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#1 Fri, 2015-11-13 17:56

ScrumpyJack

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I've seen a few posts about using Alpine Linux as a desktop computer.

This is the obligatory desktop screenshot thread, for showing off, posting question and getting help on that subject.

This one is mine. http://st.ilet.to/a.png for full screen or

#2 Sun, 2015-11-15 13:39

pwFoo

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Nice one!
Based on which DE? Fluxbox?
Is there a install / configure howto?

#3 Tue, 2015-11-17 11:11 (Reply to #2)

ScrumpyJack

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Window manager is twm (thin and minimalistic menu and window decorations)
Compositor is compton (for window and root menu transparancy, shadowing and transition fading)
Launch bar is wbar (with the HighContrast icons from gnome-themes-standard)
System tray is stalonetray (small and grows with new icons)

You can put all these elements together yourself quite easily:

Once you have X11 working, the packages you'll need are

feh
stationetray
compton
wbar
twm
xclock
gnome-themes-standard

Put something like this in your ~/.xinitrc file. I've added the names of the config files, they will need tweaking to suite the behaviour you are after

feh --bg-fill /path/to/your/background.png &
xclock -geometry 70x70-1+1 &
compton --config ~/.compton.conf &
stalonetray --config .stalonetrayrc &
wbar --config .wbar &
twm -f .twmrc

Get the twm window decorations from http://st.ilet.to/twm-decorations.tar.gz and untar into your home dir

Add the following to your .twmrc to use the decorations

IconDirectory "~/.twm/icons" 
LeftTitleButton "resize.xbm"=f.resize
RightTitleButton "minimize.xbm"=f.iconify
RightTitleButton "maximize.xbm"=f.fullzoom
RightTitleButton "close.xbm"=f.delete

Add the following colour settings to your .twmrc file and tweak them to match your background image's colour palette

Color
{
BorderColor         "#4E4E4E"
DefaultBackground   "#D6D6D6"
DefaultForeground   "#000000"
TitleBackground     "#4E4E4E"
TitleForeground     "White"
MenuTitleBackground "#4E4E4E"
MenuTitleForeground "White"
MenuBackground      "#D6D6D6"
MenuForeground      "#4E4E4E"
MenuShadowColor     "#303639"
MenuBorderColor     "#000000"
}

Make sure the Desktop Environment components don't get treated as normal windows by adding this to your .twmrc file
```
NoTitle
{
"wbar"
"xclock"
"stalonetray"
}
```
The action of mouse clicking on the background is important here, as there is no window list tray.
-Left click brings up the root menu
-Middle click some window manager functions
-Right click brings up the list of all the open windows
```
Button1 = : root : f.menu "RootMenu"
Button2 = : root : f.menu "twm"
Button3 = : root : f.menu "TwmWindows"
```

Here are some sensible values for compton to go in your .compton.conf file

shadow = true;
menu-opacity = 0.9;
inactive-opacity = 0.8;
frame-opacity = 0.7;
inactive-opacity-override = true;
alpha-step = 0.06;
fading = true;
fade-in-step = 0.03;
fade-out-step = 0.03;

Stalonetray config is a bit tricky, but I'm happy with this. It could be improved on, as it doesn't force tray icons for some apps to shrink (eg. xchat)

decorations none
dockapp_mode none
fuzzy_edges 3
geometry 1x1+1+1
grow_gravity NW
icon_gravity NW
icon_size 24
log_level err
max_geometry 0x0
no_shrink false
parent_bg false
scrollbars none
skip_taskbar true
sticky true
tint_color white
tint_level 0
transparent false
vertical false
window_layer normal
window_strut auto
window_type dock
xsync false

Here is a wbar config extract to get you going with the launch bar.

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/wbar/dock.png
c: wbar --bpress --above-desk --nofont --pos bottom --isize 42 --idist 5 --nanim 4 --balfa 100 --falfa 75 --filter 0
t: /usr/share/fonts/ttf-liberation/LiberationMono-Regular/10
i: /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png
c: firefox
t: Firefox
i: /usr/share/pixmaps/wbar/wbar.png
c: wbar-config
t: Config

The rest of the tweaking will be obvious once you've looked at the config files.

Note: some packages won't be available until Alpine Linux 3.3 is out.
This is a vey mouse focused Desktop Environment, but adding keyboard shortcuts in twm to do what you like is trivial.

The font used for window decorations is courier

#4 Tue, 2015-11-17 22:40

superquark

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Scrumpyjack it's nice to see someone else using twm AND graciously posting configs. TWM is so minimal but also still fully functional. Two questions about your twm:

1. How did you configure submenus? Care to share that bit of your .twmrc?

Edit: Well, nevermind, I just found out how, simply define each menu and place the menu name in a higher level menu. Easy.

2. Do you know if there is a way to shift focus without using your mouse (eg, alt+tab)? (I couldn't figure how to do that in twm and that's why I usually prefer cwm or openbox.)

#5 Thu, 2015-11-19 10:26 (Reply to #4)

ScrumpyJack

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2. Yes. Define a key combo: at what focus the combo happens: and f.circleup or f.circledown, like this:

"Tab" = m : all : f.circledown

This also cycles through programs that are in your tray if you have one, so there might be a few "Alt-Tab" presses that seem to do nothing, but they are circling through the programs nonetheless.

One of the reasons I always come back to twm, aside from the fact that it's so simple (just a rootmenu and bare bones window decorations) is for this:

Button1 = s : window : f.resize

Hold shift down and click+drag any corner of a window to resize it.

I'm sure there are plenty of other window managers that will let you do that too, I've just not tried them long enough to want to figure out how.

#6 Tue, 2015-11-17 23:46

pwFoo

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Looks great! My first problem was to get X11 and the DM working...

DM have to be started manually because it wasn't start after boot automatically (is added to startup). After some attempts I was able to start Fluxbox and also XFCE, but Chromium was unable to start (gl error message...). Firefox works... So some settings / drivers are wrong I think (it's easier with pre configured DEs *g*).

Alpine provides most of the needed packages (also keepassx, chromium) with only a few missing tools (simple-scan, atom editor).

#7 Fri, 2015-11-20 05:28

superquark

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@Scrumpyjack thanks for that bit about cycling through windows. I had a similar code snippet which works sometimes. I am not sure why it works sometimes and not others. ?? Here's that code. you can see its almost the reverse of yours:

Function "winup" { f.circleup }
"Tab" = m : root|window|frame|title : f.function "winup"

I agree twm is a pleasure to config and doesn't get in the way. Have you tried cwm? Also very minimal, similar to twm, but somehow more whimsical. Maybe it is because I know how to theme it b/c web documentation is easier to find with cwm. Maybe twm is just as themable?

#8 Sun, 2016-01-10 23:31

DrDavid

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Hi, sorry if this is not best place but I have problem in getting desktop, please see if you have idea.
I installed Alpine as a Vbox VM (guest on a Win 10 host), got through setup-alpine,
but when trying to run setup-xorg-base, I get this error:

rc-update: service 'mdev' is not in the runlevel 'sysinit'

Any ideas what to try next? Been reading about rc-update and mdev but it's a lot to digest...
THANKS.

#9 Sat, 2016-01-30 18:33

commandline.be

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i get this error as well, even after rc-update add mdev sysinit it report the same error after a reboot

#10 Thu, 2016-03-24 20:47

pwFoo

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How to adjust sound / volume?
Packages pavucontrol (found only xfce4-mixer) and volumeicon are missing.

#11 Wed, 2016-04-13 15:47 (Reply to #10)

ScrumpyJack

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Use alsa-mixer

#12 Sat, 2016-04-30 07:08 (Reply to #11)

pwFoo

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Hi ScrumpyJack,

alsa-mixer works, but a small tray widget like volumeicon is missing.

#13 Wed, 2016-04-27 09:26

mrgreen

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So far I have only managed to a black screen under virtualbox. Openbox simply stopped once you startx. Twm starts (eventually). Wiki guides are brief and seem to have little information.

Followed this guide

https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/XFCE_Setup

Seems xfce4 does not load (some world error)

So went with Openbox, adding .xinitrc of course and just got a black screen then it locked.

Is there reason I cannot find xterm?

#14 Mon, 2016-05-02 01:57

Head_on_a_Stick

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My desktop with bspwm and xfce4-panel:

@mrgreen: hello again :)

I think xterm is in testing, see https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_Linux_package_management#Repository_pinning for instructions.

https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=xterm&branch=&repo=&arch=&maintainer=

#15 Sat, 2016-06-18 15:34

lounge

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Hi ,im trying to install cwm that requires pkg-config, xft, xinerama and xrandr.I only found xrandr in repositories also libxft and libxinerama.
But when make

Package fontconfig was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing "fontconfig.pc"
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
Package "fontconfig", required by "world" , not found
Package "x11", required by "world" , not found
Package "xft", required by "world" , not found
Package "xrandr", required by "world" , not found

Is there a way to enable this packages ?

#16 Thu, 2016-06-23 09:33 (Reply to #15)

ScrumpyJack

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Can you put in a package request on bugs.alpinelinux.org?

#17 Sun, 2016-06-19 17:21

mmix

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customized tinywm and xfce4 terminal here.
http://incise.org/tinywm.html

#18 Thu, 2016-06-23 09:35 (Reply to #17)

ScrumpyJack

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Screenshot! :)

#19 Thu, 2016-06-23 16:10

mmix

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https://github.com/8l/tinywm

#20 Fri, 2016-07-29 20:04

Head_on_a_Stick

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dwm clean:

dwm with firefox-esr, thunar & st:

Can't get the Arc theme for FF to work with 45-esr though :(

EDIT: The Arc theme was updated and it works now:

:)

#21 Thu, 2016-10-20 16:55

Bibiprog

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Problem finding packages for GNOME (https://forum.alpinelinux.org/forum/installation/alpinelinux-missing-gnome-base-vmware)
or MATE ?
I use a multi-touch screen, so apparently both environments should be fine but I can't find packages where the wiki says they are: http://nl.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/
Another environment for multi-touch ?

Thank you for your help.

By the way, I'm new using Alpine and until now, it makes the job ! I look forward to know more about it ...

#22 Thu, 2016-10-20 17:30 (Reply to #21)

Bibiprog

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Found packages for MATE, not in edge anymore : http://nl.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.4/community/x86_64/
GNOME still not found.

#23 Sun, 2016-11-27 08:52

gmc

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Hi guys! Very promising project, glad to see proper geeks at work :) For, desktop, I agree that we need Gnome, please add.

#24 Mon, 2017-03-13 00:24

mfernandez

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anyone have idea how to configure like xdg-users-dirs? thank you... and sorry for a debian user...

#25 Sun, 2017-04-02 09:05

mmix

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thanks to alpine linux v3.5.2.

#26 Thu, 2017-04-13 16:25

emacsomancer

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I finally got an X11 install of Alpine up on my ThinkPad x220, running AwesomeWM. I'm having horrible screen tearing though.

I tried setting up compton with the settings described above (and, with other distros, I'm awesomewm+compton w/o screen-tearing), but it didn't help.

I also tried setting up a /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf file with:

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

essentially following https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_graphics but then X just wouldn't start at all.

Any suggestions on how to solve this?

#27 Sun, 2017-09-24 19:43 (Reply to #26)

Head_on_a_Stick

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A bit late but...

The hardened kernel restricts access to the video card, try https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Intel_Video

Back on topic with my dwm desktop:

I've forked dwm and hardcoded the configuration, the repository has an APKBUILD included:

https://github.com/Head-on-a-Stick/dwm

#28 Fri, 2017-06-23 16:49

m4chm4n

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my beautiful setup.

#29 Wed, 2017-06-28 20:46

Compact

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Perhaps worth mentioning:
An Alpine Linux desktop is very very very powerfull. Realy!
No other decent distro will run fine with a desktop on a Compaq 333Mhz 64Mb.
I found, if we are talking about REAL leightweight, Alpine Linux is the only one.
Perhaps a little pity Xfbdev is not working right. If it did even Xorg would not be needed.
I'm very thankful for the existence of an Alpine Linux desktop.
Personally I'm using JWM it's in the repos too. I keep my screen black. So it's quiet for the eye
and not worth posting. Desktop on/off with PCManFM is also very usefull.

#30 Fri, 2017-12-15 15:12

rotten

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For those who discussed alt-tab here, the lightweight standalone alttab program has been just submitted to aports/testing:
https://github.com/alpinelinux/aports/commit/b2507f7dc860a105a15fcb8e48ceff1739f5842a
It adds or enhances Alt-Tab feature of lightweight WMs in Alpine, f.e. fluxbox, jwm, twm, awesome.
The only drawback in Alpine is that it generally misses png icons for applications, so only icons from window properties are used.
You are welcome to test and request features using github issues: https://github.com/sagb/alttab

#31 Wed, 2018-01-03 19:47

Timmi

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This OS probably isn't for me, but I have an appreciation for, and feel very attracted to, something made with good efficient programming skills. (that may have something to do with the fact that I'm the son of a pioneer programmer from the late 50s, who in the 60s created a railway's payroll system to run in 2K of RAM). ;)

I'm no programmer myself. The last time I tinkered with an OS was in DOS ans CP/M before ms-Windoze was introduced. (yeah, I like to spell Windoze that way).

I thought that perhaps it may be easy to create a desktop environment that would make my daughter's eeePC-1000he go really fast. But I am starting to realize that there may be much more involved than I thought.
It really gives an appreciation for all the work you guys put into this.

I was hoping to get a WM like OpenBox, with WiFi, and all multimedia codecs/drivers, (either flash or html5-supporting browser) power management, and package management. Would I be ending up with a total size just as big as some of the small and complete distros out there, or would the end result still be more compact and faster?
Her eeePC only has 1GB of RAM, a large hard disk, and a 1024x600 screen (that you could set in 1024x768 with auto-panning following the mouse pointer's physical movement, in winXP, which was a really nice feature and I don't quite dare get my hopes up that this can be done again - it was handled in the bios, so no OS overhead for that, I believe).

#32 Thu, 2018-01-04 05:25 (Reply to #31)

ReproducibleBui...

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@Timmy, OpenBox sounds like a good idea to use a minimalistic distro with a window manager. I have not tried OpenBox but it is minimalistic. I use jwm window manager, which takes up even less memory; see final RAM consumption comparisons at the bottom of this review, for example. I install jwm after installing the xfce desktop (I figure xfce would give me the packages I would need to run a windows GUI), and call jwm afterwards without a display manager. There are pages out there that give you custom jwm configuration pages. That said, my chromium browser running currently in jwm has about 90 webpages open, which would account for by far most of the 3.8Gb RAM being used, and would be way over your target system's RAM. To answer your question, I think you might be able to install Alpine Linux as a desktop there with those codecs, etc, as a layman's opinion.
Other distros that don't consume much RAM include Puppy Linux (though I haven't tried it) or AntiX , which I have used for a while, but I think Alpine's hardened kernel is hard to beat. Both distros offer jwm pretty well out of the box. The easiest choice may be Linux Lite, in my opinion. It uses 512Mb RAM and 700Ghz CPU as a minimum requirement. It is quite easy for beginners. All the best!

#33 Tue, 2018-01-09 22:35

Head_on_a_Stick

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@Timmy, Alpine does seem significantly lighter than the usual Debian or Arch based openbox desktops, both for RAM usage and disk footprint.

It's actually easier to configure than may at first appear:

https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_setup_scripts#setup-xorg-base

https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Intel_Video

https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/How_to_get_regular_stuff_working

Lots of other good stuff on the wiki ;)

Here's my desktop:

Same as usual :D