How to install Alpine on Raspberry Pi

Firstly, choose the correct image version. You want the armhf version for Pi Zero, 1B, the armv7 for other 32-bit Pi boards and the armv8 version for 64-bit boards. You can download the image from here.

Secondly, format the SD card as MS-DOS FAT32.

Then, extract the image tarball to the SD card. Surprisingly, you don’t need to copy the bootloader to an exact location on the card. Normally, you would use dd to copy the image directly to a specific sector of the card but this is not necessary here.

If you are connecting using a serial console, you will need to add the following items to your config.txt and cmdline.txt files.

cmdline.txt

 ..... console=ttyAMA0,115200

config.txt

 ..... enable_uart=1

Then, insert your SD card, plug in your console cable and connect using screen.

# Find the correct interface
$ ls -1 /dev/* | grep tty | grep usb
/dev/tty.usbserial-1120
# Connect
$ screen /dev/tty.usbserial-1120 115200