45 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
45 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
# Deploy Alpine Linux on a headless system
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[Alpine Linux documentation](https://docs.alpinelinux.org/user-handbook/0.1a/Installing/setup_alpine.html) assumes one can interract with system directly with a keyboard & display.\
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However, there are many cases where one might want to deploy a headless system, only available through a network connection (ethernet, wifi or as USB ethernet gadget).
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This repo provides an overaly file to initially boot the headless system (leveraging Alpine distro's `initramfs` feature): it enables a basic ssh server to log-into from another Computer, in order to finalize system set-up.
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## Install procedure:
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Please follow [Alpine Linux Wiki](https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Installation#Installation_Overview) to download & create installation media for the chosen platform.\
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Tools provided here can be used on any plaform for any install modes (diskless, data disk, system disk).
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Just add [**headless.apkovl.tar.gz**](https://github.com/macmpi/alpine-linux-headless-bootstrap/raw/main/headless.apkovl.tar.gz) overlay file at the root of Alpine Linux boot media (or onto any writeable side-media) and boot the system.
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With default network interface definitions (and optional wifi SSID/pass file), one may then access the system under `ssh` with:\
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`ssh root@<IP>` (system IP address may be determined with any IP scanning tools such as `nmap`).
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As with Alpine Linux initial bring-up, `root` account has no password initially (change that after setup!).\
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From there, system install can be fine-tuned as usual with `setup-alpine` for instance (check [wiki](https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_setup_scripts#setup-alpine) for details).
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Optional files can be added next to `headless.apkovl.tar.gz` to customise setup (sample files are provided):
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- `wpa_supplicant.conf`: define wifi SSID & password (mandatory for wifi usecase).
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- `interfaces`: define network interfaces at will, if defaults DCHP-based are not suitable.
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- `unattended.sh`: make custom automated deployment script to further tune & extend setup (backgrounded).
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*Note:* these files are linux text files: Windows/macOS users need to use text editors supporting linux text line-ending (such as [notepad++](https://notepad-plus-plus.org/), BBEdit or any other).
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Main execution steps are logged in `/var/log/messages`.
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## How to customize further ?
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This repository may be forked/cloned/downloaded.\
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Main script file is [`headless.start`](https://github.com/macmpi/alpine-linux-headless-bootstrap/blob/main/overlay/etc/local.d/headless.start).\
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Execute `./make.sh` to rebuild `headless.apkovl.tar.gz`.
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*Side note:* one nicety for bootstrapping PiZero devices, or similar which can support USB ethernet gadget networking.\
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Just add `dtoverlay=dwc2` in `usercfg.txt` (or `config.txt`), and plug-in USB to Computer port.\
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With Computer set-up to share networking with USB interface, device will appear at 10.42.0.2 onto Computer's subnet to log into !...
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## Credits
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Thanks for the original instructions & scripts from @sodface and @davidmytton.
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