Subject: [alpine-user] setup-alpine cannot save configs

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2018 23:41:08 +0100 (CET)

Hello,

Alpine (3.8.1) in frugal install works fine and fast; but I meet a

problem saving configs: when setup-alpine asks

Enter where to store configs ('floppy', 'sda2', 'usb' or 'none') [sda2]:

no error message but any alpine.apkovl.tar.gz file is created on sda2 :(

Trying to create a configuration file with

setup-alpine -c /media/sda2/apkovl.conf

returns

touch: /media/sda2/apkovl.conf: Read-only filesystem

Cannot touch file /media/sda2/apkovl.conf

/sbin/setup-alpine: line 115: can't create /media/sda2/apkovl.conf:

Read-only filesystem

And yet when setup-alpine prompts me to create a cache

Enter apk cache directory (or '?' or 'none') [/media/sda2/cache]:

it creates correctly the /cache folder, and apk saves downloaded packages

in it.

Is there a chance that setup-alpine is modified to do it? (or maybe it is

only a bug?)

Alpine would be perfect if it was possible to save the config on a HD

partition.

Thanks.

Ceel

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From: Chloe Kudryavtsev <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2018 21:24:57 -0500

> no error message but any alpine.apkovl.tar.gz file is created on sda2 :(

The utility in question is setup-lbu.
There are lots of issues with it right now.
/media/ filesystems are currently mounted ro by default - you can 
remount it rw on your own (mount /media/sda2 -o remount,rw) and then run 
`setup-lbu sda2`.

> setup-alpine -c /media/sda2/apkovl.conf

`setup-alpine -c` is for something entirely different (an answer file).
These have a good chance of being abandoned relatively soon too, so 
please avoid using that.

> it creates correctly the /cache folder, and apk saves downloaded packages

The utility in question here is setup-apkcache.
This utility does indeed perform the remount necessary (around line 150 
or so).

> Alpine would be perfect if it was possible to save the config on a HD

Based on your prior description, there seems to be a misunderstanding 
unto what a "config" is.
apkovl is a tarball (from /) of various files that will be unpacked into 
the tmpfs during bootup (assuming no other root is found, and the apkovl 
is found by nlplug-findfs).

Either way, I would definitely call this a bug.
However, alpine-conf (the package that contains all of the 
above-mentioned utilities) is currently a mess.
Ideally, it should be fixed as a whole.
I would try to take up the task, but currently I'm busy writing the 
documentation (that you will be able to refer to to find out more about 
lbu, apkovls and similar such things).

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2018 22:51:08 +0100 (CET)

@ Chloe Kudryavtsev,

Thank you for your quick answer.

>remount it rw on your own (mount /media/sda2 -o remount,rw) and then run 

Sorry, my mistake. I forgot I have to run lbu commit after setup-alpine.     :/
No need to "remount rw sda2"; "lbu ci sda2" does the job correctly. Well...
Alpine is perfect!

>Based on your prior description, there seems to be a misunderstanding 

Ooh yes... You're right. I confused config and changes.     :/ again.

>I'm busy writing the documentation.

Good thing. I've all to learn about Alpine

Thanks again

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