alpine-wiki

Alpine Window managers Desktop Tips and tunning improvements

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GUI tips

There is two type of GUI env in linux now, X11 and Wayland the first one is the widelly compatible with any gpu, the second one only for modern GPU capable of 3D, this last is NOT LIGHT just is faster cos it uses all the advanced features of GPUs.

Desktop features and improvements

desktop integration and device media improvement

apk add shadow shadow-uidmap shadow-login doas \
 gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly \
 gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-good-gtk gst-plugin-pipewire \
 libcanberra-gtk2 libcanberra-gtk3 libcanberra-gstreamer \
 mediainfo ffmpeg ffmpeg-doc ffmpeg-libs lame lame-doc rtkit rtkit-doc \
 mpv mpv-doc deadbeef deadbeef-lang libxinerama xrandr cairo pango pixman \
 gvfs gvfs-fuse gvfs-archive gvfs-afp gvfs-afp gvfs-afc gvfs-cdda \
 ntfs-3g gvfs-afc gvfs-nfs gvfs-archive gvfs-dav gvfs-gphoto2 gvfs-avahi \
 gvfs-gphoto2 gvfs-mtp libreoffice libreoffice-gnome \
 zathura zathura-ps zathura-pdf-poppler zathura-djvu zathura-cb

for u in $(ls /home); do for g in plugdev audio cdrom dialout video netdev; do addgroup $u $g; done;done

cat > /etc/network/interfaces << EOF
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
EOF

service networking restart && service wpa_supplicant restart && service networkmanager restart

flakpack desktop integration

apk add xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-wlr xdg-desktop-portal-lang \
 xdg-desktop-portal-gtk xdg-desktop-portal-gtk-lang xdg-desktop-portal-gnome \
 xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland xdg-desktop-portal-kde xdg-desktop-portal-lxqt \
 xdg-desktop-portal-phosh xdg-desktop-portal-xapp

X11 NOTES : mga matrox modules

The mga module since 2018 is only created for server boards, this section is not for the old cards that has limited GPU/KMS for the nowadays task.

This setting may work with older cards too, by the Option "AccelMethod" "none" make it possible to work under demanding 3D required envs:

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Matrox"
  Driver "modesetting"
  Option "AccelMethod" "none"
EndSection

OPENBOX tunning improvements

Pre-configure with improved GTK applications using MATE such as caja for desktop handler and file manager, the caja-extensions for file manager actions, also mate-control-center for desktop configuration, mate-polkit for segurity elevation, the mate-settings-daemon for sync all the configs beetween GTK 2/3/4, the engrampa for archiving and compression tool cos are forced in junction with caja and provides better integration with propietary archived/compresed files.

Tune up openbox with mate backgrounds

This document assume you used alpine-tutorial-desktops-openbox-fast-forward.md guide, so this just continue and change the settings no matter what are present.

This document will assume you already has installed openbox, elogind, lightdm as default, xorg-server, network-manager-applet, jgmenu, and the pipewire framework using wireplumber-logind package, if not just run: apk add openbox elogind lightdm xorg-server network-manager-applet jgmenu pipewire wireplumber-logind

apk add mate-desktop mate-session-manager mate-panel sakura engrampa pluma \
 mate-themes mate-polkit mate-power-manager mate-settings-daemon \
 clipper mate-notification-daemon mate-screensaver mate-utils mate-system-monitor mate-menus \
 mate-control-center mate-control-center-lang caja caja-lang caja-extensions \
 mate-panel-lang mate-media mate-media-lang mate-screensaver-lang mate-utils-lang \
 mate-system-monitor-lang mate-applets mate-applets-lang mate-power-manager-lang mate-settings-daemon-lang \
 gvfs gvfs-fuse gvfs-archive gvfs-afp gvfs-afp gvfs-afc gvfs-cdda gvfs-gphoto2 gvfs-mtp \
 libreoffice libreoffice-gnome atril atril-lang atril-doc

sed -i -r 's|.*xfce-mcs-manager \&.*|/usr/libexec/mate-settings-daemon \&|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart

apk add jgmenu mate-control-center terminator

cat > /etc/xdg/openbox/menu.xml << EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<openbox_menu xmlns="http://openbox.org" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://openbox.org/ file:///usr/share/openbox/menu.xsd">

<menu id="root-menu" label="Openbox 3">
  <item label="Terminal">
    <action name="Execute"><execute>terminator</execute></action>
  </item>
  <item label="Applicacions">
    <action name="Execute"><execute>jgmenu-run</execute></action>
  </item>
  <separator />
  <item label="Configure">
    <action name="Execute"><execute>mate-control-center</execute></action>
  </item>
  <item label="Reload">
    <action name="Reconfigure" />
  </item>
  <item label="Restart">
    <action name="Restart" />
  </item>
  <separator />
  <item label="Exit">
    <action name="Exit" />
  </item>
</menu>
</openbox_menu>
EOF

mkdir -p /etc/skel/.config/jgmenu/
cat > /etc/skel/.config/jgmenu/jgmenurc << EOF
stay_alive           = 0
tint2_look           = 0
position_mode        = pointer
terminal_exec        = terminator
terminal_args        = -e
menu_width           = 200
menu_padding_top     = 5
menu_padding_right   = 1
menu_padding_bottom  = 4
menu_padding_left    = 1
menu_radius          = 0
menu_border          = 1
menu_halign          = left
sub_hover_action     = 1
item_margin_y        = 2
item_height          = 20
item_padding_x       = 4
item_radius          = 0
item_border          = 0
sep_height           = 3
font                = Sans 12
icon_size            = 16
EOF

cat > /etc/skel/.config/jgmenu/append.csv << EOF
Exit Openbox,openbox --exit,exit
^sep()
EOF

for u in $(ls /home); do mkdir -p /home/$u/.config/jgmenu && cp /etc/skel/.config/jgmenu/jgmenurc /home/$u/.config/jgmenu/jgmenurc; done

sed -i -r 's|.*titleLayout.*|<titleLayout>NDLSIMC</titleLayout>|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml
sed -i -r 's|.*keepBorder.*|<keepBorder>yes</keepBorder>|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml
sed -i -r 's|.*animateIconify.*|<animateIconify>no</animateIconify>|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml
sed -i -r 's|[1-9]</size>|12</size>|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml
sed -i -r 's|[1-9]</number>|1</number>|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml
sed -i -r 's|.*drawContents.*|<drawContents>no</drawContents>|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml
sed -i -r 's|<command>kfmclient.*|<command>pcmanfm</command>|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml
sed -i -r 's|Clearlooks|Bear2|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.mxl
sed -i -r 's|.*root-menu.*|<action name="Execute"><command>jgmenu_run</command></action>|g' /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml

for u in $(ls /home); do mkdir -p /home/$u/.config/openbox; done

for u in $(ls /home); do chown -R $u:$u /home/$u; done

Why not just install MATE

Installing MATE will add a layer of complexity, we just use the daemon sync for settings and the polkit for security elevation, session handler is managed by the openbox itselft, the virtual filesystems are handled by the gvfs package software, and the powermanager is the only thing you will be forced to use if your bare metal computer is a laptop (that can be avoid if you configured couple of backends programs as fdpowerdown).

Also we do not use by default the panel, but here we will configure it for older non modern users, you just can avoid the panel configuration cos we already have the GJmenu handler for.

Unfortunatelly Alpine packagers do not have any GUI exec launcher.. so the panel will provide this, unless you like to have a lof of stupid terminal windows opened to just launch programs being a stupid geek old school and wasting lof of threats of execution and mem ram.

Reasons and justifications

Most of tools and integration here were using MATE ones, this cos are the only tools that does no use client side decorations (GTK-CSD) and integrates very well and provided advanced usage, most close to the GNOME ones that are currently well developed but too stupidity eye candy and does not integrated to most older or newer rest of programs.
By the same reason we used polkit and settings daemon from MATE also if were used the ones from XFCE this will install more depends, the MATE ones already uses GTK/GIO packages from GNOME and FXCE will install the sames but plus install also others from itselft, so its nonsense.
We used engrampa by the same previous reason, its based on file-roller that is the archiving tool with best support for non-free archivers, the light well knowed xarchiver is too poor in such support and the rest are made in QT framework that will force lot of dependencies and poor GTK integration.
We used caja cos web browsers only understand caja, thunar and nautilus as filemanagers with pinting focus of downloaded file, you can change by pcmanfm but file pointing will be limited if you manage huge amount of files in same directory (forced to use find tool event just click on the web browser after file downloading).
For image viewer and document viewer you can use atril and eom but those are the best cos supports virtual file systems, the gpicview package is very light but does not support any virtual file system, in the same line is the document viewer, there is zathura that two more packages to support ps/pdf files for extra dependencies.

Warning the openbox-doc package must be installed, just run apk add openbox-doc

Wayland shit session tips

Wayland is so crap becouse nothig great work under and forced 3d gpu usage

List of some wayland based apps equivalents

SFWBar is best but not packaged yet, we used waybar with font awesome as icons
Kanshi to use profiles ouput on multiple screens hotplug by randr (wlr-randr)
mako is a notification daemon as simple as dunst is
wvkbd is a on screen keyboar for wayland, equivalent of xvkbd
Clickclack not yet packaged, haptic feedback and audio feedback for key press
wtype is the xdotool equivalent for wayland
hawck not yet packaget, hack key preset and redefine their action to new key
wshowkeys display key peset on screen, ideal for screen recording
lavalauncher is a MAcosx like bar laucher of butons, like wbar does
wayvnc for remote desktop sesion support for wayland
swaylock-effects is a lock screen manager with image and widget support
swaylockd ensures that swaylock/swaylockdeffects runs property (bugs free)
SimpleScreenRecorder is compatible with wayland and X11 but heavyle
wf-recorder is more configurable for batch process and uses ffmpeg commands
Luminance not packaget yet, GTK control brightness of displays with DDC/CI
gammastep on edge only.. GTK control brightness of displays with DDC/CI
mpvpaper on edge only, allows you to play videos with mpv as your wallpaper
swaybg will set background color or walpaper manager
Firefox is the only web browser that supports native wayland
waydroit not packaged yet will allow to boot full androit systems

Wayland environments and need variables

If (after runs wayland) module auto-selection does not work, e.g. no mouse cursor under Sway, manually selection might be needed to declare explilcy variables by example:

WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS=1 will be need for QT environment under wayland
MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=crocus for Intel’s GPUs up to Haswellsteam
MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=r300 for AMD’s Radeon R300, R400, and R500 GPUs.
MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=r600 for AMD’s Radeon R600 up to Nort Islands.
MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=radeonsi for AMD’s Sout Island GPUs and later.
MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=iris for Intel’s Iris/Arc modern GPUs and later.
_JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1 for threath all events as X11 requests.
SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland may be used with caution, ex: Steam is buitl witout it.
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland used with caution, for qt6 must be, for qt5 can be null
MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 only will work in lasted firefox package (3.20+)

Setup Greetd wayland autologin with labwc

Only GDM, SDDM and GREETD fully supports wayland and only if you have intel or AMD gpu, so crap!

This guide will:

install required packages like greetd, labwc, elogind etc
setup the user that will login it automatically
setup the greetd service to autologin
setup environment to do not fail first session

apk add elogind elogind-openrc shadow-login greetd greetd-gtkgreet cage \
 mesa mesa-gl mesa-utils mesa-osmesa mesa-egl mesa-gles \
 mesa-dri-gallium mesa-va-gallium libva-intel-driver \
 xf86-video-intel xf86-video-amdgpu xf86-video-nouveau xf86-video-ati \
 xf86-input-evdev xf86-video-modesetting xf86-input-libinput \
 linux-firmware-amdgpu linux-firmware-radeon linux-firmware-nvidia \
 linux-firmware-i915 linux-firmware-intel font-noto-all ttf-dejavu \
 polkit polkit-openrc polkit-elogind  networkmanager-elogind linux-pam \
 labwc xwayland wayland-libs-server wayland wlroots weston-desktop-x11 \
 weston weston-backend-wayland weston-backend-x11 weston-backend-drm \
 weston-backend-wayland weston-backend-headless weston-shell-desktop \
 weston-clients wlogout font-jetbrains-mono wezterm-fonts \
 dbus dbus-x11 udisks2 shadow shadow-uidmap shadow-login doas


cat > /etc/doas.d/apkgeneral.conf << EOF
permit nopass general as root cmd apk
EOF
useradd -m -U -c "" -G wheel,input,disk,floppy,cdrom,dialout,audio,video,lp,netdev,games,users,ping general


cat > /etc/greetd/config.toml << EOF
[terminal]
vt = next
switch = true
[default_session]
command = "dbus-run-session labwc"
user = general
EOF
cat > /etc/conf.d/greetd << EOF
cfgfile="/etc/greetd/config.toml"
rc_need=elogind
EOF

rc-update add elogind
rc-update add polkit
rc-update add greetd

rc-service elogind restart

rc-service polkit restart

rc-service greetd restart

Solving issues with wayland crap

wARNING : YOU ALREADY MUST HAD THE VARIABLES ALREADY POINTED AT Wayland environments and need variables

Wayland is broken by design: A crash in the window manager takes down all running applications; It offloads a lot of work to each and every window manager. As a result, the same basic features get implemented differently in different window managers, with different behaviors and bugs

Warning so what works on desktop environment “A” will or will not necessarily work in desktop environment B (e.g., often you hear that something “works in Wayland”, even though it only really works on Gnome and KDE, not in all Wayland implementations). The best example is that apps using older GTK2/QT4 are not Wayland-ready and will fails! This summarizes it very well: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland/-/issues/233

1 - running root apps is not possible

Also take in consideration that it is not possible to start graphical apps under the root account from terminal when using su or any similar command. Apps which use polkit to request administrator permissions for just certain operations and only when needed are not affected (they are not started as root right away). The discussion is ongoing about the best approach to take, see bug 1274451 at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1274451

2 - Games are only X11 mostly so maybe wont work

It is no longer possible for an app to change monitor resolution. Usually this was done by games to increase performance. Unfortunatelly there is no Wayland-based games cos wayland is only specs for compositing spo it will use a different approach (scaling its output that means more work for gpu!!). But for X11 games (running through XWayland) this solution is not available.

This results in a number of different types of behavior, based on how the game is written/developed: the game might be fixed in the desktop resolution, or rendered as a small centered image with black bars around it, or crash on startup, or something different. See bug 1289714 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1289714

3 Some trick to debug wayshit

Wayland session should have WAYLAND_DISPLAY variable set:

echo $WAYLAND_DISPLAY

If the output should be wayland-0 to be correct! X11 ones shoudl not set!

You can try to run the app while unsetting DISPLAY environment variable:

DISPLAY='' command

If the application runs OK, it should be using Wayland natively.

You can run the app with WAYLAND_DEBUG=1 environment variable:

WAYLAND_DEBUG=1 command

If you see loads of output (compared standard run), is using Wayland natively.

How to use this guide

This guide structure all the commands in blocks, each block its separated by a line spaced, so you must type each line as is.. and hit enter, so you noted that then you typed each separated clocks of commands, copy/type only blocks separated by an empty line, all new(next) lines are made by just enter. the terminal will detect if must execute or not.

If you have another computer or gui, try to use SSH client like putty or just in terminal (MAC or Linux) do:

at the Alpine installation: sed -i 's|.*PermitRootLogin.*|PermitRootLogin yes|g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config;service sshd restart
at the other OS just connect: ssh -l root <ip> change “<ip>” with the address of your device.
copy each separated by empty line, block of command, copy only blocks separate by empty line
and paste each separated by empty line block in the remnote (ssh), do not paste all the blocks at same time!

Warning Some Linux or/and Mac terminals have security cut/paste locks, so if you paste, the first line will be preceded by garbage, check always the first char of your paste.

Warning after finish, rerun: sed -i -r 's|.*PermitRootLogin.*|PermitRootLogin no|g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config and restart ssh service sshd restart becouse security implications.

Done? return to Preparation section of this document.

hardware used

item	minimal feature	Extra recommendations
RAM MB	1Gb DDR1	6Gb DDR3, web browsers consumes so much
CPU	intel Dual Core	Not necesary
RAM CPU	2Mb (L2) 4kb/L1
GPU	intel G41	Radeon X1200 For web browsers and modern apps will be need
RAM GPU	256Mb	1Gb For web browsers and modern apps will be need
Storage	120Gb HDD WD	256Gb SSD are mandatory for speed
ARCH	32bits (i386/arm6)	64bits (amd64) mandatory for most modern apps unfortunatelly
Audio	AC 97	HD audio and HDMI audio are a mess

usernames

item	name	password
remote	daru	daru
admin	root	toor
user	general	general