Twm

A depiction of Alpine Linux interface with twm window manager

twm (Tab Window Manager) is the standard window manager for the X Window System since version X11R4.

Prerequisites

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

Installation

In home directory create a file named ".xinitrc":

vi ~/.xinitrc

Or, if you prefer nano text editor

nano ~/.xinitrc

Write to file:

Contents of ~/.xinitrc

exec twm

Save the file.

Install twm

# apk add twm

If doing no further configuration, you will also need xterm to open apps:

# apk add xterm

Start the X window manager

startx

You will be greeted with a black screen. Hold left mouse button and select "XTerm". Type in a program name to launch it.

Keyboard layout

The keyboard layout defaults to US qwerty. If you use an alternative layout (e.g. Colemak) you can install setxkbmap:

# apk add setxkbmap

Then switch to another layout (example for colemak):

setxkbmap us -variant colemak