AwesomeWM

Screenshot

Initial setup

Start by booting Alpine (see these instructions on how to do that)

Enable Community Repository

We need the Community Repository available for access to the OpenBox packages. Instructions are available on the Enable Community Repository page.

Install packages

Install awesome, xterm, lua and terminus font.
Depending on your network speed, it might take a few minutes.

# apk add awesome xterm lua terminus-font

Optional packages

Video and Input packages

You might want to install a package suitable for your video chipset and input devices.
For example, if you have an Sis video chipset, install 'xf86-video-sis'. For Intel video chipset, install 'xf86-video-intel'.

# apk add xf86-video-sis

and / or

# apk add xf86-input-synaptics

Run 'apk search xf86-video*' to see available xf86-video packages.
Run 'apk search xf86-input*' to see available xf86-input packages.

acpid

If you installed your Alpine Linux as a VirtualBox or VMWare guest, you might find it handy to be able execute an ACPI shutdown.

# rc-update add acpid

Configure xorg-server

On most systems, xorg should be able to autodetect all devices. However, you can still configure xorg-server manually by launching:

# setup-xorg-base

Create user accounts

Create a normal user account.

# adduser <user>

Optionally, give that user sudo permissions in /etc/sudoers. When doing so, it is important to use the command:

# visudo

This ensures that only one user is changing the file at any given time. Visudo has two modes: Command mode and Insert mode. To edit the file, use the arrows to navigate to the appropriate line and enter Insert mode by pressing the 'i' key. To save and exit, enter Command mode by pressing the 'Esc' key, then ':w' + 'enter' to save, and finally ':q' + 'enter' to quit.

Log out of the root account and log in to the newly created account.

Start your desktop

$ echo 'awesome' >> /home/<newuser>/.xinitrc

$ mkdir /home/<newuser>/.config

$ cp -r /etc/xdg/awesome /home/<newuser>/.config

$ vi /home/<newuser>/.config/awesome/rc.lua

Start awesome.

$ startx

Troubleshooting

D-Bus problems:

D-Bus library appears to be incorrectly set up; failed to read machine uuid: Failed to open "/var/lib/dbus/machine-id": No such file or directory

If startx fails and returns an error about D-Bus failed to read machine uuid, as shown above, proceed as follows:

Install dbus from apk (you must be logged in as root for the step shown below)

# apk add dbus

Log in or su to the root account, then launch the following command (Note: sudo does not work for this step):

# dbus-uuidgen > /var/lib/dbus/machine-id

Now if startx is launched, it should load the desktop correctly

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