Message-ID: <9f76a9108e2ac6d8cda76035c695a6acdb6aba01.camel@riseup.net>
Subject: Re: vultr alpine linux-lts-dev cannot boot..
From: Ralf Mardorf <ralf-mardorf@riseup.net>
To: ~alpine/users@lists.alpinelinux.org
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:54:58 +0100
In-Reply-To: <CAOyb_EzU_JJjMw_0fnV+Ynux-Aam08g+cNNHNdeZyPycLi8hiw@mail.gmail.com>
References: 
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On Thu, 2024-01-25 at 12:08 -0500, Brian Cook wrote:
> I had a usb utility that would boot a linux system from the usb using
> the kernel on the usb.. but cannot find the name of it..

Hi,

for this bad practice you need a bootloader on the USB device and a
kernel. You can boot into a kernel, that does not belong to a Linux
install's root directory. For example, if you have got a Linux dual boot
machine, you can boot into the kernel from one and the root directory of
the other install. This usually works without issues, but it's not
really safe to do so.

When using a systemd based Linux distro you can use systemd-nspawn from
another systemd Linux. This is safe, but doesn't allow to fix
everything.

If a distro isn't based on systemd or you need to fix something that can
not be done when using systemd-nspawn, then chroot is the way to go.

In short, even if there are several possibilities that can work,
basically a chroot is often what it will come down to in the end.

OTOH sometimes you only need to mount your Alpine Linux and edit
something. You can even run apk from another Linux and use the "--root"
option.

apk fix --root /mnt/point/of/alpine/ package_name

Regards,
Ralf