Alpine Linux - User contributions [en]

Dualbooting

2024-02-18T04:23:23Z

Carbon-starlight: Added a warning about complexity level of operation for anyone who might be considering it (I personally spent about two nights trying to install Alpine alongside Windows, ended up breaking the bootloader, deleted created partitions and installed Debian in 15 minutes).

{{Warning|This manual is intended for experienced users. You will have to figure out your bootloader and manually edit partitions on your disk. A script to make installation of Alpine to a free space on a disk alongside another operating system as simple and straightforward as to a full disk with setup-alpine is yet to be written. If you doubt you can do it, it may be better for you to buy an external drive, use a VM for a second OS or choose another distro.}}

It's assumed you have a box where you already run another operating system, and would like to be able to boot either the installed system or Alpine.

= Prepare your hardware =
Alpine needs a separate partition where it can be installed to. If you don't already have one free, you need to create a primary partition with enough space for your Alpine installation.

For this, see: [[Setting_up_disks_manually#Manual_partitioning | Manual_partitioning]]

Make note of what partition you will use for your Alpine installation. In this example we are going to install Alpine on '''/dev/sdXY'''.

= Installing Alpine on an HDD partition =

Now it's time to install Alpine. Boot your system with a CD containing the latest Alpine Standard from [https://alpinelinux.org/downloads Downloads].

== Format and mount the HDD partition ==

First format your partition. We will need some tools for doing the formatting. After you are done the tools can be removed.

{{Warning|Make sure you format the right partition! The {{Path|/dev/sdXY}} is only a example. If you choose the wrong partition, your data will be gone.
Make a backup first if you are unsure.}}

{{Cmd|apk add e2fsprogs
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdXY
apk del e2fsprogs}}

Then mount the newly formatted partition. After mounting, the partition will be available at {{Path|/mnt}}.
{{Cmd|mount -t ext4 /dev/sdXY /mnt}}

== Basic setup ==

First, set up Alpine without installing to a disk.

To do this, either run
{{Cmd|setup-alpine}}
and when to prompted "Which disks do you like to use?" make sure to answer "none". Answer "none" to the remaining prompts about storing configs and the apk cache directory.

Or, run this command sequence:
{{Cmd|setup-timezone
setup-alpine -q
setup-sshd
setup-ntp}}

See [[setup-alpine]] for more details.



== Install Alpine ==

Now it's time to copy the prepared system to the prepared partition(s) that were mounted below /mnt.

=== In Alpine 2.2.3 or newer ===

{{Cmd|setup-disk -m sys /mnt}}
See [[Alpine_setup_scripts#setup-disk|setup-disk]] for more details.

{{Tip|If you use extlinux (default) and didn't create a separate boot partition, ({{Path|/boot}} resides on the root partition {{Path|/}}).
You might need to adjust the paths to the boot files in {{Path|/boot/extlinux.conf}}, eg.:
<pre>[...]
LABEL hardened
MENU DEFAULT
MENU LABEL Linux hardened
LINUX /boot/vmlinuz-lts
INITRD /boot/initramfs-lts
[...]</pre>

Check that the <code>LINUX</code> and <code>INITRD</code> paths actually point to the files shipped in your Alpine Linux release.
}}

=== With older Alpine versions up to 2.2.3 ===

If you're using an earlier version of Alpine Linux, you'll need to install the files and [[Bootloaders|bootloader]] manually.

{{Tip|If you're using a version of Alpine Linux older than 2.2.0, replace {{Path|/etc/apk/world}} in the last line with {{Path|/var/lib/apk/world}}}}

{{Cmd|lbu package - {{!}} tar -C /mnt -xzf -
apk add --root /mnt --initdb --repositories-file /etc/apk/repositories --keys-dir \
/etc/apk/keys $(cat /etc/apk/world) acct linux-hardened alpine-base}}

Your system is now on {{Path|/dev/sdXY}}.

== Configuring the bootloader ==

There are different ways to get a boot menu that allows selecting the operating system to boot.

It is easiest on (U)EFI based hardware platforms, where one may simply install the <code>rEFInd</code> boot menu, as explained in [[Bootloaders]].

Otherwise, one may adjust the bootloader that has already been installed (by the other operating system).

Because bootloaders vary, you'll need to figure out how to make yours boot your Alpine install.

Hopefully you can get some ideas from the following example, adjusting Grub2 to boot Alpine:

Reboot your system ''(start Ubuntu)''.

Start a 'terminal' ''(ALT-F2 + "terminal" + [Run])''

Take notes of the UUID of the partition you are planning to use:
{{Cmd|# blkid /dev/sdXY}}

Start editing the grub2 configuration
{{Cmd|# gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom}}

I edited the file to look something like this:
{{Cat|/etc/grub.d/40_custom|<nowiki>#!/bin/sh
echo "Adding Alpine" >&2
cat << EOF
menuentry "Alpine Linux" {
set root=(hd0,3)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-lts root=UUID=8de6973a-4a8c-40ed-b710-c4e2b42d6b7a modules=sd-mod,usb-storage,ext4 quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs-lts
}
EOF</nowiki>}}
{{Note|The root, linux, initrd, and UUID values mentioned above should be replaced with those of your system, e.g. the UUID you got when running the 'blkid' command.}}
Finally the configuration changes need to be applied to the grub2 bootloader:
{{Cmd|update-grub2}}

Now it's time to test. Reboot your box.
{{Note|You might need to press SHIFT when booting your box in order to see the grub-menu.}}

== Windows ==

For Windows partitions to be detected with grub, you need `os-prober` and `grub-mount` installed at the time grub-mkconfig runs.
[[Category:Installation]]

Twm

2024-01-14T22:47:25Z

Carbon-starlight: Created a page for twm window manager

[[File:VirtualBox Alpine with twm.png|thumb|alt=A depiction of Alpine Linux interface with twm window manager|A depiction of Alpine Linux interface with twm window manager]]

twm (Tab Window Manager) is the standard window manager for the X Window System since version X11R4.

= Installation =
1. Run
{{Cmd|# setup-xorg-base}}

2. Type
{{Cmd|# cd}}
to go to home directory.
In home directory create a file named ".xinitrc":
{{Cmd|# vi .xinitrc}}
Or, if you prefer nano text editor
{{Cmd|# nano .xinitrc}}

3. Write to file:
{{Cmd|exec twm}}
Save the file.

4. Install twm
{{Cmd|# apk add twm}}

You will also need xterm to open apps:
{{Cmd|# apk add xterm}}

5. Start the X window manager
{{Cmd|# startx}}

You will be greeted with a black screen. Hold left mouse button and select "XTerm". Type in a program name to launch it.

= Keyboard layout =
Your keyboard layout will be back to US default. If you use an alternative layout (e.g. Colemak), that might be a problem.

To switch to another layout first install setxkbmap:
{{Cmd|# apk add setxkbmap}}

Then switch to another layout (example for colemak):
{{Cmd|# setxkbmap us -variant colemak}}

File:VirtualBox Alpine with twm.png

2024-01-14T22:22:23Z

Carbon-starlight:

A depiction of Alpine Linux interface with twm window manager

Desktop environments and Window managers

2024-01-14T22:14:53Z

Carbon-starlight: /* Tiling (dynamic) window managers */

{{TOC right}}

{{Tip|Be sure to add your user to <code>input</code> and <code>video</code> groups.}}

'''Alpine Linux''' has no official desktop. Older versions used Xfce, but now all GUI and graphical interfaces are optional. many are available and are attempted to be listed below:

== Desktop Environments ==

See also: [[:Category:Desktop Environments|Desktop Environments Category]]

* [[Xfce]]
* [[LXQt]]
* [[KDE|KDE Plasma]]
* [[GNOME]]
* [[MATE]]

== Window Managers ==

See also: [[:Category:Window Managers|Window Managers Category]]

=== [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacking_window_manager Stacking (floating) window managers] ===

* X11:
** [[Openbox]]

* Wayland:
** Weston
** [[LabWC]]
** [[Wayfire]]

=== [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_window_manager Tiling (dynamic) window managers] ===

* X11:
** bspwm
** herbstluftwm
** [[twm]]
** [[dwm]]
** [[I3wm|i3]]
** [[AwesomeWM|Awesome Window Manager]]
** Ratpoison (Available in Edge branch under the testing repository)
** spectrwm (Available in Edge Branch under the testing repository)
** Qtile (Available in Edge Branch under the testing repository)

* Wayland:
** [[Sway]]
** [[River]]
** Cagebreak
** dwl (Available in Edge Branch under the testing repository)
** Qtile (Available in Edge Branch under the testing repository)

=== Other Window Managers ===

* Wayland
** Cage - Wayland Compositor for running single app on fullscreen mode (kiosk)

== See Also ==
* [[Installation]]
* [[Installation#Post-Installation|Post Installation]]
* [[Fonts]]
* [[Category:Display Managers]]
* [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_environment Desktop environment - Archwiki]
* [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Desktop_environment Desktop environment - Gentoo Wiki]

[[Category:Desktop]]
[[Category:Newbie]]