LXQt

LXQt is a lightweight QT based desktop environment.

Prerequisites

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.
Enable Elogind service for handling privilege escalation and for shutting down
Install Xorg

Tip: Except for the first two Prerequisites, all the others are automatically handled, if desktop is installed using setup-desktop script.

Installation using setup-desktop

The Alpine Linux script for quickly setting up a desktop is:

# setup-desktop

On running the above command, you will be prompted to select a desktop environment.

Which desktop environment? ('gnome', 'plasma', 'xfce', 'mate', 'sway', 'lxqt' or 'none') [none]

Once you have chosen a desktop environment, this script installs the chosen desktop along with necessary packages, firefox browser and adds necessary services to run on startup. You can reboot when complete, and the system will boot into a graphical login screen with the chosen desktop environment, except for sway. To view the packages installed by the script: $ cat /usr/sbin/setup-desktop

When lxqt is chosen, the Setup-desktop script installs SDDM as display manager and completes all the steps listed in the Manual installation and some of the steps in the Configuration section.

Manual installation

Add the following basic packages for LXQt installation:

# apk add lxqt-desktop lximage-qt pavucontrol-qt font-dejavu

If using Xorg, the following packages are also suggested:

# apk add arandr obconf-qt screengrab sddm

Note: By default LXQt on Xorg uses Openbox as its window manager (it is a dependency of the lxqt-desktop package). LXQt supports many different window managers and wayland compositors. Openbox has not been maintained for 9 years. Similar window managers are JWM and PeKWM. For additional Window Manager options see: Window Managers Configuration on the LXQt GitHub wiki

If using wayland, the following packages are suggested:

# apk add lxqt-wayland-session swayidle swaybg wlopm labwc

Note: labwc is used for the initial configuration (e.g. picking compositor and screen locker) on wayland, but can safely be uninstalled afterwards if a different compositor is installed and selected. For additional compositor options see: LXQt Wayland Session on the LXQt GitHub wiki

Starting LXQt

With a display manager

If the package sddm has been installed, SDDM 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 for X11 may be started with:

$ startlxqt

LXQt for Wayland may be started with:

$ startlxqtwayland

Localized keyboard layout

Preferences → LXQt Settings → Keyboard and Mouse → Keyboard Layout

Configuration

File management

Install the necessary File management packages for automounting of removable storage and browsing of network shares within LXQt that works seamlessly with file associations.

If the LXQt sessions are already in progress, they need to be restarted for the changes to take effect, i.e. log out and log in again.

Enabling privilege escalation GUI

To enable the privilege escalation GUI for a doas/sudo user, along with the Prerequisites, you need to start LXQt session using sddm and ensure that lxqt-policykit package is installed.

Screen Compositor

To enable different effects (transparency, for example) picom can be used.

After installation, add it to the Autostart section of the LXQt Session Settings.

The default configuration is available in /etc/xdg/picom.conf.example. For modifications, it can be copied to ~/.config/picom/picom.conf or ~/.config/picom.conf.

Either modify the config file to your taste, or change the Autostart command line options. For example, picom --vsync -r 12 --no-fading-openclose -b.

Panel Widgets

If you cannot add the CPU and System Statistics widgets to the panel, make sure libstatgrab and libsysstat are installed.

Appearance Tweaking

Location of appearance-related configuration files

User-specific configuration is stored in ~/.config/lxqt/.

LXQt themes are qss stylesheets. They are located in /usr/share/lxqt/themes/ or ~/.local/share/lxqt/themes.

Qt Palette colors can be modified in lxqt-config-appearence > Widget Style > Qt Palette. Custom palettes are saved in ~/.local/share/lxqt/palettes/.

Additional QT Styles

Several packages provide additional QT Styles:

# apk add adwaita-qt breeze oxygen

They also provide additional cursors.

Consistant Theming

Adding the KEY=VAL QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=lxqt to the Environment section of the Session Settings is suggested by the LXQt developers. Then every Qt5 program can load the theme plugin.

Another option, however, is to to install the package qt5ct (from Testing) and appending the line QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct to the environmental settings in the Environment section of the Session Settings will allow you to achieve a unified appearance between apps. Then, in the LXQt Appearance Configuration, under Widget Style, set Qt Style to qt5ct-style.

Additional Packages

When using themes found around the web, it is possible that they are dependant on different packages. Consider using qt5-qtgraphicaleffects, qt5-qtquickcontrols, and qt5-qtquickcontrols2.

Documentation packages

Development files

Help wanted

The following LXQt components are not yet packaged in Alpine Linux:

lxqt_wallet

The following LXQt components are out-of-date:

obconf-qt (need an X11+openbox user to build the latest version and test it)

Troubleshooting

Unable to shut down and reboot

If users are unable to shut down the machine or reboot, ensure that elogind service is enabled.

Missing Icons and Fonts

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

# apk add adwaita-icon-theme

See Fonts for more information on fonts.