Alpine Linux Diskless Mode
a day ago
- #Alpine Linux
- #System Administration
- #Diskless Mode
- Diskless mode loads the entire OS into RAM (tmpfs), making it fast and reducing disk wear.
- Alpine Linux uses diskless mode for its ISO9660 installation media.
- Local Backup Utility (lbu) allows saving configurations and packages across reboots via apkovl files.
- Diskless installation is initiated by specifying 'disk=none' in the setup-alpine script.
- Persistent storage setup requires manual steps for internal disks due to bugs, including creating ext4 partitions without 64bit and journaling features.
- Customizable boot devices (USB, SDCard, etc.) can store apkovl files and package caches for diskless mode.
- The root filesystem size in diskless mode can be adjusted via kernel parameters or remount commands.
- Local package cache is essential for accessing packages not in the boot media's squashfs image.
- Apkovl files store system changes and must be committed with 'lbu commit' to persist across reboots.
- Upgrading diskless systems involves committing changes with lbu and using update-kernel for kernel upgrades.
- Kernel options for diskless mode include setting repositories, apkovl sources, and additional packages.