documentation/docs/alpine-desktop-setup/installation.md

Installation

To install the Alpine Linux distribution on the system, the datasets of the system pool and the EFI partitions have to be mounted to the main system.

First import and decrypt the system pool.

# zpool import -N -R /mnt tank
# zfs load-key tank

Mount the datasets in the system pool and decrypt the home dataset.

# mount tank/root/alpine /mnt -t zfs -o noatime
# zfs mount tank/home
# zfs mount tank/var

Mount the ESP.

# mkdir /mnt/esp
# mount /dev/disk/by-label/esp /mnt/esp -t vfat

Then install Alpine Linux.

# export BOOTLOADER=none
# setup-disk -m sys /mnt

To have a functional chroot into the system, bind the system process directories.

# for dir in dev proc sys run; do
> mount --rbind --make-rslave /$dir /mnt/$dir
> done
# chroot /mnt

The other setup scripts can be used to configure key aspects of the system. Besides that a few necessary services have to be activated.

# setup-hostname <hostname>
# setup-keymap us us-euro
# setup-timezone -i <area>/<subarea>
# setup-ntp openntpd
# rc-update add acpid default
# rc-update add seedrng boot
# rm -rf /var/tmp
# ln -s /tmp /var/tmp
# passwd root

The root password does not really matter because it is going to be locked after a user has been created.

Set the hwclock to use UTC in /etc/conf.d/hwclock and disable writing the time to hardware. Running a NTP negates its usability.

clock="UTC"
clock_hctosys="NO"
clock_systohc="NO"

Configure ZFS to mount.

rc-update add zfs-import sysinit
rc-update add zfs-mount sysinit

Edit /etc/fstab for correct mounts:

tank/root/alpine        /           zfs     rw,noatime,xattr,posixacl,casesensitive 0 1
/dev/disk/by-label/esp  /esp        vfat    defaults,nodev,nosuid,noexec            0 2
tmpfs                   /tmp        tmpfs   rw,nodev,nosuid,noexec,mode=1777        0 0
proc                    /proc       proc    nodev,nosuid,noexec,hidepid=2           0 0

By default, Alpine Linux uses mkinitfs to create an initial ram filesystem.

# apk add secureboot-hook sbctl

Configure /etc/mkinitfs/mkinitfs.conf to disable it's hook:

# echo 'disable_trigger=yes' >> /etc/mkinitfs/mkinitfs.conf

The most important step is the creation of a UKI using secureboot-hook which also automatically signs them. Configure /etc/kernel-hooks.d/secureboot.conf for cmdline and secureboot.

cmdline="rw root=ZFS=tank/root/alpine quiet splash"

signing_cert="/usr/share/secureboot/keys/db/db.pem"
signing_key="/usr/share/secureboot/keys/db/db.key"

output_dir="/esp/efi/linux"
output_name="alpine-linux-{flavor}.efi"

Use sbctl to create secureboot keys and sign them.

# sbctl create-keys
# sbctl enroll-keys

Whilst enrolling the keys it might be necessary to add the --microsoft flag if you are unable to use custom keys.

Set the cache-file of the ZFS pool.

# zpool set cachefile=/etc/zfs/zpool.cache tank

Now to see if everything went successfully, run:

# apk fix kernel-hooks

and it should give no warnings if done properly.

To install gummiboot as friendly bootloader:

# apk add gummiboot
# mkdir /esp/loader
# mkdir /esp/efi/boot
# cp /usr/lib/gummiboot/gummibootx64.efi /esp/efi/boot/bootx64.efi

Sign the bootloader with sbctl.

# sbctl sign -s /esp/efi/boot/bootx64.efi

One may verify the signed files by running sbctl verify, in this case ESP_PATH=/esp should be defined to work properly.

gummiboot can be configured with the file /esp/loader/loader.conf with which the timeout and the default OS can be specified.

default alpine-linux-lts.efi
timeout 5
editor no

Here, there should be lines explaining the setup of automatic decryption with TPM using Clevis. Which is still in development...

# clevis encrypt tpm2 '{}' << ''

Before finishing the installation networkmanager will be installed for networking. Also install networkmanager-wifi and wpa_supplicant for Wi-Fi functionality.

# apk add networkmanager networkmanager-wifi wpa_supplicant
# setup-devd udev
# rc-update add networkmanager default

Wi-Fi will not yet work. For Wi-Fi configuration see the network section.

If internet does not work after reboot create the config file as described in the network section and restart the service.

Now exit the chroot and you should be able to reboot into a working Alpine system.

# exit
# umount -lf /mnt
# zpool export tank
# reboot