how to manually install alpine linux on any linux distribution

# Assuming

• Our drive is /dev/sda
• The target alpine version is 3.16.2
• We have networking
• Your timezone is Europe/Vilnius

You can easily change these factors when you notice them, for example in the alpine rootfs you can always change the version, or in timezone, well time timezone, the drive whenever it comes up, though networking is needed here

# Installation (pt. 1)

• Download any ISO and boot it
• Setup your network
• Change to root user: sudo su
• Partition the drive using cfdisk gpt
  • 300MB efi/boot partition {.t = "EFI System"}
  • 4GB swap partition {.t = "Linux swap"}
  • Rest of the drive for root {.t = "Linux filesystem"}
  • Then
    • write -> yes -> quit
• Format the partitions
  • Boot: mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
  • Swap: mkswap /dev/sda2 && swapon /dev/sda2
  • Root: mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

# Installation (pt. 2)

# Mount root

mkdir -p /mnt/alpine
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/alpine

# Mount boot

mkdir -p /mnt/alpine/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/alpine/boot

# Download an extract the RootFS

cd /mnt/alpine
wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.16/releases/x86_64/alpine-minirootfs-3.16.2-x86_64.tar.gz
tar xpvf alpine-minirootfs-3.16.2-x86_64.tar.gz --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner

# FSTAB generation

• Genfstab

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cemkeylan/genfstab/master/genfstab
sh genfstab -U /mnt/alpine >>/mnt/alpine/etc/fstab
cat /mnt/alpine/etc/fstab

• If /dev/sda2 does not appear

echo "$(blkid /dev/sda2 | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/"//g') none swap sw 0 0" >>/mnt/alpine/etc/fstab

# Mount the needed fake filesystems

mount --types proc /proc /mnt/alpine/proc
mount --rbind /sys /mnt/alpine/sys
mount --make-rslave /mnt/alpine/sys
mount --rbind /dev /mnt/alpine/dev
mount --make-rslave /mnt/alpine/dev
mount --bind /run /mnt/alpine/run
mount --make-slave /mnt/alpine/run

# Copy host's resolv.conf to the chroot environment

cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/alpine/etc/resolv.conf

# Chroot

chroot /mnt/alpine /bin/ash

# Setup PATH

export PATH='/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin'

# Update and install setup scripts

apk update
apk add alpine-conf openrc --no-cache

# Installation (pt. 3)

If you see any errors regarding rc-service, rc-update, etc. ignore them

This part is based off https://docs.alpinelinux.org/user-handbook/0.1a/Installing/manual.html

# Setup keymap

setup-keymap us us  # This will use the US keyboard

# Setup hostname

export HOSTNAME='alpine'
setup-hostname "$HOSTNAME"  # Hostname will be alpine

# Setup hosts file

tee /etc/hosts <<EOF
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost $HOSTNAME.localdomain $HOSTNAME
::1       localhost.localdomain localhost $HOSTNAME.localdomain $HOSTNAME
EOF

# Setup networking

https://docs.alpinelinux.org/user-handbook/0.1a/Installing/manual.html#_networking

# Timezone

apk add tzdata
export _TZ='Europe/Vilnius'
install -Dm 0644 "/usr/share/zoneinfo/$_TZ" "/etc/zoneinfo/$_TZ"
export TZ="$_TZ"
echo "export TZ='$TZ'" >> /etc/profile.d/timezone.sh

# Root password

passwd

# Networking tools

apk add dhcp wpa_supplicant

# Bootloader (GRUB) and kernel

• Packages

apk add grub grub-efi efibootmgr linux-lts

• Firmware (README: https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Kernels)

apk add linux-firmware

• Bootloader

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=ALPINE
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

# Enable vital services

rc-update add hostname boot
rc-update add devfs sysinit
rc-update add cgroups sysinit
rc-update add bootmisc boot
rc-update add binfmt boot
rc-update add fsck boot
rc-update add urandom boot
rc-update add root boot
rc-update add procfs boot
rc-update add swap boot
rc-update add sysfs sysinit
rc-update add localmount boot
rc-update add sysctl boot

# Make grub use a menu

tee -a /etc/default/grub <<EOF
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rootfstype=ext4 loglevel=3"
EOF
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

# Exiting the installation

exit
umount -a
poweroff