Recently I wrote about PCLinuxOS. In this tutorial, we’ll see how to install Gnome Desktop Environment on Alpine Linux on your Computer as main OS.
The design goal for Alpine Linux is to provide a secure and lightweight distribution, which should cater the needs of most of the Linux users. It is based on musl and BusyBox, in this article we will show you Alpine Linux distribution and the installation process for this latest release.
It is based on musl and BusyBox, it is the sole independent Linux distribution that provides security for General purposes. Its development was determined by the concept of security and protection against malicious code, it was decided to use PaX and SSP.
Alpine Linux is extremely lightweight Linux distro, standard installer package is around 158 MB only and it consumes very low amount of computer resources. ideally, a small and fast Linux operating system. It comes with its own Package Manager for the installation of new packages, known as APK. It uses OpenRC init system and the way packages are compiled for this distribution, adds extra layer of security to the operating system.
DOWNLOAD ALPINE LINUX AND ETCHER TOOL
You need an ISO image of Alpine Linux. You can Download it from the Official Alpine Linux download page. You also need a 16GB USB Flash drive which will be used as a bootable installation medium.
To install Alpine Linux, you need to write your downloaded ISO to a USB stick to create the installation media. This is not the same as copying the ISO, and requires some bespoke software.
For this tutorial, we’ll use balenaEtcher, as it runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS. Choose the version that corresponds to your current operating system, download and install the tool.
CREATE A BOOTABLE USB STICK
Step 1: Insert the USB flash drive into your computer.
Step 2: Double-click on the balenaEtcher download file to run the app. Press Flash from file to select the downloaded Alpine ISO file on your computer.
Step 3: Press Select target and choose the correct USB flash drive from the list.
Step 4: Press Flash! to begin writing Alpine Linux to the USB flash drive.
For this tutorial, we’ll use balenaEtcher, as it runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS. Choose the version that corresponds to your current operating system, download and install the tool.
CREATE A BOOTABLE USB STICK
Step 2: Double-click on the balenaEtcher download file to run the app. Press Flash from file to select the downloaded Alpine ISO file on your computer.
Step 4: Press Flash! to begin writing Alpine Linux to the USB flash drive.
After a few minutes, the USB flash drive will be ready for booting into Alpine Linux.
INSTALL ALPINE LINUX - GNOME DESKTOP STEP BY STEP
Step 1: Insert the USB flash drive into your computer.
Step 2: While the system would restart and initialize start pressing F9 (or Del or F10 or F12 or Esc) to display Boot Menu. The key could be different on different make and model, try other keys as per Make and Model of your machine.
Step 3: From the Boot Menu, select Flash Drive as Boot Device and Hit Enter. It may be at different serial number in different systems. Wait for the system to Boot from the Flash Drive.
==>> root
Step 5: At the command prompt, an interactive script named setup-alpine is available to configure and install the initial Alpine Linux system.
==>> setup-alpine
Step 6: It will immediately start the installation process, on very first step, it will let you specify your Keyboad layout. choose us and press enter.
==>> us
Step 7: Again select us and press enter.
==>> us
Step 9: Specify Ethernet interface for your computer on next step.
Step 11: Again just skip them by pressing Enter, All this can be configured then installed directly in the system.
Step 13: Select your time zone from this step, in order to keep [UTC] the default choice just hit Enter.
Step 14: If you are using any proxy for internet browsing, specify that here or just press Enter.
Step 15: I just pressed Enter to make [chrony] the default choice.
==>> f
Step 18: Select the hard disk you want to perform this installation on. in my case the is sda.
==>> <the name of your hard drive>
Step 19: Here you need to select what will be used from this disk. Since it is a system disk, I choose:
==>> sys
Step 20: Get the warning that all data from the selected disk will be deleted. it's will ask you 3 times, so write:
==>> y
Step 21: Installation will begin.
==>> reboot
Step 23: Write in login:
==>> root
Step 24: Next, write the password that you previously set.
Step 25: Since we have no editor, we will install. It will be the editor Nano. Do this with the command:
==>> apk add nano
Step 26: Now we need to edit the file repositories. This will allow us to upgrade the system and continue the installation. Write:
==>> nano /etc/apk/repositories
Step 27: Remove the # in front of the third line to access the repository community, make it like this.
==>> http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.15/community
Step 28: After that press :
==>> CTRL + o
Press Enter.
==>> CTRL + x
Step 29: Then writing the command:
==>> apk update
Step 30: It configures a graphical environment, installing basic Xorg packages and udev, also required for Wayland sessions.
==>> setup-xorg-base
Step 31: Install basic desktop system and gnome packages.
==>> apk add gnome
Step 32: If you want, you can install additional GNOME apps for a more complete GNOME experience with:
==>> apk add gnome-apps-core
Step 33: Further extra GNOME apps with :
==>> apk add gnome-apps-extra
Step 34: Graphical login,To start the GDM display manager and login with your user, you need a user other than root for this to succeed. GDM will refuse to start if no user accounts are available.
==>> rc-service gdm start
Step 35: Once you have verified correct operation, you can make GDM start at boot:
==>> rc-update add gdm
Step 36: If you want to use the gnome-terminal/other terminal applications you will need to install bash.
==>> apk add bash
Step 37: If you want a typical bash setup also enable bash completion:
==>> apk add bash-completion
Step 38: Run the command:
==>> apk add thunar-volman
Step 39: Updating package lists, With the correct repositories file in place, the latest index list of available packages can be obtained with:
==>> apk update
Step 40: Upgrade the currently installed packages
==>> apk upgrade
==>> adduser <YourUsername> -h /home/<YourUsername>
Step 42: Reboot the system to load new kernel.
==>> reboot
Step 43: Click on Not listed and log in with your username and password.
Now you know how to install Alpine Linux and how to minimally configure the system, so have fun.
VIDEO TUTORIAL - INSTALLATION GUIDE
DOWNLOAD FILES
Click on below button to start Download the files from the download links.
balenaEtcher-Portable-1.5.122
alpine-standard-3.15.3-x86_64.iso
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