GNOME

Initial setup

Start by booting up Alpine (see these instructions on how to do that)
When you Alpine is up and running, do the initial setup.

setup-alpine

Install packages

Install basic desktop system and gnome packages.
This might take a few minutes depending on your network speed.

apk add setup-xorg-base alpine-desktop gnome-base lxdm

Optional packages

Video and Input packages

You might also 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 be able send ACPI shutdown.

rc-update add acpid

Configure xorg-server (optional)

You can configure xorg-server and make your modifications

Xorg -configure

This will result in `/root/xorg.conf.new`. You can modify this file to fit your needs.
(When finished modifying and testing the above configuration file, move it to `/etc/X11/xorg.conf` for normal usage.)

udev

Adding udev might help you with some finicky hardware like touchpads.

apk add udev /etc/init.d/udev start && /etc/init.d/udev-postmount start rc-update add udev sysinit rc-update add udev-postmount default

Adding evdev might also be necessary, for example if the keyboard doesn't work in X...

apk add xf86-input-evdev

Create user accounts

Create a normal user account.

adduser ncopa

Optionally, give that user sudo permissions in /etc/sudoers.

Start your desktop

Start lxdm and log in with your new user.

rc-service lxdm start

Once you have verified that it actually works you can make lxdm start up at boot:

rc-update add lxdm

Troubleshooting

If you are unable to login, check /var/log/lxdm.log, there may be output there from X to indicate failed modules, etc.