GNet Solutions » GNU/Linux Administration

• Table of contents
• Install Alpine
• Setup Alpine
  • VirtualBox
• Resources

This is a guide for installing a Standard version of the Alpine Linux distro as a VirtualBox guest. VirtualBox is expected to have the host additions already installed.

Install Alpine¶

• Create a new VM and add the downloaded ISO to the Storage section.

• Start the VM and wait until the login prompt appears. Username is root, password is blank.

• Start the alpine setup script:
  

  setup-alpine
  

  • Setup the localization:
    

    us
    us
    

  • Set the hostname:
    

    alpine
    

  • Next hit enter to use the automatically detected network interface.
  • Next hit enter to use DHCP network interface.
  • Next hit enter to skip manual network configuration.
  • Set the new root password.
  • Set the timezone:
    

    America
    

  • Set the subtimezone:
    

    Los_Angeles
    

  • Next hit enter to skip proxy settings.
  • Next hit enter to detect the fastest repo mirror.
  • Next hit enter to select the default SSH server.
  • Next hit enter to select the default NTP client.
  • Enter the hard drive to install Alpine to:
    

    sda
    

  • Choose a sys install:
    

    sys
    

  • Enter y to erase the hard drive:
    

    y
    

  • Reboot to exit the installer, make sure to remove the ISO from the Storage section of the VM:
    

    reboot
    

Setup Alpine¶

• Once the VM has rebooted, login as root.

• Install nano:
  

  apk add nano
  

• Edit the apk repository mirror list:
  

  nano /etc/apk/repositories
  

  • And enable the community repo:
    

    http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.7/main
    http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.7/community
    

• Update the apk package metadata:
  

  apk update
  

VirtualBox¶

• Start by creating a shared folder on the host system, this guide uses Shared as the folder name.

• Install the virtualbox guest additions:
  

  apk add virtualbox-guest-additions virtualbox-guest-modules-hardened
  

• Load the kernel modules:
  

  modprobe -a vboxsf
  

• Make a mount point and mount the shared virtualbox folder:
  

  mkdir -p /media/shared
  mount -t vboxsf Shared /media/shared
  

Resources¶

• https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Installation#Installation_Handbook
• https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Install_Alpine_on_VirtualBox
• https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/
• https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Enable_Community_Repository
• https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/VirtualBox_shared_folders