Desktop-notes

These are my personal xfce4 desktop notes.

Base system setup

1. Do a minimal Alpine install
2. Enable community repo in repositories
3. setup-xorg-base
4. apk add dbus
5. rc-update add dbus
6. apk add sudo
7. apk add xfce4
8. apk add chromium
9. apk add slim
10. apk add paper-icon-theme paper-gtk-theme
11. apk add font-noto
12. apk add xf86-video-intel (for intel video only) (you can also choose xf86-video-modesetting)
13. apk add xf86-input-synaptics (it currently has support for palm detection which libinput does not).
14. add local user and add to sudo list
15. add user to specific groups
    1. adduser (username) audio
    2. adduser (username) video
    3. adduser (username) dialout
16. Add /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-intel.conf to have tear free scrolling:

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

Testing basic xorg system

1. reboot system
2. rc-service slim start
3. verify xorg starts correctly and you can login to slim
4. rc-update add slim

Changing cosmetics

1. change xfce4 style/icons to paper: Settings -> Appearance -> Style and Icons
2. change window manager theme to Paper: Settings -> Window Manager -> Style
3. Change mouse Theme to Paper: Settings -> Mouse and Trackpad -> Theme
4. enable all Composer Shadows: Settings -> Window Manager Tweaks -> Composer
5. change fonts to noto
   1. Settings - > Appearance -> Fonts: Set to Noto Sans UI
      1. Turn on Anti-aliasing (is the default) and enable Sub-Pixel order -> RGB

Setting up Alsa audio

1. apk add alsa-utils
2. rc-update add alsa
3. rc-service alsa start
4. Set the default sound device
   1. List sound devices: cat /proc/asound/card*/id
   2. Depending on your setup select the proper device
      1. create a /etc/asound.conf with following content where PCH is sound card name.

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm {
        @func getenv
        vars [ ALSAPCM ]
        default "hw:PCH"
    }
}

additional software

1. apk add geany
2. apk add thunar-archive thunar-volman
3. apk add xarchiver

Tweaks

Enable webgl on chromium when running on hardened kernel:

Edit: /boot/extlinux.conf

Add: grsec_sysfs_restrict=0 to the end of the of the APPEND line.

Don't forget to add it to your update-extlinux.conf