Install Alpine Linux on Scaleway Stardust without the rescue image using https://netboot.xyz

alpine-on-stardust-no-rescue.md

A way to install Alpine Linux on a Scaleway Stardust instance without the use of a rescue image, but by booting into the install image over the network using https://netboot.xyz.

1. Connect to the serial console, using scw instance server console {uuid} zone={zone}

2. Reboot the VM into UEFI settings

   • either by executing systemctl reboot --firmware on the machine
   • or by using scw instance server reboot {uuid} zone={zone} locally and repeatedly mashing the escape key on the serial console

3. Go to Device Manager -> Network Device List -> the only network device -> HTTP Boot Configuration -> Boot URI

4. Enter the value

   http://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz.efi

   

5. Save it and go back to the main page (you might need to press Esc twice to go up once)

6. Enter the Boot Manager and select the newly-added boot option

7. Wait for netboot.xyz to launch

8. Once in the netboot.xyz interface, go to Utilities (UEFI) -> Kernel cmdline params and enter

   console=ttyS0

   this will not only allow you to see and interact with the installer over the serial port, but setup-alpine will detect it and configure the installed system to also use the serial console

9. Now you can back out, select Linux Network Installs (64-bit) -> Alpine Linux and enjoy the rest of the installation process

EDIT: This is applicable only if the default storage is a block storage and not a local storage.

For some reason alpine linux can't write in the first 4MB of the sectors of the disk so I had to:

vim /sbin/setup-disk

Change this line after setup_partitions():

local diskdev="$1" start=1M line=

To:

local diskdev="$1" start=4M line=

You saved the day man, cheers