How to Install an Alpine Linux Server at Vultr
Introduction
Alpine Linux is a security-focused Linux distribution. This quickstart guide explains how to perform a basic Alpine Linux installation at Vultr.
1. Deploy from the Alpine Linux ISO
You can install Alpine Linux from Vultr's ISO library.
- Navigate to Vultr's server deployment page.
- Under Server Type, navigate to the ISO Library tab.
- Select the Alpine Linux ISO.
- Choose your Server Size, Additional Features, and other options.
- Click Deploy Now.
- After the server deploys, Navigate to the Server Information page.
- Click View Console in the upper right.
- Login as the user
root
with no password.
2. Install Alpine Linux
Type
setup-alpine
at the root prompt.Choose your keyboard layout. If you don't know your keyboard layout, choose
us
.Choose your keyboard variant. If you don't know, leave this value blank.
Choose a hostname.
When prompted for which interface you want to initialize, choose
eth0
.Choose
dhcp
.If you don't use IPv6, choose
no
for manual network configuration. If you use IPv6, enteryes
for manual configuration and append the following to the file:iface eth0 inet6 static address <your assigned IPv6 address>/64
Choose a password for the
root
user.Choose a timezone.
Enter
none
for the HTTP proxyChoose an NTP client.
chrony
is the default.Choose a mirror geographically close to your Vultr server location, or type
f
to automatically choose the fastest.Choose an SSH server.
openssh
is the default.Choose
vda
as the disk.Choose
sys
when prompted how to use it.When prompted to erase the disk, type Y to confirm.
Wait until you see Installation is complete. Please reboot.
3. Dismount the ISO
- Navigate to your server's Server Information page
- Navigate to the Custom ISO page under Settings and click Remove ISO
Wait for the server to reboot.
4. Upgrade the System
- Login as
root
with the password you set earlier. - Type
apk update
to update the repositories - Type
apk upgrade
to upgrade the system's packages
5. Create a New User
Because logging in as root
is not recommended, you should create a new user for daily tasks.
Type
adduser <username>
to create a user.Type
adduser <username> wheel
to add the user to thewheel
group.Type
apk add doas
to installdoas
which is a privilege escalation tool likesudo
.Allow members of the
wheel
group to usedoas
:echo "permit nopass :wheel" > /etc/doas.conf
Type
passwd -l root
to lock the root account as it is no longer used.
Conclusion
Alpine Linux is now installed and running on your server. See the official Alpine Linux wiki for more information on what you can do next.
Further Steps
If you are new to Alpine Linux, you may want to read the newbie guide.