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Alpine Linux

Create needed pkgs repository in Alpine Linux install (Part 2) - rescue disk

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Some questions answered here.

How to create an Alpine Linux rescue disk?
How to create an Alpine Linux rescue iso?

How to create Alpine Linux rescue disk

Method 1 (DISK - RAM boot)

Method described below is presently meant for ram-based installs. It may not be effective on other methods of installs.
Method assumes you have a basic internet ready ram-based install/setup up and running.

Create a ram based basic bootable disk. ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5]
Update this disk to a rescue disk by adding curated pkgs.
1. See Part1: Create-what-is-only-needed-repo.
2. Updated code/scripts with some curated apk lists can be found here. ^[1]

1. Directory/files structures - of alpine rescue boot disk

  (1)
  /media/usb/
  |-- apks   <- installed from alpine-standard-3.18.3-x86_64.iso
  |   `-- x86_64
  |       |-- APKINDEX.tar.gz
  |       |-- acct-6.6.4-r2.apk
  |       |-- ....
  |       `-- zstd-libs-1.5.5-r4.apk
  |-- apks2   <- custom curated apk pkgs folder
  |   `-- v3.18
  |       |-- fetch-apk.sh   <- helper script to download apks
  |       |-- main
  |       |   `-- x86_64
  |       |       |-- APKINDEX.tar.gz
  |       |       `-- ... .apk
  |       `-- community
  |           `-- x86_64
  |               |-- APKINDEX.tar.gz
  |               `-- ... .apk
  |-- boot
  |   |-- System.map-lts
  |   |-- ....
  |   `-- vmlinuz-lts
  |-- cache
  |   `-- installed
  |-- efi
  |   `-- boot
  |       `-- bootx64.efi
  |-- localhost.20240727210601.tar.gz
  |-- localhost.apkovl.tar.gz
  `-- lost+found

2. Some basic packages useful in rescue boot.

1a. Disk/Storage (main)

bcache-tools: tools for managing bcache
btrfs-progs: BTRFS filesystem utilities
e2fsprogs: Standard Ext2/3/4 filesystem utilities
f2fs-tools: Tools for the Flash-Friendly File System (F2FS)
parted: Utility to create, destroy, resize, check and copy partitions
squashfs-tools: Tools for squashfs, a highly compressed read-only filesystem for Linux
testdisk: A data recovery suite
unzip: Extract PKZIP-compatible .zip files
xfsprogs: XFS filesystem utilities

apk add bcache-tools btrfs-progs e2fsprogs f2fs-tools parted squashfs-tools testdisk unzip xfsprogs

1b. Disk/Storage (community)

ddrescue: Data recovery tool for block devices with errors
exfatprogs: exfat filesystem userspace tools, mkfs and fsck
fuse-exfat: Free exFAT file system implementation
fuse-exfat-utils: Free exFAT file system implementation (utilities)
jfsutils: JFS filesystem utilities

apk add ddrescue exfatprogs(optional) fuse-exfat fuse-exfat-utils jfsutils

2a. Hardware (main)

atop: Resource-specific view of processes
dmidecode: A utility for reporting system hardware as described by BIOS
dmraid: Device mapper RAID interface
hdparm: Utility for manipulating IDE device parameters
lm-sensors: Collection of user space tools for general SMBus access and hardware monitoring.
pciutils: PCI bus configuration space access library and tools
usbutils: USB Device Utilities
xorriso: ISO-9660 and Rock Ridge image manipulation tool

apk add atop dmidecode dmraid hdparm lm-sensors pciutils usbutils xorriso

2b. Hardware (community)

hwinfo: Hardware information tool
iotop: I/O monitoring tool
lshw: Hardware Lister

apk add hwinfo iotop lshw

3a. Networking (main)

arpwatch: Ethernet monitoring program
dnstop: A DNS traffic capture utility
drill: DNS(SEC) query tool ala dig
lftp: Sophisticated ftp/http client
ncftp: A set of free application programs implementing FTP
net-tools: Linux networking base tools
netcat-openbsd: The TCP/IP swiss army knife. OpenBSD variant from debian
network-extras: Meta package to pull in ppp, vlan, bonding, bridge and wifi support
rsync: A file transfer program to keep remote files in sync
tcpdump: A tool for network monitoring and data acquisition

apk add arpwatch dnstop drill lftp ncftp net-tools netcat-openbsd network-extras rsync tcpdump

3b. Networking (community)

ipcalc: A modern IPv4/IPv6 ipcalc tool, assisting in network calculations in command line and as a tool for scripts.

apk add ipcalc

4a. Others (main)

7zip: File archiver with a high compression ratio
bc: An arbitrary precision numeric processing language (calculator)
busybox-extras: Additional binaries of Busybox
coreutils: The basic file, shell and text manipulation utilities
diffutils: Show differences among files
gpg: GNU Privacy Guard 2 - public key operations only
lsof: LiSt Open Files
lz4: LZ4 is lossless compression algorithm with fast decoder @ multiple GB/s per core.
screen: Window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal
syslinux: Boot loader for the Linux operating system
tmux: Tool to control multiple terminals from a single terminal
util-linux: Random collection of Linux utilities
util-linux-misc: Misc binaries for util-linux

apk add 7zip bc busybox-extras coreutils diffutils gpg lsof lz4 screen syslinux tmux util-linux util-linux-misc

4b. Others (community)

android-tools: Android platform tools
paxctl: Manage PaX related program header flags

apk add android-tools paxctl

WIP (work in progress)

TODO: work on simple script to create an iso from existing bootable rescue disk.

How to create Alpine Linux rescue iso

Method 2 (ISO - RAM boot)

I have used Alpine Linux for more than 10+yrs and haven't had a need to re-generate bootable iso. Once having created a bootable disk using the method above adding/removing pkgs to it is relatively simpler than re-doing an iso.

Author

V.Krishn