Part 1

Background

Alpine Linux is a free, small, and easy to install Linux distribution that began as a fork of the LEAF project (Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall). The main focus of this distribution is security. It boasts features such as Pax and SSP(stack smashing protocol), it also prevents security hole exploitations. Alpine is designed for x86 Routers, VPNs (virtual private network), VoIP servers, and firewalls. This distribution is a unique blend of others, the network configuration is like Debian's and the package management is similar to RedHat's yum, and Arch Linux's PKGBUILDs (APKBUILD in Alpine). Its minuscule size is one of the main features of this distribution, this results in an ISO size of around 51 MBs.

Alpine is available in 3 possible versions. The standard/stable release which has most common packages installed and is less prone to crashing or fatal errors. Alternatively there is the edge release, this is the latest release with the newest packages, unfortunately these releases are more likely to suffer errors. The final release is the mini version, this release only comes with basic packages, but it is stable and incredibly small.

Alpine is available at alpinelinux.org/downloads. while the edge releases are available at http://nl.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/releases/x86/

Installation

One of the unique features of Alpine is its simplicity and ease of use. This is evident in its installation process which is as follows.

For a real instal

Step 1: Download ISO.
Step 2: Burn to a CD.
Step 3: Boot from CD, wait for an input prompt and login as root with no password.
Step 4: Type setup-alpine, hit enter, and then follow the on screen instructions. Alternately refer to the next section for a walkthrough.

For a Virtual Machine instal

Step 1: Download ISO.
Step 2: Mount ISO onto a virtual drive.
Step 3: Make a new Linux machine and boot from the virtual drive.
Step 4: Type setup-alpine, hit enter, and then follow the on screen instructions. Alternately refer to the next section for a walkthrough.

Detailed Setup Walkthrough The first thing setup-alpine will ask you to do is to pick your keyboard layout. You have many choices, like US, Russian, and Japanese. To pick a US layout, simply type us. It will then ask which variant you want to use, us-acentos or us, type us. The next step is to pick the hostname (like 'foo' or 'system'), type whatever you want to name your system. Once a name has been chosen, a interface must be initialized, the only options are eth0 so just hit enter. After this comes more options, we will skip these for now and go with the default options by just hitting enter. Next a password must be chosen, enter in whatever you like, alpine will tell you how strong of a password it is, following this it will ask you to retype it to make sure you remember it. Now you must select a timezone, you can type ? for a list of available ones or just hit enter for the default. Finally, you must pick a mirror or type f to pick the fastest. Following this are more advanced options, we will just skip these by entering the default by hitting enter.

Basic Operation

Many basic linux commands work similarly in alpine. For example "ps" will list the processes and "ls" followed by a file will list its contents. However the man pages are not installed by default due to their size, but these pages can be installed by typing "apk add man" followed by "apk add" the package you want "-doc". For example, if you wanted the man pages for iptables, you must simply type "apk add iptables-doc" and then you can access the iptables man page.

Alpine Linux excels at servers, firewalls, and networks, none of which I have any experience with. Thankfully the website offers some tutorials (available at http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Tutorials_and_Howtos) for a multitude of features. These features include, but are not limited to; hosting a mail server, setting up a satellite Internet connection, formatting a hard drive, and backing up flash memory.

Usage Evaluation

I found Alpine Linux to be a complicated yet interesting system. This is most likely due to my lack of networking and server knowledge. The system has no GUI, it is just a terminal, this is likely due to the desire to keep the file size down.Overall this is a interesting and, I assume, competent Linux distribution, although definitely not meant for people who are new to Linux.

Part 2

Software Packaging

Packaging Format

Software packages for Alpine Linux are tar.gz archives containing programs, files, and dependency. They have the extension .apk", also called "a-packs."

The packages are stored in one or more repositories(a directory with a collection of *.apk files and an index file, named APKINDEX.tar.gz).

Listing Packages

With Alpine Linux the method for listing all packages and their descriptions is to type "apk search -v." This will give you a list of packages with their functions.

Adding Packages

Packages can be added by using "add" to install packages and any required dependencies. If you have more than one repository, the add command installs the newest package. Just type "apk add package-name" where package-name is the name of the package you would like to install.

Removing Packages

Packages can be removed by using "del" to delete packages and its dependencies. Just type "apk del package-name" where package-name is the name of the package you would like to delete.

Catalog

Due to Alpine Linux's small size and portable nature, it has fewer packages than most. There are 365 .apk files on disk, compared to the 37,000 total packages in Ubuntu.

Major Package Versions

Package	Definition	Version	Website	Purpose
Kernel	The kernel with grsecurity	3.0.8	http://grsecurity.net	A kernel is required
libc	A library for c	0.9.32	http://uclib.org	A c library is required
Lua	A powerful, lightweight programming language	5.1.4	http://www.lua.org	Many programs on Alpine are dependent on it.
Fetchmail	A remote mail retrieval and forwarding utility	6.3.21	http://fetchmail.berlios.de	To allow mail operations
Kamailio	An open source SIP proxy	3.2.0	http://kamailio.org	To enhance security
Pearl	Pearl (Practical Extraction and Report Language)	5.14.2	http://www.pearl.org	Allows for pearl development
Samba	Tools to access a server's filespace and printers	3.6.1	http://samba.org	Helps server manipulation
Shorewall	A fire wall	4.2.10	http://shorewall.net	To enhance security
Squid	A full-featured web proxy cache server	3.2.0.12	http://www.squid-cache.org	To enhance security
Util-Linux	A collection of Linux utilities	2.20	http://kernel.org/~kzak/util-linux/	Allows for more versatility in Linux

Initialization

Every time the system starts, the package alpine-init is run. This package tells all the other packages when they are to initialize. The following is the load order the last time I booted the system.

/proc is mounted (if it is not already)
/run is mounted so things may be run
Server dependencies are cached
Security filesystems are mounted
Debug filesystems are mounted
Busybox mdev is started
Hardware drivers are loaded
Modules are loaded
System clock is set
Local filesystem is checked for problems
fsk is run on (busybox 1.19.2, 20011-11-03 15:50:21 UTC)
Root filesystem read/write is remounted
Local filesystem is mounted
Busybox acpid is started
Kernel parameters are configured
User login records are created
/var/run is cleaned
/tmp directory is wiped
Networking is started
Chronyd is started
Hostname is set
Busybox kernel logging is started
Busybox system logging is started
Busybox cron is started
Keymap is set
Sshd is started
Swap devices are activated
And finally the random number generator is initialized

References

Alpine Linux Homepage. Retrieved 2011, Dec. 15 http://alpinelinux.org/
About Alpine Linux. Retrieved 2011, Dec. 15 http://alpinelinux.org/about
Download Alpine Linux. Retrieved 2011, Dec 15 http://alpinelinux.org/downloads
Download Alpine Linux Edge. Retrieved 2011, Dec 15 http://nl.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/releases/x86/
VoIP information. Retrieved 2011, Dec 15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_IP
PaX information. Retrieved 2011, Dec 15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PaX
SSP information. Retrieved 2011, Dec 15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack-smashing_protection#GCC_Stack-Smashing_Protector_.28ProPolice.29
Tutorials for Alpine Linux. Retrieved 2011, Dec 15 http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Tutorials_and_Howtos
Tutorials for Alpine Linux - Cherokee. Retrieved 2011, Dec 15 http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Cherokee