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Howto: Install Alpine Linux 3.3 on VirtualBox OSX
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Install_Alpine_Linux_3.3_on_VirtualBox_OSX.md

Howto: Install Alpine Linux 3.3 on VirtualBox OSX

  • Latest Standard ISO version x86_64 is recommended (http://alpinelinux.org/downloads/)
  • Create new VM ("Linux 2.6 / 3.x / 4.x (64-bit)")
  • 1 CPU w/ 512BM RAM and 1 GB default (VDI) disk is more than sufficient
  • Default networking (NAT)
  • Boot and add Alpine ISO as attached virtual install media
  • Default root password is blank (though note - ssh PermitRootLogin defaults to disallow blank passwords and: prohibit-password; switch to yes for Host ssh)
  • Run setup-alpine
  • Defaults are fine, but you do want "sys" disk setup to sda, y to confirm
  • When done: halt
  • Save disk state in VirtualBox
  • With VM shutdown, choose VM, then Settings/Network. Add an Adapter 2 attached to Host-only Adapter (probably vboxnet0)
  • Go to VirtualBox top level menu, then Preferences/Network/Host-only Networks
  • Click DHCP Server, make sure it's on (this will assign host-only IP to eth1)
  • Note the Lower Address Bound. Unless you're running multiple VMs simultaneously using Host-only, this will be your IP
  • Critical: Choose Alpine VM in VirtualBox Manager, then Settings/Storage. Remove the IDE CD-ROM ISO (VM must be shutdown)
  • If CD-ROM ISO is not removed, there is a 50/50 chance it will boot rather than the hard drive (I found no rhyme or reason for this)
  • Boot Alpine VM
  • In a rational world, your earlier hostname and sshd settings will persist
  • Add secondary eth1 settings to permit Mac to Guest ssh access:
    vi  /etc/network/interfaces
    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback
    
    auto eth0
    iface eth0 inet dhcp
    hostname bob
    
    auto eth1
    iface eth1 inet static
        address [ip from lower bound host-only dhcp, eg: 192.168.222.10]
        netmask 255.255.255.0

Then run:

    /etc/init.d/sshd restart
    /etc/init.d/networking restart
    ifconfig

You should now be able to ssh from OSX to the IP address on eth1 (but see notes above about passwordless and prohibit-password root defaults on sshd_config)

See the Alpine Wiki for more on installing additional packages and configuring iptables, ipv6 etc: http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/ Bootstrapping on AWS EC2 is here: http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Install_Alpine_on_Amazon_EC2

@Atavic
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Atavic commented Jun 30, 2017

About the CD-ROM ISO, offcial wiki tells you to remove it.

@vizmi
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vizmi commented Sep 19, 2017

I tried to have both eth0 and eth1 on dhcp but eth0 fails to obtain ip address. I can see you have configured eth1 as a static adapter. Same problem?

@jashaffe
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jashaffe commented Dec 4, 2017

By chance KennWhite, did you make the AWS ami-21bf5059 or ami-69d21d09. Looks strangely like yours and wondered if you knew how to log into it? There are some threads attempting to figure it out: https://forum.alpinelinux.org/forum/installation/aws-ec2-ami-ssh-login

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