AwesomeWM
- Internet connectivity, unless the packages have been pre-fetched into a local cache.
- Install appropriate Graphics driver drivers for your hardware. Without graphics drivers, errors are likely to occur when starting your desktop.
- A non-root user account.
- The community repository must be enabled.
- Set up eudev.
- Install and enable D-Bus. Without D-Bus, icons and keyboard shortcuts may be missing.
Installation
Install X11 and set it up using the setup-xorg-base script.
# setup-xorg-base
Install awesome, xterm and terminus font.
# apk add awesome xterm font-terminus
Video and Input packages
You might want to install a package suitable for your video chipset and input devices.
For example:
# 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.
VMWare Users
# apk add xf86-video-vmware
and/or
# apk add xf86-input-vmmouse
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
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