Install Alpine Linux on Termux using QEMU

For this case, we will install ** Alpine Linux architecture x86_64 in the Virtual version **. Download the latest version of the virtual ISO from the Alpine Linux website. Go to the official website https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/

This was only tested on Xiaomi Redmi Note 8.

Note: You can run the script install-alpine.sh to skip most commands. Just remember you must have git installed to do git clone to the repository

Steps before installing Alpine Linux:

TERMUX

• 1. Download and install F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/F-Droid.apk

• 2. Search for Termux in F-Droid

• 3. Install and open Termux

• 4. Setup Termux packages:

pkg update -y

pkg upgrade -y

pkg install wget -y

QEMU - Alpine Linux

• Install QEMU and download Virtual ISO Alpine Linux

pkg install qemu-system-x86-64-headless qemu-utils -y

cd $HOME

mkdir alpine-linux

cd alpine-linux/

wget <VIRTUAL_ISO_URL>

wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.14/releases/x86_64/alpine-virt-3.14.0-x86_64.iso

Install Alpine Linux using Qemu

• Create the Virtual Machine

qemu-img create -f qcow2 alpine.qcow2 15G

qemu-system-x86_64 -smp 2 -m 2048 \
  -drive file=alpine.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -netdev user,id=n1,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
  -device virtio-net,netdev=n1 \
  -cdrom <VIRTUAL_ISO_NAME.iso> -boot d \
  -nographic

qemu-system-x86_64 -smp 2 -m 2048 \
  -drive file=alpine.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -netdev user,id=n1,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
  -device virtio-net,netdev=n1 \
  -cdrom alpine-virt-3.14.0-x86_64.iso -boot d \
  -nographic

• This install the non-graphical version, this means that we will only use the terminal

• Log in as root (no password) and run:

setup-alpine

Follow the setup-alpine installation steps. Use poweroff to shut down the machine.

• Booting the Virtual Machine

After the installation QEMU can be started from disk image (-boot c) without CDROM.

qemu-system-x86_64 -smp 2 -m 2048 \
  -drive file=alpine.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -netdev user,id=n1,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
  -device virtio-net,netdev=n1 \
  -nographic

For more information about the commands seen here, visit https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Qemu

Qemu commands based on https://youtu.be/RL96VSKzAQo