages

mkdir /run/media/sodface/0AA7-5C18/cache

I copy pasted the following into the cache dir on sd card. I have another Alpine env to apk fetch packages from (chroot on Fedora)

rng-tools-6.3.1-r1.652a1399.apk rng-tools-openrc-6.3.1-r1.e9b063f8.apk sysfsutils-2.1.0-r8.apk

Boot pi with prepared sd card, login as root and add packages

localhost:~# setup-apkcache Enter apk cache directory (or '?' or 'none') [/var/cache/apk]: /media/mmcblk0p1/cache/ localhost:~# apk add --allow-untrusted /media/mmcblk0p1/cache/sysfsutils-2.1.0-r8.apk (1/1) Installing sysfsutils (2.1.0-r8) Executing busybox-1.29.3-r10.trigger OK: 8 MiB in 21 packages localhost:~# apk add --allow-untrusted /media/mmcblk0p1/cache/rng-tools-6.3.1-r1.652a1399.apk (1/1) Installing rng-tools (6.3.1-r1) Executing busybox-1.29.3-r10.trigger OK: 8 MiB in 22 packages localhost:~# apk add --allow-untrusted /media/mmcblk0p1/cache/rng-tools-openrc-6.3.1-r1.e9b063f8.apk (1/1) Installing rng-tools-openrc (6.3.1-r1) OK: 8 MiB in 23 packages

Start rngd service

localhost:~# service rngd start * Caching service dependencies ... [ ok ] * Starting rngd ... Initalizing available sources [ ok ]

Run setup-alpine wifi connection should setup ok with rngd running.

The setup process turns off the rngd service at some point but it's after wifi is connected

setup-alpine

Configure services and reboot

Removing networking from boot results in it not being present in any stage which seems like the wrong fix but it still gets run by something and after rngd and wpa_supplicant which is what we want:

pet-protect:~# rc-update add rngd boot * service rngd added to runlevel boot pet-protect:~# rc-update add wpa_supplicant boot * service wpa_supplicant added to runlevel boot pet-protect:~# rc-update del networking boot * service networking removed from runlevel boot pet-protect:~# rc-update -u * Caching service dependencies ... [ ok ] pet-protect:~# lbu commit -d pet-protect:~# reboot