The HP Mediasmart Server EX470 (2008) comes with the following specs:

• CPU: 1.8GHz AMD Sempron 3400+ (64-bit)
• RAM: 512 MB DDR2
• Storage: 4 hot-swappable SATA drive bays
• Ports: 4x USB 2.0, 1x eSATA, 1x Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45
• OS: Microsoft Windows Home Server

I wanted full customization of the system, so I aimed to get a lightweight Linux distro running on this old guy.

Prerequisites

To install Alpine Linux on the HP Mediasmart Server EX470, you need the following:

1. An Alpine Linux ISO: Downloads Page
2. A USB drive (For the initial Alpine linux image)
3. A temporary system to install Alpine on
4. A SATA HDD to install Alpine on
5. An HP Mediasmart Server EX470

Initial Alpine Installation

We must first prepare the HDD with Alpine before we can make the EX470 boot from it:

1. Download an Extended x86_64 Alpine Linux ISO from the download page:
   • Prerequisite #1
2. Using an ISO flasher (Balena Etcher, Rufus, etc.), load the Alpine ISO onto a USB flash drive:
   • Prerequisite #2
3. Plug the USB into your temporary system that has a SATA HDD installed:
   • Prerequisites #3 and #4
4. Boot from the USB to launch Alpine Linux on the temporary system
5. When prompted to login, enter root (No password needed for live login)
6. After logging in as root, identify your connected SATA HDD. (Example Below):

fdisk -l

Device     Boot   Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *       2048     616447     614400   300M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2        616448    9005055    8388608     4G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3       9005056 1250263727 1241258672 591.9G 83 Linux

Verify your correct SATA drive by viewing its size.

Mine is a 600GB drive at /dev/sda with 3 partitions

7. Run Alpine's setup binary to configure the Alpine system. (Example Below):

setup-alpine

[Keyboard Layout] -> us -> *enter*
[Keyboard Variant] -> us -> *enter*
[Hostname] -> macncheese -> *enter*
[Interface] -> eth0 -> *enter*
[IPv4 Address] -> dhcp -> *enter*
[IPv6 Address] -> none -> *enter*
[Manual Config?] -> n -> *enter*
[Root Password] -> *************** -> *enter*
[Timezone] -> America -> *enter*
[Sub-timezone] -> Anchorage -> *enter*
[Proxy] -> none -> *enter*
[NTP Client] -> chrony -> *enter*
[APK Mirror] -> f -> *enter*
[User Setup] -> mac -> *enter*
[User Full Name] -> Mac -> *enter*
[User Password] -> *************** -> *enter*
[SSH Key] -> none -> *enter*
[SSH Server] -> openssh -> *enter*
[Install Disk] -> sda -> *enter*
[Disk Type] -> sys -> *enter*
[Erase?] -> y -> *enter*

8. After installing Alpine on the SATA HDD, you can shutdown your temporary system:

poweroff

Moving Alpine to the HP Mediasmart Server EX470

After preparing an HDD with Alpine Linux, we can now move it to the EX470 and boot from it:

1. Remove the HDD from the temporary system and place it into Bay 1 (bottom-most bay) of the EX470.
2. Plug the EX470 into the network via Ethernet and power it on.
3. Wait 3-5 minutes for the system to boot properly.
4. Watch the rightmost light (health light) on the front of the EX470. From my experience, the colors mean the following:
   • Blinking Blue: All is good, proceed
   • Blinking Red/Purple: Failed to boot into Alpine. Troubleshooting is difficult so I'd recommend going back to the Alpine installation section
   • Blinking Red: Same thing. Go back to the Alpine installation section
5. Look for the EX470's hostname or IP on your network (nmap, your router's DHCP page, etc.)
6. SSH into the EX470 via the user and credentials you set up during installation
7. Celebrate, because you now have Linux on your EX470!

Post-boot Configuration

After getting Alpine on the EX470, there are a couple more things to do:

1. Test each individual drive bay
   • I found that only bays 1 and 3 worked on my HP Mediasmart Server
   • After some research, I found out this may be because of some internal SiS SATA controller in RAID mode: See Troubleshooting: BIOS-controlled RAID
2. Custom NAS Platform
   • I wanted an easy-to-use platform to manage system storage, network shares, etc.
   • I vibe-coded a platform called warden, specifically for this Alpine deployment:
     • GitHub - Warden
     • NOTE: Careful when adding this stack to your network. It was vibe coded, so don't expose it beyond your LAN

Troubleshooting

Below outlines some issues you may encounter during your deployment:

RAID Mode on the SATA Controller

Source I Used for Help on This: Stephen Foskett's Blog

If your Alpine installation does not have access to all the drive bays, your EX470 is most likely using RAID mode. We can disable this via the BIOS (sadly, we gotta do it blind):

1. Boot the EX470 and immediately start spamming the Delete key.
2. After 20 or so seconds, we can be sure we're in the BIOS.
3. Press the Down Arrow 3 times
4. Press Enter
   • This will put us into the Integrated Peripherals section
5. Press the Down Arrow once
6. Press Enter
   • This will put us into the SIS On-Chip PCI section
7. Press the Down Arrow 8 Times
   • This will hover over the SiS Serial ATA mode
8. Press the Page Down key once
   • This will select 4P(IDE)+4S(IDE) mode
9. Press F10 to save and Enter to confirm
10. Wait for the EX470 to boot into Alpine, connect, and confirm that you can see each drive bay via fdisk -l

Repeated Alpine Boot Failure

If your HP Mediasmart boots, but your host is not accessible via SSH or ping, you probably messed up your Alpine installation somewhere.

Redo your Alpine installation and try again.