LXQt is a lightweight QT based desktop environment, LXQt was originally a port of LXDE to QT (called LXDE-Qt), it was created due to LXDE maintainer Hong Jen Yee being dissatisfied with GTK 3, on 21 July 2013 the LXDE(-Qt) and Razor-qt projects merged creating LXQt.

Prerequisites

Install Alpine Linux
Create a user account (optional but recommended)
Enable the Community repository
Install Xorg

Basic LXQt Desktop Installation

# apk add lxqt-desktop lxqt-core lxqt-panel lxqt-admin lxqt-config lxqt-notificationd lxqt-powermanagement lxqt-themes lximage-qt openbox obconf-qt arandr dbus sddm sddm-openrc

Note: By default LXQt usually uses Openbox as its window manager, but LXQt supports many different window managers, See: ConfigWindowManagers - LXQt Github wiki

Starting dbus (desktop bus) service:

# rc-service dbus start

Enabling dbus to start on boot:

# rc-update add dbus

If dbus is not running it leads to issues like missing icons and keyboard shortcuts.

Enabling udev service:

# setup-devd udev

Starting LXQt

With a display manager (DM)

If the package sddm has been installed, the sddm display manager may be started to log in graphically with your new user.

# rc-service sddm start

After correct operation is verified, sddm can be enabled to start up during boot:

# rc-update add sddm

From the command line

LXQt may be started with:

# startlxqt

Localized keyboard layout

Preferences->LXQt Settings->Keyboard and Mouse->"Keyboard layout"

Allowing shut down and reboot

To enable users to shut down the machine or reboot, the packages elogind and polkit-elogind need to be installed.

# apk add elogind polkit-elogind

A reboot is required to let it take effect.

Auto-mounting USB drives

To enable automatic mounting of USB drives, install these packages:

# apk add gvfs udisks2

Depending on what devices you intend to mount, some additional packages may be needed:

ntfs-3g Stable, full-featured, read-write NTFS (driver) gvfs-cdda CDDA support for gvfs gvfs-afp AFP support for gvfs gvfs-goa GNOME Online Accounts support for gvfs gvfs-mtp MTP support for gvfs gvfs-smb Windows fileshare support for gvfs gvfs-lang Languages for package gvfs gvfs-afc Apple mobile devices support for gvfs gvfs-nfs NFS support for gvfs gvfs-dev Backends for the gio framework in GLib (development files) gvfs-archive Archiving support for gvfs gvfs-dav WebDAV support for gvfs gvfs-fuse FUSE support for gvfs gvfs-gphoto2 gphoto2 support for gvfs gvfs-avahi DNS-SD support for gvfs

To list descriptions of all gvfs- packages:

apk info -d gvfs-*

Network browsing

For browsing of network shares within LXQt that works with file associations, you can install the gvfs packages for the network protocols you use.

For example, to browse in a SMB/cifs windows network:

# apk add gvfs-smb

(Check: If the above may already be sufficient for gvfs to initiate the fuse kernel module. Else, try to identify if there are necessary steps in:)

# apk add gvfs-fuse

The OpenRC script for fuse is in a separate package.

# apk add fuse-openrc

Then the fuse service can be started manually.

# rc-service fuse start

If it works, the fuse service can be added to start up automatically at boot time:

# rc-update add fuse

Enabling privilege escalation GUI

To enable the privilege escalation GUI for a doas/sudo user, you need to install elogind, polkit-elogind, and sddm.

To have elogind run, either make them start automatically at system start:

doas rc-update add elogind

or start them manually for this time only:

doas rc-service elogind start

Troubleshooting

Missing Icons

By default a Desktop Environments needs icons. adwaita-icon-theme is a good start.

LXQt