Help/examples for sys install to SD card

[strophy]

Hello, thanks for maintaining this useful script! I'm trying to use this to provision ~200 SD cards to run Alpine Linux 3.22 on Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W devices. On first boot, I want unattended.sh to run setup-alpine with the following changes to the default config:

• Set "us us" keyboard map
• Connect wlan0 to MikroTik-74F1AE with dhcp config
• Set CET timezone
• make "sys" installation to mmcblk0 device

All of this config works fine on an interactive run of setup-alpine with no ALHB files on the SD card. When I copy the following files:

• headless.apkovl.tar.gz (1.4)
• wpa_supplicant.conf

country=FR
network={
	key_mgmt=NONE
	ssid="MikroTik-74F1AE"
}

• authorized_keys

ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIGG1fcR+etcetcetcetcetcexampleuJt0mL8k/

• unattended.sh

#!/bin/sh

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright 2022-2025, macmpi
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

## collection of few code snippets as sample unnatteded actions some may find usefull

## will run encapusated within headless_unattended OpenRC service

# To prevent headless bootstrap script from starting sshd
# only keep a single starting # on the line below
##NO_SSH

# Uncomment to enable stdout and errors redirection to console (service won't show messages)
exec 1>/dev/console 2>&1

# shellcheck disable=SC2142  # known special case
alias _logger='logger -st "${0##*/}"'

## Obvious one; reminder: is run as background service
_logger "hello world !!"
sleep 5
_logger "Finished script"
########################################################


## This snippet removes apkovl file on volume after initial boot
# grab used ovl filename from dmesg
ovl="$( dmesg | grep -o 'Loading user settings from .*:' | awk '{print $5}' | sed 's/:.*$//' )"
if [ -f "${ovl}" ]; then
	ovlpath="$( dirname "$ovl" )"
else
	# search path again as mountpoint have been changed later in the boot process...
	ovl="$( basename "${ovl}" )"
	ovlpath=$( find /media -maxdepth 2 -type d -path '*/.*' -prune -o -type f -name "${ovl}" -exec dirname {} \; | head -1 )
	ovl="${ovlpath}/${ovl}"
fi

# also works in case volume is mounted read-only
grep -q "${ovlpath}.*[[:space:]]ro[[:space:],]" /proc/mounts; is_ro=$?
_is_ro() { return "$is_ro"; }
_is_ro && mount -o remount,rw "${ovlpath}"
rm -f "${ovl}"
_is_ro && mount -o remount,ro "${ovlpath}"

########################################################


## This snippet configures Minimal diskless environment
# note: with INTERFACESOPTS=none, no networking will be setup so it won't work after reboot!
# Change it or run setup-interfaces in interractive mode afterwards (and lbu commit -d thenafter)

_logger "Setting-up minimal environment"

cat <<-EOF > /tmp/ANSWERFILE
	# base answer file for setup-alpine script

	# Do not set keyboard layout
	KEYMAPOPTS="us us"

	# Keep hostname
	HOSTNAMEOPTS="$(hostname)"

	# Set device manager to mdev
	DEVDOPTS=mdev

	# Contents of /etc/network/interfaces
	INTERFACESOPTS="auto lo
	iface lo inet loopback

	auto wlan0
	iface wlan0 inet dhcp
	"

	# Set Public nameserver
	#DNSOPTS="-n 9.9.9.9"

	# Set timezone to UTC
	TIMEZONEOPTS="CET"

	# set http/ftp proxy
	PROXYOPTS=none

	# Add first mirror (CDN)
	APKREPOSOPTS="-1"

	# Do not create any user
	USEROPTS=none

	# Openssh
	SSHDOPTS=openssh

	# Use openntpd
	NTPOPTS="busybox"

	# Disk install
	DISKOPTS="-m sys /dev/mmcblk0"

	# Setup storage for diskless (find boot directory in /media/xxxx/apk/.boot_repository)
	# LBUOPTS="$( find /media -maxdepth 3 -type d -path '*/.*' -prune -o -type f -name '.boot_repository' -exec dirname {} \; | head -1 | xargs dirname )"
	# APKCACHEOPTS="\$LBUOPTS/cache"

	EOF

# trick setup-alpine to pretend existing SSH connection
# and therefore keep (do not reset) network interfaces while running in background
# requires alpine-conf 3.15.1 and later, available from Alpine 3.17
SSH_CONNECTION="FAKE" setup-alpine -ef /tmp/ANSWERFILE
# lbu commit -d

########################################################


_logger "Finished unattended script"

This gets the device started up and connected to Wifi with DHCP, which is already great. I'm getting stuck on the last step, running into a dead end because I can't find examples in this repo or the Alpine wiki that contain working examples of a sys install to the SD card.

If I configure DISKOPTS="-m sys /media/mmcblk0" I can see the Disk & Install phase failing like this:

 Disk & Install
----------------
ERROR: unable to select packages:
  raspberrypi-bootloader (no such package):
    required by: world[raspberrypi-bootloader]
tar: can't create directory 'etc': Read-only file system
tar: can't open 'etc/hosts': No such file or directory
mkdir: can't create directory '/media/mmcblk0/etc': Read-only file system
/usr/sbin/setup-disk: line 561: can't create /media/mmcblk0/etc/fstab: nonexistent directory
/usr/sbin/setup-disk: line 570: can't create /media/mmcblk0/etc/fstab: nonexistent directory
/usr/sbin/setup-disk: line 576: can't open /media/mmcblk0/etc/fstab: no such file
mkdir: can't create directory '/media/mmcblk0/etc/': Read-only file system
/usr/sbin/setup-disk: line 586: can't create /media/mmcblk0/etc/mkinitfs/mkinitfs.conf: nonexistent directory
Installing system on /dev/mmcblk0:
/usr/sbin/setup-disk: line 422: can't create /media/mmcblk0/boot/cmdline.txt: Read-only file system
mkdir: can't create directory '/media/mmcblk0/etc/': Read-only file system
cp: can't create '/media/mmcblk0/etc/apk/keys/[email protected]': No such file or directory
cp: can't create '/media/mmcblk0/etc/apk/keys/[email protected]': No such file or directory
cp: can't create '/media/mmcblk0/etc/apk/keys/[email protected]': No such file or directory
cp: can't create '/media/mmcblk0/etc/apk/keys/[email protected]': No such file or directory
cp: can't create '/media/mmcblk0/etc/apk/keys/[email protected]': No such file or directory
mkdir: can't create directory '/media/mmcblk0/proc': Read-only file system
mount: mounting /proc on /media/mmcblk0/proc failed: No such file or directory
mkdir: can't create directory '/media/mmcblk0/dev': Read-only file system
mount: mounting /dev on /media/mmcblk0/dev failed: No such file or directory
ERROR: Unable to create database: No such file or directory
ERROR: Failed to open apk database: No such file or directory
umount: can't unmount /media/mmcblk0/proc: No such file or directory
umount: can't unmount /media/mmcblk0/dev: No such file or directory

If I configure DISKOPTS="-m sys /dev/mmcblk0" I can see the Disk & Install phase failing like this:

No disks available. Try boot media /media/mmcblk0? (y/n) [n] Enter where to store configs ('floppy', 'mmcblk0', 'usb' or 'none') [mmcblk0] Enter apk cache directory (or '?' or 'none') [/media/mmcblk0/cache] headless_unattended: Finished unattended script

If I configure DISKOPTS="-m sys mmcblk0" I can see the Disk & Install phase failing like this:

No disks available. Try boot media /media/mmcblk0? (y/n) [n] Enter where to store configs ('floppy', 'mmcblk0', 'usb' or 'none') [mmcblk0] Enter apk cache directory (or '?' or 'none') [/media/mmcblk0/cache] WARNING: opening from cache http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.22/main: No such file or directory 
headless_unattended: Finished unattended script

Sometimes there is a prior error, with the APK Mirror step failing with:

 APK Mirror
------------
204DA0A67F000000:error:0A000086:SSL routines:tls_post_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed:ssl/statem/statem_clnt.c:2123:
ssl_client: SSL_connect
wget: error getting response: Connection reset by peer
Warning! No mirror found

I wonder if a small sleep between the steps would help here, it seems maybe the system time is set incorrectly, or network interface gets reset by setup-alpine?

What is a good value for DISKOPTS that installs the sys to disk and then reboots the system when finished, so it comes up from the SD card? Why does it work in interactive mode, but not headless? It would be great to include an example file for this common use case.

Also why is there a sleep 60 at the start of the file, is it safe to comment this? I don't understand the "Obvious one" comment, it's not obvious to me what this is doing.

Thanks for help in advance!

[macmpi]

Hi, thanks for the note: glad you find it useful.

There's quite a lot of stuff in your message: will try to clarify some key points.

Indeed starting with interactive setup is key to get the right things to put forth into ANSWERFILE.
I agree finding the magic statements for ANSWERFILE is sometime tricky, and needs quite a bit of trials/errors: you may find some wiki articles worth for this https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Using_an_answerfile_with_setup-alpine

About various snippets within unattended.sh: they are just exemples (separated by ######### sections) to show how to write such scripts.
You certainly do not need to use them all: i.e the "obvious" one is just obvious (and quite useless traditional sample): it prints hello world to console!...
The one that removes apkovl may not be needed either for what you want to accomplish, etc...

As you seem to want to run setup-alpine with ANSWERFILE, then that part may be a more valuable sample for you.
In particular the calling trick is key: SSH_CONNECTION="FAKE" setup-alpine -ef /tmp/ANSWERFILE
Without that, setup-alpine would reset network interface while achieving setup, which may be an issue if you want to supervise what happens under ssh... (not needed once you are 100% happy with your script, and don't need to observe).

I have not personally tried to make ANSWERFILE for sys install, but it should be possible (sorry can't work on that right now). You may need to prepare disk partitions initially; also note FAT partition is mounted ro by default and may need to be remounted rw to modify content: you may probably find samples/tips on wiki or other forums (i.e. ref).
Feel free to report progress here as it may help others.
Happy hacking!

[macmpi]

If I configure DISKOPTS="-m sys /dev/mmcblk0" I can see the Disk & Install phase failing like this:

No disks available. Try boot media /media/mmcblk0? (y/n) [n] Enter where to store configs ('floppy', 'mmcblk0', 'usb' or 'none') [mmcblk0] Enter apk cache directory (or '?' or 'none') [/media/mmcblk0/cache] headless_unattended: Finished unattended script

If I remember correctly, in interactive mode that question should be answered yes:
Try boot media /media/mmcblk0? (y/n)
Unsure how to work around this if with ANSWERFILE default no is assumed: need to dig into setup_disk script.

If not possible, then an alternative could be to configure as diskless with ANSWERFILE, and then convert diskless to sys mode with remaining of the unattended.sh script...

Hope this helps.

PS: do not forget to copy wpa_supplicant.conf into final install location: the one you provide with apkovl is not used by default for final setup: you have to supply again info at install.

[strophy]

Thanks, yes that helped a lot! I messed around this for another day and came to the conclusion that the setup-disk script fundamentally cannot handle the case of setting up the boot partition in automated mode in the same way it does in interactive mode. Also, the setup-alpine script steps through the modules too quickly, so on a device with wifi connectivity, the wifi will not be up yet after the INTERFACESOPTS step, so by the time it comes to set up the APKREPOSOPTS, this step will always fail with the following error:

 APK Mirror
------------
203D1BBB7F000000:error:0A000086:SSL routines:tls_post_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed:ssl/statem/statem_clnt.c:2123:
ssl_client: SSL_connect
wget: error getting response: Connection reset by peer
Warning! No mirror found

I tried to hack around these two issues and ended up with the following modified script:

#!/bin/sh

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright 2022-2025, macmpi
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

## Automated headless setup script for Alpine Linux on Raspberry Pi
## Performs unattended system installation to SD card

# Uncomment to enable stdout and errors redirection to console (service won't show messages)
exec 1>/dev/console 2>&1

# shellcheck disable=SC2142  # known special case
alias _logger='logger -st "${0##*/}"'

########################################################

_logger "Setting-up minimal environment"

cat <<-EOF > /tmp/ANSWERFILE
	# base answer file for setup-alpine script

	# Do not set keyboard layout
	KEYMAPOPTS="us us"

	# Keep hostname
	HOSTNAMEOPTS="$(hostname)"

	# Set device manager to mdev
	DEVDOPTS=mdev

	# Contents of /etc/network/interfaces
	INTERFACESOPTS="auto lo
	iface lo inet loopback

	auto wlan0
	iface wlan0 inet dhcp
	"

	# Set Public nameserver
	DNSOPTS="none"

	# Set timezone to CET
	TIMEZONEOPTS="CET"

	# set http/ftp proxy
	PROXYOPTS=none

	# Add first mirror (CDN)
	APKREPOSOPTS="-1 -c"

	# Do not create any user
	USEROPTS=none

	# Openssh
	SSHDOPTS=openssh

	# Use openntpd
	NTPOPTS="busybox"

	# Disk install
	DISKOPTS=none
	EOF

# trick setup-alpine to pretend existing SSH connection
# and therefore keep (do not reset) network interfaces while running in background
# requires alpine-conf 3.15.1 and later, available from Alpine 3.17
# Run setup-alpine without disk install
SSH_CONNECTION="FAKE" setup-alpine -ef /tmp/ANSWERFILE

_logger "Waiting for network to stabilize"
sleep 10
_logger "Configuring online package repositories"
setup-apkrepos -1 -c
apk update

# Run setup-disk directly
# Pass disk device via stdin since boot media needs special handling
_logger "Starting disk installation"
printf 'y\nmmcblk0\ny\n' | setup-disk -m sys

# Copy wpa_supplicant.conf to the installed system so WiFi works after reboot
_logger "Copying WiFi configuration to installed system"
if [ -f /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf ]; then
	mkdir -p /mnt/etc/wpa_supplicant
	cp /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf /mnt/etc/wpa_supplicant/
	_logger "WiFi configuration copied successfully"
else
	_logger "WARNING: wpa_supplicant.conf not found - WiFi may not work after reboot"
fi

########################################################

_logger "Finished unattended script - rebooting system"
sleep 2
reboot

This works, but its obviously not optimal because we are re-running a lot of the stuff that should run in setup-alpine. I think setup-disk is flawed because it is not possible to reach the is_available_disk function in non-interactive mode. When you run setup-disk -m sys mmcblk0, the script:

• Validates mmcblk0 is a block device (✓)
• Checks if it's available via is_available_disk (✗ fails - it has mounted partitions)
• Never gets to the "Try boot media?" logic

The "Try boot media?" prompt only appears when no disks are found and setup-disk is run without disk arguments. So the only way past this is to simulate interactive flow with piped answers. I haven't tried your suggestion of converting diskless to sys install, do you think this might work better? Where can I find general documentation about diskless mode, maybe this would suit my needs better? I'm also unfamiliar with LBU, what are the goals of running in this mode, other than extending SD card life?

The wpa_supplicant.conf copy step is also not working yet, I can't find the file on the system after setup-disk unmounts the sd card to write sys to it. Maybe I'll need to store this as a variable or temp file somewhere? I'll keep leaving notes here as I continue next week, and would appreciate any comments you have while I work through these issues, thanks again!

[macmpi]

Good to hear you are making progress.

Where can I find general documentation about diskless mode, maybe this would suit my needs better?

You will find a lot of useful info out of wiki: https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi and embedded links.
Diskless has some advantages in usecases where most runtime data do not need to be retained across reboots (i.e. servers).
It also avoids SD wear, which is neat on Pi devices.
There are other install methods & tricks to accommodate various needs and constraints: read wiki carefully.

wifi will not be up yet after the INTERFACESOPTS step

Yes, while interfaces/network services are not restarted (SSH_CONNECTION="FAKE"), wifi bring-up may take time (process may fork in the background if too long). Maybe setup-alpine could be improved in that regard too (wait for a little while for networking ports to be live)...
In the meantime, your script could wait for wifi before launching setup-alpine.
Now, if using a PiZero, you may use ethernet gadget interface for install/setup phase while still configuring wifi for later usage. 🚀 😉

The wpa_supplicant.conf copy step is also not working yet, I can't find the file on the system after setup-disk unmounts the sd card to write sys to it.

You may want to save it to /tmp for instance at beginning of script, and copy it back in your final install.
Make sure wpa_supplicant service is enabled at (re)boot.

On the overall sys install issue with ANSWERFILE, you may want to open an issue on gitlab on https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/alpine-conf project: you may get suggestions or a fix may be thought-about for next release and the benefit of all.

PS:

I'm trying to use this to provision ~200 SD cards to run Alpine Linux 3.22 on Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W devices.

Do you intend to run the script 200 times? It may be quicker to do just once, then image the resulting device SD, and dd the image on other 199 SDs (if running ssh server, you may want to delete ssk keys before imaging).
Note: if finally you elect to use diskless install mode, then you'll only have your resulting apkovl file to copy/transplant to all your alpine base SD...

[strophy]

SSH_CONNECTION="FAKE"

You've mentioned a few times that setting this will result in no changes to network interfaces while setup-alpine runs, but that has not been my experience. I've tried setting "none", "" and adding the entire network config in INTERFACESOPTS but I always see either a wget or SSL error in the apkrepos and disk steps.

I tried to move waiting for network init before the setup-alpine step, which required adding an interfaces file to the set of files I copy to the SD card in order for the network connection to come up before setup-alpine. But I found that the setup-alpine step still resets the network connection in some way (maybe overwriting my interfaces file with the contents of the INTERFACESOPTS?), so there are still errors at the steps setting up apkrepos and fetching aports needed for disk partitioning as a result. The only way for this to work is to run the failed steps individually after setup-alpine runs.

I also think I won't go with diskless this time, I will need some local storage for photos, logs from Docker, etc., but thanks for the general information on diskless mode, it's really helpful.

I've successfully found the /media/mmcblk0/wpa_supplicant.conf file before running printf 'y\nmmcblk0\ny\n' | setup-disk -m sys and copied it to /tmp/wpa_supplicant.conf. After I run setup-disk, the SD card is no longer mounted to /media/mmcblk0 or anywhere under /mnt. Where should I copy this file, does it go under /etc/wpa_supplicant or under /boot/firmware somewhere? Do I need to re-mount the SD card to copy before rebooting?

Do you intend to run the script 200 times?

I need to find a way to image the SD card after the script has finished. I tried this with Gnome Disks and it resulted in a 32GB file, so I need to find a way to do it that doesn't copy all the empty blocks into the image. Maybe dd, or just let the script run on each of the Pi Zero devices as it comes up for the first time.

Thanks for the ongoing help, I'll definitely open an issue on the alpine-conf repo as I get more understanding of the possible pitfalls here.

[macmpi]

SSH_CONNECTION="FAKE"

You've mentioned a few times that setting this will result in no changes to network interfaces while setup-alpine runs,

It's a bit more subtle than that...
That trick just avoids setup-alpine to restart network service (like any other boot services), whatever configuration you set: it will just keep running under it's initial bootstrapping settings.
Now, under this bootstrap mode, system's interface file is intentionally wiped after boot (but network stays live), to allow you to set it as you wish (with INTERFACESOPTS for instance): it will only be activated after reboot (or networking service explicitly restarted).
If something does restart network service while you run setup-alpine with that trick, then I'm really curious to know which...

I tried to move waiting for network init before the setup-alpine step ...

I'm a bit surprised wifi taking so long to come-up (never saw that with my PiZeroW): you may just do a while loop waiting for successful ping (or alternate) to some known internet address, however...
I strongly suggest you use ethernet gadget during bootstrap: it is quick and very efficient alternative network interface. You only need to setup your desktop machine once (Linux/mac/Win) as 10.42.0.1 on the detected USB-ethernet interface (after hooked-Pi booted), and share Internet with that interface: your PiZero will magically access internet through your PC.
Once you experienced that setup with a PiZero, you'll love it for plenty of usecases (see related xg_multi package for permanent install).

After I run setup-disk, the SD card is no longer mounted ...

Have not checked whether it unmounts disk, but you can certainly remount it: it should be /dev/mmcblk0pX
Find it with df or blkid.
.conf file should be copied as /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf in main ext4 partition.

[strophy]

If something does restart network service while you run setup-alpine with that trick, then I'm really curious to know which...

You're absolutely right, the issue is not the network service! I added sleep and network debugging statements around the setup-alpine step and eventually traced it to the system time being set incorrectly to July 23, 2025 on first boot. In theory setup-ntp runs before setup-apkrepos, but it either doesn't finish or it gets forked to the background and doesn't finish fast enough, so the system time is still incorrect when wget tries to set up a secure connection with the Alpine packages host. Running ntpd -d -q -n -p pool.ntp.org before the setup-alpine step resolves the error.

[strophy]

I managed to get the script into a minimum working state that works with wifi, no interaction or keyboard required, only power connection:

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment to enable stdout and errors redirection to console (service won't show messages)
exec 1>/dev/console 2>&1

# shellcheck disable=SC2142  # known special case
alias _logger='logger -st "${0##*/}"'
_logger "Setting-up minimal environment"

ntpd -d -q -n -p pool.ntp.org
_logger "Time synchronized"

cat <<-EOF > /tmp/ANSWERFILE
	KEYMAPOPTS="us us"
	HOSTNAMEOPTS="$(hostname)"
	DEVDOPTS=mdev
	INTERFACESOPTS="auto lo
	iface lo inet loopback
	
	auto wlan0
	iface wlan0 inet dhcp
		pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
		post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant
	"
	DNSOPTS="none"
	TIMEZONEOPTS="CET"
	PROXYOPTS=none
	APKREPOSOPTS="-1 -c"
	USEROPTS=none
	SSHDOPTS=openssh
	NTPOPTS="busybox"
	DISKOPTS=none
	EOF

SSH_CONNECTION="FAKE" setup-alpine -ef /tmp/ANSWERFILE

# Configure WiFi for the installed system
apk add wpa_supplicant
cp /media/mmcblk0/wpa_supplicant.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
_logger "Wifi configured"

# Run setup-disk directly
# Pass disk device via stdin since boot media needs special handling
_logger "Starting disk installation"
printf 'y\nmmcblk0\ny\n' | setup-disk -m sys

_logger "Finished unattended script - rebooting system"
reboot

There were three key changes needed:

• configure correct system time first, before attempting anything requiring network connectivity
• wifi support tools are only there during the boot phase, and need to be added again and wpa_supplicant.conf needs manual copying before setting up the sys partition
• I couldn't find a working magic DISKOPTS config from the ANSWERFILE, so simulating interaction with printf is needed to setup-disk

All three of these feel like useful features that could/should be handled by alpine-conf, so I'll open issues there in a couple of days once I get more familiar with the steps and try to scale it. Thanks very much @macmpi for your excellent tool and generous prompt support!

[macmpi]

Congrats, and thanks for feedback.

You could replace the pre-up/post-down statements by enabling wpa_supplicant service as boot service in your script, if it's not on by default. Normally setup-interface is supposed to add wpa_supplicant for wifi interface and handle that.

Feel free to close issue when finished: I may move it to discussion tab if your are ok.
Have fun with Alpine!

[macmpi]

on another note:

USEROPTS=none
SSHDOPTS=openssh

You may not be able to login with ssh to your configured machines, as root login will probably be disabled by default (or you need to change defaults in /etc/ssh/sshd_config): it may be easier/safer to create an admin user with USEROPTS instead.

[strophy]

You could replace the pre-up/post-down statements by enabling wpa_supplicant service as boot service in your script, if it's not on by default. Normally setup-interface is supposed to add wpa_supplicant for wifi interface and handle that.

I tried apk add wpa_supplicant and copying the wpa_supplicant.conf file to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf before running the setup-alpine script. The wpa_supplicant aport correctly configures its own service when installed. I also removed the pre-up/post-down statements from the INTERFACESOPTS variable, but this again results in wifi failing to connect after the reboot. The wpa_supplicant service is installed and running, but if I don't explicitly put the entire contents of what needs to be in /etc/networks/interfaces including the pre-up/post-down sections required by wpa_supplicant in the INTERFACEOPTS variable then there is no networking after reboot.

it may be easier/safer to create an admin user with USEROPTS instead.

Thanks, I did that and the experience is much smoother now. I made the following changes to users in the script, just sharing in case anyone else finds this useful:

SSH_KEY="$(cat /media/mmcblk0/authorized_keys)"

cat <<-EOF > /tmp/ANSWERFILE
	...
	USEROPTS="-a -u pi"
	USERSSHKEY="${SSH_KEY}"
	SSHDOPTS=openssh
	ROOTSSHKEY="${SSH_KEY}"
	...
	EOF

SSH_CONNECTION="FAKE" setup-alpine -ef /tmp/ANSWERFILE

# Configure initial password access
echo "root:password" | chpasswd
echo "pi:password" | chpasswd
_logger "Initial passwords set"

[macmpi]

but if I don't explicitly put the entire contents [...] including the pre-up/post-down

Do you have sth like this, or some missing?

$ rc-update show | grep boot
             bootmisc | boot                                   
             hostname | boot                                   
              modules | boot                                   
           networking | boot                                   
              seedrng | boot                                   
              swclock | boot                                   
               sysctl | boot                                   
               syslog | boot                                   
       wpa_supplicant | boot                                   

[macmpi]

I'll certainly post my full script here

I just created a discussion category for such scripts 😉 🙏

[macmpi]

small tweaks relating to cameras

Just in case this may be usefull to you (as per this WIP):
https://github.com/RPi-Distro/raspberrypi-sys-mods/blob/bookworm/lib/udev/rules.d/60-dma-heap.rules

[macmpi]

Do you have a somehow-final version to share as sample?

[strophy]

Yes, posted here, thanks for the reminder! 🙈

[macmpi]

Great, thanks for your contribution: it will probably help some users.

[strophy]

What issues do you think are good candidates for issues to open on the scripts repo? The most obvious one to me is to give NTP time to run after its config changes, to prevent anything requiring use of apk failing due to incorrect system time breaking SSL connections. And second, make it possible to run setup-disk -m sys based on DISKOPTS, which currently doesn't because only interactive mode allows installing to the boot medium.

[strophy]

• https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/alpine-conf/-/issues/10628
• https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/alpine-conf/-/issues/10629
• https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/alpine-conf/-/issues/10630

Feel free to comment over there, your input would be super valuable and I'm not sure I've described each issue clearly enough. Thanks again!

[macmpi]

I subscribed, and will pop-in if necessary.
BTW you may run ntpd with high priority -N option: ntpd -d -q -n -N -p pool.ntp.org (not sure it drastically improve things TBH)

[macmpi]

NTPOPTS="busybox"

Just curious, have you checked with other NTP options, like NTPOPTS="chrony" ?
Never had such issue on my PiZeroW and am using chrony...

[strophy]

No, I didn't try chrony or other options, and need to move forward now with the actual software I want to run on these boards. It would be nice if I could pass the -d -q -n -N options to ntpd in the NTPOPTS but this doesn't seem possible based on the docs.

[macmpi]

busybox ntpd service is run with -N option by default. I was referring to your usage within script.
Your issue could actually be busybox ntpd service related (and not setup-alpine issue per-say), hence suggesting trying with another NTP service...