.. highlight:: sh Alpine Linux Root on ZFS ======================== .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test :: # For the CI/CD test run of this guide, # Enable verbose logging of bash shell and fail immediately when # a commmand fails. set -vxeuf distro=${1} cp /etc/resolv.conf ./"rootfs-${distro}"/etc/resolv.conf arch-chroot ./"rootfs-${distro}" sh <<-'ZFS_ROOT_GUIDE_TEST' set -vxeuf # install alpine setup scripts apk update apk add alpine-conf curl **Customization** Unless stated otherwise, it is not recommended to customize system configuration before reboot. Preparation --------------------------- #. Disable Secure Boot. ZFS modules can not be loaded if Secure Boot is enabled. #. Download latest extended variant of `Alpine Linux live image `__, verify `checksum `__ and boot from it. .. code-block:: sh gpg --auto-key-retrieve --keyserver hkps://keyserver.ubuntu.com --verify alpine-extended-*.asc dd if=input-file of=output-file bs=1M .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test # check whether the download page exists # alpine version must be in sync with ci/cd test chroot tarball curl --head --fail https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.17/releases/x86_64/alpine-extended-3.17.3-x86_64.iso curl --head --fail https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.17/releases/x86_64/alpine-extended-3.17.3-x86_64.iso.asc #. Login as root user. There is no password. #. Configure Internet .. code-block:: sh setup-interfaces -r # You must use "-r" option to start networking services properly # example: network interface: wlan0 WiFi name: ip address: dhcp manual netconfig: n #. If you are using wireless network and it is not shown, see `Alpine Linux wiki `__ for further details. ``wpa_supplicant`` can be installed with ``apk add wpa_supplicant`` without internet connection. #. Configure SSH server .. code-block:: sh setup-sshd # example: ssh server: openssh allow root: "prohibit-password" or "yes" ssh key: "none" or "" Configurations set here will be copied verbatim to the installed system. #. Set root password or ``/root/.ssh/authorized_keys``. Choose a strong root password, as it will be copied to the installed system. However, ``authorized_keys`` is not copied. #. Connect from another computer .. code-block:: sh ssh root@192.168.1.91 #. Configure NTP client for time synchronization .. code-block:: sh setup-ntp busybox .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test # this step is unnecessary for chroot and returns 1 when executed #. Set up apk-repo. A list of available mirrors is shown. Press space bar to continue .. code-block:: sh setup-apkrepos #. Throughout this guide, we use predictable disk names generated by udev .. code-block:: sh apk update apk add eudev setup-devd udev It can be removed after reboot with ``setup-devd mdev && apk del eudev``. .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test # for some reason, udev is extremely slow in chroot # it is not needed for chroot anyway. so, skip this step #. Target disk List available disks with .. code-block:: sh find /dev/disk/by-id/ If virtio is used as disk bus, power off the VM and set serial numbers for disk. For QEMU, use ``-drive format=raw,file=disk2.img,serial=AaBb``. For libvirt, edit domain XML. See `this page `__ for examples. Declare disk array .. code-block:: sh DISK='/dev/disk/by-id/ata-FOO /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-BAR' For single disk installation, use .. code-block:: sh DISK='/dev/disk/by-id/disk1' .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test # for github test run, use chroot and loop devices DISK="$(losetup -a| grep alpine | cut -f1 -d: | xargs -t -I '{}' printf '{} ')" # for maintenance guide test DISK="$(losetup -a| grep maintenance | cut -f1 -d: | xargs -t -I '{}' printf '{} ') ${DISK}" #. Set a mount point :: MNT=$(mktemp -d) #. Set partition size: Set swap size in GB, set to 1 if you don't want swap to take up too much space .. code-block:: sh SWAPSIZE=4 .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test # For the test run, use 1GB swap space to avoid hitting CI/CD # quota SWAPSIZE=1 Set how much space should be left at the end of the disk, minimum 1GB :: RESERVE=1 #. Install ZFS support from live media:: apk add zfs #. Install bootloader programs and partition tool :: apk add grub-bios grub-efi parted e2fsprogs cryptsetup util-linux System Installation --------------------------- #. Partition the disks. Note: you must clear all existing partition tables and data structures from the disks, especially those with existing ZFS pools or mdraid and those that have been used as live media. Those data structures may interfere with boot process. For flash-based storage, this can be done by uncommenting the blkdiscard command below: :: partition_disk () { local disk="${1}" #blkdiscard -f "${disk}" parted --script --align=optimal "${disk}" -- \ mklabel gpt \ mkpart EFI 2MiB 1GiB \ mkpart bpool 1GiB 5GiB \ mkpart rpool 5GiB -$((SWAPSIZE + RESERVE))GiB \ mkpart swap -$((SWAPSIZE + RESERVE))GiB -"${RESERVE}"GiB \ mkpart BIOS 1MiB 2MiB \ set 1 esp on \ set 5 bios_grub on \ set 5 legacy_boot on partprobe "${disk}" } for i in ${DISK}; do partition_disk "${i}" done .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test :: # When working with GitHub chroot runners, we are using loop # devices as installation target. However, the alias support for # loop device was just introduced in March 2023. See # https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/26693 # For now, we will create the aliases maunally as a workaround looppart="1 2 3 4 5" for i in ${DISK}; do for j in ${looppart}; do if test -e "${i}p${j}"; then ln -s "${i}p${j}" "${i}-part${j}" fi done done #. Setup encrypted swap. This is useful if the available memory is small:: for i in ${DISK}; do cryptsetup open --type plain --key-file /dev/random "${i}"-part4 "${i##*/}"-part4 mkswap /dev/mapper/"${i##*/}"-part4 swapon /dev/mapper/"${i##*/}"-part4 done #. Load ZFS kernel module .. code-block:: sh modprobe zfs #. Create boot pool :: # shellcheck disable=SC2046 zpool create -d \ -o feature@async_destroy=enabled \ -o feature@bookmarks=enabled \ -o feature@embedded_data=enabled \ -o feature@empty_bpobj=enabled \ -o feature@enabled_txg=enabled \ -o feature@extensible_dataset=enabled \ -o feature@filesystem_limits=enabled \ -o feature@hole_birth=enabled \ -o feature@large_blocks=enabled \ -o feature@lz4_compress=enabled \ -o feature@spacemap_histogram=enabled \ -o ashift=12 \ -o autotrim=on \ -O acltype=posixacl \ -O canmount=off \ -O compression=lz4 \ -O devices=off \ -O normalization=formD \ -O relatime=on \ -O xattr=sa \ -O mountpoint=/boot \ -R "${MNT}" \ bpool \ mirror \ $(for i in ${DISK}; do printf '%s ' "${i}-part2"; done) If not using a multi-disk setup, remove ``mirror``. You should not need to customize any of the options for the boot pool. GRUB does not support all of the zpool features. See ``spa_feature_names`` in `grub-core/fs/zfs/zfs.c `__. This step creates a separate boot pool for ``/boot`` with the features limited to only those that GRUB supports, allowing the root pool to use any/all features. #. Create root pool :: # shellcheck disable=SC2046 zpool create \ -o ashift=12 \ -o autotrim=on \ -R "${MNT}" \ -O acltype=posixacl \ -O canmount=off \ -O compression=zstd \ -O dnodesize=auto \ -O normalization=formD \ -O relatime=on \ -O xattr=sa \ -O mountpoint=/ \ rpool \ mirror \ $(for i in ${DISK}; do printf '%s ' "${i}-part3"; done) If not using a multi-disk setup, remove ``mirror``. #. Create root system container: - Unencrypted :: zfs create \ -o canmount=off \ -o mountpoint=none \ rpool/alpinelinux - Encrypted: Pick a strong password. Once compromised, changing password will not keep your data safe. See ``zfs-change-key(8)`` for more info .. code-block:: sh zfs create \ -o canmount=off \ -o mountpoint=none \ -o encryption=on \ -o keylocation=prompt \ -o keyformat=passphrase \ rpool/alpinelinux You can automate this step (insecure) with: ``echo POOLPASS | zfs create ...``. Create system datasets, manage mountpoints with ``mountpoint=legacy`` :: zfs create -o canmount=noauto -o mountpoint=/ rpool/alpinelinux/root zfs mount rpool/alpinelinux/root zfs create -o mountpoint=legacy rpool/alpinelinux/home mkdir "${MNT}"/home mount -t zfs rpool/alpinelinux/home "${MNT}"/home zfs create -o mountpoint=legacy rpool/alpinelinux/var zfs create -o mountpoint=legacy rpool/alpinelinux/var/lib zfs create -o mountpoint=legacy rpool/alpinelinux/var/log zfs create -o mountpoint=none bpool/alpinelinux zfs create -o mountpoint=legacy bpool/alpinelinux/root mkdir "${MNT}"/boot mount -t zfs bpool/alpinelinux/root "${MNT}"/boot mkdir -p "${MNT}"/var/log mkdir -p "${MNT}"/var/lib mount -t zfs rpool/alpinelinux/var/lib "${MNT}"/var/lib mount -t zfs rpool/alpinelinux/var/log "${MNT}"/var/log #. Format and mount ESP :: for i in ${DISK}; do mkfs.vfat -n EFI "${i}"-part1 mkdir -p "${MNT}"/boot/efis/"${i##*/}"-part1 mount -t vfat -o iocharset=iso8859-1 "${i}"-part1 "${MNT}"/boot/efis/"${i##*/}"-part1 done mkdir -p "${MNT}"/boot/efi mount -t vfat -o iocharset=iso8859-1 "$(echo "${DISK}" | sed "s|^ *||" | cut -f1 -d' '|| true)"-part1 "${MNT}"/boot/efi System Configuration --------------------------- #. Workaround for GRUB to recognize predictable disk names:: export ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=YES #. Install system to disk .. code-block:: sh BOOTLOADER=grub setup-disk -k lts -v "${MNT}" GRUB installation will fail and will be reinstalled later. The error message about ZFS kernel module can be ignored. .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test # lts kernel will pull in tons of firmware BOOTLOADER=grub setup-disk -k virt -v "${MNT}" #. Allow EFI system partition to fail at boot:: sed -i "s|vfat.*rw|vfat rw,nofail|" "${MNT}"/etc/fstab #. Chroot .. code-block:: sh for i in /dev /proc /sys; do mkdir -p "${MNT}"/"${i}"; mount --rbind "${i}" "${MNT}"/"${i}"; done chroot "${MNT}" /usr/bin/env DISK="${DISK}" sh .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test :: for i in /dev /proc /sys; do mkdir -p "${MNT}"/"${i}"; mount --rbind "${i}" "${MNT}"/"${i}"; done chroot "${MNT}" /usr/bin/env DISK="${DISK}" sh <<-'ZFS_ROOT_NESTED_CHROOT' set -vxeuf #. Apply GRUB workaround :: echo 'export ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=YES' >> /etc/profile.d/zpool_vdev_name_path.sh # shellcheck disable=SC1091 . /etc/profile.d/zpool_vdev_name_path.sh # GRUB fails to detect rpool name, hard code as "rpool" sed -i "s|rpool=.*|rpool=rpool|" /etc/grub.d/10_linux # BusyBox stat does not recognize zfs, replace fs detection with ZFS sed -i 's|stat -f -c %T /|echo zfs|' /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig # grub-probe fails to identify fs mounted at /boot BOOT_DEVICE=$(zpool status -P bpool | grep -- -part2 | head -n1 | sed "s|.*/dev*|/dev|" | sed "s|part2.*|part2|") sed -i "s|GRUB_DEVICE_BOOT=.*|GRUB_DEVICE_BOOT=${BOOT_DEVICE}|" /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig The ``sed`` workaround for ``grub-mkconfig`` needs to be applied for every GRUB update, as the update will overwrite the changes. #. Install GRUB:: mkdir -p /boot/efi/alpine/grub-bootdir/i386-pc/ mkdir -p /boot/efi/alpine/grub-bootdir/x86_64-efi/ for i in ${DISK}; do grub-install --target=i386-pc --boot-directory \ /boot/efi/alpine/grub-bootdir/i386-pc/ "${i}" done grub-install --target x86_64-efi --boot-directory \ /boot/efi/alpine/grub-bootdir/x86_64-efi/ --efi-directory \ /boot/efi --bootloader-id alpine --removable if test -d /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/; then apk add efibootmgr grub-install --target x86_64-efi --boot-directory \ /boot/efi/alpine/grub-bootdir/x86_64-efi/ --efi-directory \ /boot/efi --bootloader-id alpine fi #. Generate GRUB menu:: mkdir -p /boot/grub grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg cp /boot/grub/grub.cfg \ /boot/efi/alpine/grub-bootdir/x86_64-efi/grub/grub.cfg cp /boot/grub/grub.cfg \ /boot/efi/alpine/grub-bootdir/i386-pc/grub/grub.cfg .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test :: find /boot/efis/ -name "grub.cfg" -print0 \ | xargs -t -0I '{}' grub-script-check -v '{}' #. For both legacy and EFI booting: mirror ESP content:: espdir=$(mktemp -d) find /boot/efi/ -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -print0 \ | xargs -t -0I '{}' cp -r '{}' "${espdir}" find "${espdir}" -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -print0 \ | xargs -t -0I '{}' sh -vxc "find /boot/efis/ -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -print0 | xargs -t -0I '[]' cp -r '{}' '[]'" .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test :: ################################################## # # # MAINTENANCE SCRIPT ENTRY POINT # DO NOT TOUCH # # ################################################# #. Exit chroot .. code-block:: sh exit .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test # nested chroot ends here ZFS_ROOT_NESTED_CHROOT .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test :: # list contents of boot dir to confirm # that the mirroring succeeded find "${MNT}"/boot/efis/ -type d > list_of_efi_dirs for i in ${DISK}; do if ! grep "${i##*/}-part1/efi\|${i##*/}-part1/EFI" list_of_efi_dirs; then echo "disk ${i} not found in efi system partition, installation error"; cat list_of_efi_dirs exit 1 fi done #. Unmount filesystems and create initial system snapshot You can later create a boot environment from this snapshot. See `Root on ZFS maintenance page <../zfs_root_maintenance.html>`__. :: umount -Rl "${MNT}" zfs snapshot -r rpool@initial-installation zfs snapshot -r bpool@initial-installation zpool export -a #. Reboot .. code-block:: sh reboot .. ifconfig:: zfs_root_test # chroot ends here ZFS_ROOT_GUIDE_TEST