Subject: manual install boot process of setup-disk does not work

From: PICCORO McKAY Lenz <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2020 09:32:48 -0500

seems manually make boot able the installed system does not work with
setup-disk?,

my intentions are manually partitioning and later perform "setup-disk -m
sys -s 4096 /dev/sda" and choose none for apk cache and others.. so my
intentions are created only one partition install with grub/isolinux /boot
in same partition.. since setup-disk just copy the system, i manually
edited the syslinux cfg file to use "/boot" event "/" but still not works

everything goes ok, reboot and system only show black screen when boot
this is the complete process

setup-keymap us us-altgr-intl

cat > /root/autofile << EOF
KEYMAPOPTS="us us-altgr-intl"
HOSTNAMEOPTS="-n alpine-test"
DNSOPTS="8.8.8.8"
TIMEZONEOPTS="-z UTC"
PROXYOPTS="none"
APKREPOSOPTS="-1"
SSHDOPTS="-c openssh"
NTPOPTS="-c chrony"
EOF

setup-alpine -f /root/autofile

then in questions of disk answered "none" and for apk cache "none", then:

export BOOTLOADER=grub

fdisk /dev/sda

then: `o, n, p, 2048, +100G, n, p, enter, +4G, t, 2, 82, w` (root 100G,
swap 4G)

apk add e2fsprogs

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1

setup-disk -m sys /mnt

everything goes ok, reboot and systemd only show black screen when boot

Lenz McKAY Gerardo (PICCORO)
http://qgqlochekone.blogspot.com

---

From: Natanael Copa <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2020 13:27:26 +0100

On Thu, 23 Jan 2020 09:32:48 -0500

> seems manually make boot able the installed system does not work with

I think you need to install the bootloader yourself to MBR.

With syslinux its something like `dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin
of=/dev/sda`. With grub I don't know.

-nc

---

From: PICCORO McKAY Lenz <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:52:13 -0400

El vie., 24 de ene. de 2020 a la(s) 08:27, Natanael Copa (
[email-masked]) escribió:

> Thanks natanael, that works for x86 and x64 BIOS only computers now:

> of=/dev/sda`. With grub I don't know.
BUT why setup-disk does not make it if we specified the install disk
by "DEFAULT_DISK=sda
setup-disk -q -m sys /mnt"???

i need that clarifications, to property make wiki documentation (very weak
in that)
Seems that are very important to users to able to install if there's
already a prevously linux instalation in their disk!

please seems you need to assist me to make available to make it work with
grub ! that methos does not work with UEFI computers!

taking in consideration that users commonly does not install alpine linux
alone in a disk for x86 and x64 machines right?

---

From: Natanael Copa <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:02:11 +0100

On Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:52:13 -0400

> setup-disk -q -m sys /mnt"???

The reasoning was that if users use `setup-disk /mnt` the user will
also know how to install the bootloader. There are just too many things
that can go wrong is setup-disk tries to do it, so I never bothered to
do anything about it.

DEFAULT_DISK != boot disk.

-nc

> already a prevously linux instalation in their disk!

exactly, and we dont want setup-disk to remove the other OSes in case
of dualbooting. And we dont want the script to start try figuring out
whatever bootloader is used from before or how to also boot windows etc.

Better let user install boot loader.

> please seems you need to assist me to make available to make it work
> with grub ! that methos does not work with UEFI computers!

currently the setup-disk uses syslinux for BIOS boot and grub for UEFI. I'm not sure the code is there for install grub in BIOS mode.
 
> taking in consideration that users commonly does not install alpine
> linux alone in a disk for x86 and x64 machines right?

I thiknk setup script also works for ppc64le, but to be honest, I don't
know.

---

From: PICCORO McKAY Lenz <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2020 11:16:05 -0400

I agree with you in all, thanks Natanael i'll update wiki pages about
partition only installation now!

Wolf give me tips about the grub process: well, arch linux today are a pain
in the fuck*g ass.. he give me a arch wiki page..

BUT here are a problem.. grub are not in default image! so if we do not
have networking we don't able to make it install able if i have different
arch (x86 vs x64) already installed!

procedure to make alpine main os if previous linux are installed will be
very complicated to gain new users.. if grub are not in the media image!
wifi modules are a pain remember that! modem are not in hotpost mode at
install !

as example: fi grub are installed and can added new entry to the installed
linux, the new user can boot their older linux and copy paste to alpine
partition the proper files..  making the alpine grub install the main grub
boot, due older linux was in bios mode and grub will perfom a UEFI boot..

another case .. install both alpine and another linux or freebsd or osx in
same disk only alone partitions.. and want make alpine main os to manage
the boot process.. of course i not need networking in alpine, just boot and
that's all.. this cannot be possible due there's no grub in the media..
only for x86 and x64... arm ones does not have that option..

there's more cases, the only problem: grub need packages are not in default
images!

El vie., 24 de ene. de 2020 a la(s) 11:02, Natanael Copa (
[email-masked]) escribió:

> currently the setup-disk uses syslinux for BIOS boot and grub for UEFI.
> I'm not sure the code is there for install grub in BIOS mode.
>

---

From: Wolf <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2020 15:56:43 +0100

> of=/dev/sda`. With grub I don't know.

For grub I can recommend archlinux's wikipage:

	https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB

so MBR installation would look like

	grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sdX

W.

-- 
There are only two hard things in Computer Science:
cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.