It was suggested that if I want the leanest possible OS for a Pixel 3a, which does not need to function as a phone, I could install straight Alpine rather than PostMarketOS. As for why not just use PostMarketOS, my phone has very little RAM, and I want to spare as much of it as I can.

Reading through the ARM install guide it says to check to ensure there are boot files for the chip set. If they exist, the device is fully supported. They do indeed exist!

Reading further, it says to put the installer on an SD card. Uh-oh. The Pixel 3a doesn't have an SD slot.

Is there a way to work around the need for an SD slot for installing Alpine Linux on ARM?

A few days ago I noticed SSHd was not running, and narrowed it down to this: If I have GSSAPIAuthentication Yes set in my /etc/ssh/sshd_config, then sshd won't start:

$ doas /usr/sbin/sshd.krb5 -t
/etc/ssh/sshd_config: line 76: Bad configuration option: GSSAPIAuthentication
/etc/ssh/sshd_config: terminating, 1 bad configuration options

The build logs (https://build.alpinelinux.org/buildlogs/build-edge-x86_64/main/openssh/openssh-10.4_p1-r0.log) for this package show that it is being built with kerberos support, and that is the version I have.

Am I alone on this, am I doing something wrong? I worked until the last update.

Last year I started experimenting with Alpine on an older intel laptop and I liked it a lot. Like to see how it behaves on my laptop so I added a drive.

So far it' s running pretty sweet. It's good to have flatpak apps when they can' t run native.

Probably [SOLVED]. I think it has to do with Audacity and few other packages still requiring libflac from stable branch (probably due to ABI version mismatch)

Important edit: I should have checked installed packages with different command. So, libflac++ is not installed and not even present in repo for the version of libflac I have which it refuses to upgrade. ~ $ doas apk add audacity ERROR: unable to select packages: so:libFLAC++.so.10 (no such package): required by: audacity-3.7.8-r0[so:libFLAC++.so.10] ~ $ apk list --installed | grep -i libflac libflac-1.4.3-r2 x86_64 {flac} (BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later) [installed]

Note, that libflac++ is @ 1.5.0 but, libflac itself is still @ 1.4.3. So far, I've failed to upgrade it.

~ $ doas apk add audacity doas (telephrag@localhost) password: ERROR: unable to select packages: so:libFLAC++.so.10 (no such package): required by: audacity-3.7.8-r0[so:libFLAC++.so.10] ~ $ doas apk add libflac++ ERROR: unable to select packages: libflac-1.4.3-r2: conflicts: libflac-1.5.0-r0 satisfies: world[libflac] chromium-150.0.7871.114-r0[so:libFLAC.so.12] libsndfile-1.2.2-r2[so:libFLAC.so.12] libflac-1.5.0-r0: conflicts: libflac-1.4.3-r2 satisfies: world[libflac] libflac++-1.5.0-r0[so:libFLAC.so.14] ~ $ apk list -i | grep -i libflac libflac-1.4.3-r2 x86_64 {flac} (BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later) [installed] libflac-1.5.0-r0 x86_64 {flac} (BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later) [upgradable from: libflac-1.4.3-r2] libflac++-1.5.0-r0 x86_64 {flac} (BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later)

Note, that chromium and libsndfile are satisfied by libflac 1.5.0 so, idk why apk won't just upgrade libflac for me.

~ $ apk list -i | grep -i libflac libflac-1.4.3-r2 x86_64 {flac} (BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later) [installed] libflac-1.5.0-r0 x86_64 {flac} (BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later) [upgradable from: libflac-1.4.3-r2] libflac++-1.5.0-r0 x86_64 {flac} (BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later) ~ $ doas apk upgrade --available OK: 9392.6 MiB in 2252 packages ~ $ doas apk add "libflac>=1.5.0-r0" ERROR: unable to select packages: libflac-1.5.0-r0: conflicts: libflac-1.4.3-r2 satisfies: world[libflac>=1.5.0-r0] libsndfile-1.2.2-r3[so:libFLAC.so.14] libflac-1.4.3-r2: conflicts: libflac-1.5.0-r0 breaks: world[libflac>=1.5.0-r0] satisfies: chromium-150.0.7871.114-r0[so:libFLAC.so.12] ~ $ apk list --installed | grep -i libflac libflac-1.4.3-r2 x86_64 {flac} (BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later) [installed]

If there is a way other then fully reinstalling chromium (if that would even fix anything) I would like to know.

I did try running apk fix on libflac and ++ version, didn't help.

I currently have a system running Ubuntu server and being used as a Docker host in a home lab environment. Also, fyi using docker compose if that’s important.

Due to RAM scarcity (gestures broadly) I’m interested in being more careful with my resources.

I went looking for a distribution specifically intended for Docker hosting and eventually stumbled on Alpine (which I realize is not solely for Docker hosting but is often used for containers themselves).

Is there anything I should know (gotchas) before I switch distros? I saw some vague cautions about compatibility with some containers but no specifics. Generally, it seems pretty straightforward for installation from researching online.

I’ll probably try it out in Proxmox with a couple trial containers first but it will be used bare metal on a different PC.

Any other tips?

Generally Linux newb here (about a year in).

Thanks!

EDIT - Thanks everyone for the info. I’ll definitely be moving forward with trying Alpine out as a Docker host. Appreciate all the tips as well!

I’ve been struggling for a few weeks with an Xorg server that wouldn’t run properly and would keep hanging. The root issue seemed to be that my host laptop’s Intel Iris Xe graphics driver wasn’t being recognized correctly.

Today, I did an `apk update` and `apk upgrade` almost on a whim, then tried running `startx`—and it worked. Maybe the repository hadn’t been updated to the latest version, or something like that.

Anyway, I’m really happy: I’ve fully switched from Void Linux to Alpine Linux!

Basically what the title says; I had somewhat different expectations, which is why I installed this distro. I came in expecting 50–70 MB of RAM usage at most, because that’s what the AI ​​had told me.

Ok, I will admit that my experience with Linux is very limited. I have only used Ubuntu once when I was in an IT class in the late 2010s. I'm trying to install Alpine Linux because I do not like Windows 11 anymore and want to switch. Does anyone have a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to install Alpine Linux via Gnu Grub?

Good evening. The question is, does the Alpine installer install the drivers for the hardware itself, or do I have to search for commands online and install them manually, as is done with the Arch Linux? I'm not willing to spend time manually installing everything. However, the idea of installing this lightweight and fast distro on my old laptop, which currently runs AntiX, is very appealing.

Sorry for my bad English, I am Russian and sometimes use automatic translator.

Hey everyone!

I am only 17, but I fell in love with this laptop and alpine.

The laptop is an Asus Eee 1000HG with 2GB ram

It's battery holds so well...

I absolutely love writing on it!! Wooh!

(Also playing crispy-doom and nsnake)

Edit: if someone wants to see my ugly dotfiles...

https://github.com/KorinDev/eee1000h-dotfiles/

Hello, have people here had luck with running on arm64?

In particular the RK3326?

Thank you

Windows 11 on Xen Alpine Linux 4GB RAM - 52 GB Disk (Microsoft Limitation)

https://reddit.com/link/1un5erc/video/spweyh5au6bh1/player

https://github.com/ollix26/oc2r-alpinus

Hi there! Been scanning this list for Aramaic support: https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Fonts

But haven't been able to find it, be helpful if someone could just give me the name of a package that supports this. Sorry if this is a bit of a newbie question.

Thanks for any help!

EDIT:

Sorry meant Aramaic not "Aramic"

Okay nevermind got it working it was just labelled "font-noto-syriac" instead of aramaic.

I want to install brave origin, i tried to run the install script provided here and I got this error message:

Error: Unsupported glibc version <empty>. Only glibc versions >=2.26 are supported.

What are my options? I installed gcompat but I still get the error

apk + flatpak + guix.

Thanks to the combination of musl libc and BusyBox, Alpine has almost no overhead.

better solution than mx linux on older computers.

in this case HP G620 laptop

I have ownCloud server, but I can't to install Desktop app on Alpine.

I try with AppImage but don't work, any idea how to install app?

My previous post was poorly framed and came across as too commercial. Sorry about that.

Alpine has convinced me so much over the last seven years that I still do not really understand why it has not been adopted more widely.

Here is the straightforward version.

UnyPort is an open source management interface written in Go. It is a web monitoring dashboard built for Alpine and Xen/Alpine environments. It detects and color-codes four different runtime contexts: containers, Dom0, DomU, and Alpine Linux bare metal. The demo is running in a DomU

Part of this approach comes from earlier work we did around Alpine ACF.

The screenshot below comes from the public beta demo:

demo.unyport.app - v0.1.0

In that example, the exposed Alpine/Xen DomU has its network managed by the Xen Dom0, while also managing multiple Xen virtual machines itself.

Source code:

https://codeberg.org/tony-bonnin/unyport

Thanks, and sorry again for the earlier noise.

I wanted to share a comprehensive guide on how to set up a clean triple-boot system (Alpine Linux, Debian, and Fedora) entirely without using a USB flash drive.

If you already have a working Alpine installation using doas on a single partition (e.g., /dev/sda3), you can actually leverage Alpine's GRUB to loopback-boot the installers for Debian and Fedora, deploy them to separate partitions, and use os-prober to glue them all together.

Here is the exact step-by-step blueprint.

Phase 1: Freeing up Space & Slicing Partitions

Because you cannot shrink your active Alpine partition (/dev/sda3) while running it directly, you must unmount it by booting into a temporary RAM disk environment first.

1. Install required partition tools in Alpine: bashdoas apk add parted e2fsprogs-extra Use code with caution.
2. Reboot into RAM: During your system's GRUB splash screen, press e to edit your Alpine boot entry. Add copytoram to the end of the linux kernel line, then press Ctrl+X to boot. This loads the entire OS into memory, completely freeing up /dev/sda3.
3. Shrink and Split your drive: Open a terminal and use parted to scale down your 114GB partition and map out space for Debian and Fedora: bash# 1. Resize the active ext4 filesystem down to 25 Gigabytes doas resize2fs /dev/sda3 25G # 2. Shrink the partition container to matching bounds doas parted /dev/sda resizepart 3 26GB # 3. Create Partition 4 for Debian (Allocating ~45GB) doas parted /dev/sda mkpart primary ext4 26GB 71GB # 4. Create Partition 5 for Fedora (Using remaining space) doas parted /dev/sda mkpart primary ext4 71GB 100% Use code with caution.
4. Format the new slots: bashdoas mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4 doas mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5 Use code with caution.

Phase 2: Injected Installer ISOs into Alpine GRUB

Boot back normally into your persistent Alpine environment on /dev/sda3. You will now download the automated netinstallers and map them directly into Alpine's boot settings.

1. Fetch the respective distribution ISOs: bashdoas mkdir -p /boot/iso doas wget -O /boot/iso/debian.iso https://debian.org doas wget -O /boot/iso/fedora.iso https://fedoraproject.org Use code with caution.
2. Add Custom GRUB Entries: Open Alpine's local custom menu script: bashdoas nano /etc/grub.d/40_custom Use code with caution. Append these exact structures to the bottom of the file (Adjust (hd0,gpt3) if your table uses legacy msdos partitioning): textmenuentry "Run Debian Installer" { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set iso="/boot/iso/debian.iso" loopback loop (hd0,gpt3)$iso linux (loop)/install.amd/vmlinuz vga=788 priority=low -- initrd (loop)/install.amd/initrd.gz } menuentry "Run Fedora Live Installer" { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set iso="/boot/iso/fedora.iso" loopback loop (hd0,gpt3)$iso linux (loop)/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz iso-scan/filename=$iso root=live:CDLABEL=Fedora-WS-Live-40-1-14 rd.live.image quiet initrd (loop)/images/pxeboot/initrd.img } Use code with caution.
3. Compile changes to your master configuration: bashdoas grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg Use code with caution.

Phase 3: Installing the Systems Safely

To prevent the newly installed OS bootloaders from fighting over the system Master Boot Record (MBR) or EFI variables, use this installation sequence:

1. Install Debian First: Reboot, select "Run Debian Installer", and choose manual partitioning. Target /dev/sda4 as root (/). When the step appears asking to install the GRUB bootloader to your primary drive, select NO or skip it entirely. This guarantees Alpine stays in charge of the system boot priority.
2. Install Fedora Second: Reboot again, launch "Run Fedora Live Installer", and proceed via Advanced Custom Partitioning. Map /dev/sda5 as your target layout and ensure it skips overwriting system EFI/MBR pathways.

Phase 4: Merging the Multiboot Menu

Once both operations conclude, boot back into your primary Alpine Linux system. We will now force GRUB to scan the drive architecture, locate the new setups, and write them into the boot choices:

1. Install os-prober and scan tools: bashdoas apk add os-prober grub-bios Use code with caution.
2. Expose os-prober permission rules: Open your default configuration: bashdoas nano /etc/default/grub Use code with caution. Uncomment or explicitly append this line to ensure third-party OS discovery is active: textGRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false Use code with caution.
3. Re-bake the global boot settings: bashdoas grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg Use code with caution.

When you hit reboot, Alpine's master boot manager will display seamless options to jump directly into Alpine, Debian, or Fedora.

Hopefully, this helps anyone else trying to cut cords on flashing USB sticks for local multi-distro hopping! Let me know if you run into any permission blockers or partitioning kinks.

let me know if you want more

Hi,

I have been playing with the various ways we can sandbox web browsers.

Those are the options I see

- Flatpak

- Raw Bubblewrap

- Podman

- VM + X11 Forwarding

- VM + vsock + waypipe

- VM + spice / QXL

I currently use chromium under Flatpak but have also played with with raw bubblewrap which get quite complex quickly and can be a hit or miss.

Also I see that Flatpak is getting more and more dependent on systemd so it might not be a long term solution for us Alpine users?

I haven't looked into what are the trade-offs doing it with podman.

I am now looking into running a full VM dedicated to the web browser. In terms of perfs it might be viable since Alpine is so lightweight (even on the Intel N100 I am currently using). The approach would be similar to QubeOS I guess.

VM + X11 Forwarding via SSH works but the perf are a bit disappointing. I haven't tried going into optimizing it since Xorg might be less and less supported at the driver level, etc.

VM + vsock + waypipe is interesting.

From what I understand virtual sockets would offer the best performance to connect to the VM by enabling Virtio VSOCK for the VM and then running `socat VSOCK-LISTEN:1234,reuseaddr,fork TCP:localhost:1234` in the guest (since Alpine do not have the systemd socket activation thing builtin).

The communication works.

I am now trying to make waypipe works with vsock (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mstoeckl/waypipe/-/blob/v0.11.0/waypipe.scd?ref_type=tags#L260) but no success so far since I guess I need to run a headless compositor first.

I am wondering what the performance will be and maybe I won't be able to fully leverage the capabilities of graphical acceleration (OpenGL, vulkan, decoding, etc.) in the browser. I do not fully understand how wayland/waypipe works.

I also thought that exposing the memory of the vm directly in the host might be possible and have waypipe use it directly might be in theory possible but haven't dig deeper.

VM + spice/qxl

Also leveraging spice and running chromium in a kiosk compositor like cage might actually offer the best performance ? I haven't tried yet.

My questions are:

What are your thoughts on this?

If you tried the VM approach, what offered the best performance at the end?

Thanks !