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

# setup-xorg-base

Installing packages

Install basic desktop system and gnome packages. As of right now, these are in the testing repo.
This might take a few minutes depending on your network speed.

# apk add gnome

If you want to you can also install additional GNOME apps for a more complete GNOME experience with:

# apk add gnome-apps

Setting up udev

You'll have to enable udev in order for GNOME to function properly.

# apk add udev

/etc/init.d/udev start && /etc/init.d/udev-trigger start && /etc/init.d/udev-settle start
rc-update add udev sysinit
rc-update add udev-trigger sysinit
rc-update add udev-settle sysinit

Setting up Xorg

Even when using GNOME Wayland you'll still need a setup Xorg for XWayland.

Video packages

$ apk search xf86-video

Then install the driver matching to your card, e.g. if you have an Intel iGPU:

# apk add xf86-video-intel

Input packages

Usually libinput is the best choice, as it's integrated best with GNOME and offers advanced functionality (e.g. palm rejection for touchpads).

# apk add xf86-input-libinput

Starting your desktop

Start GDM and login with your user.

rc-service gdm start

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

rc-update add gdm

Troubleshooting

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

If logging in from GDM returns to logging screen, try

# apk add bash

(bug report: #10953 sorry cannot link yet)