--- gitea: none include_toc: true --- # linux-on-desktop My journey to get Alpine + Wayland + River to work on ThinkPad T14 G3 AMD ## Preparing hardware Disable secure boot and fn-lock in bios (so that F-keys work as F-keys by default and require Fn for their secondary multimedia functions). ## Installing Alpine Follow https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Installation Note that you will need to use Rufus; Ventoy does not work on this laptop (hangs after choosing the image). ## Installing River In `/etc/apk/repositories`, comment out 3.16, uncomment edge (main, community, testing), since some of the packages we're going to install (river, element-desktop) only exist in testing. ``` doas apk update doas apk add eudev doas setup-udev doas apk add mesa-dri-gallium mesa-va-gallium doas apk add river river-doc mandoc doas apk add adwaita-icon-theme foot ttf-dejavu doas rc-update add seatd doas rc-service seatd start doas addgroup YOURUSER audio doas addgroup YOURUSER input doas addgroup YOURUSER seat doas addgroup YOURUSER video doas addgroup YOURUSER wheel install -Dm0755 /usr/share/doc/river/examples/init -t ~/.config/river ``` Also: ``` doas apk add xwayland ``` because the latest river in testing is built in a way that requires xwayland. Try to run with ``` XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp river ``` You should see the blue screen of river. Try to open terminal with Win+Shift+Enter. Try to exit with Win+Shift+E. ### Login manager To enter username/password in GUI, get to river after that, and get back to logon screen after exiting river: ``` doas apk add elogind polkit-elogind doas rc-update add elogind doas rc-service elogind start doas apk add greetd greetd-gtkgreet cage doasaddgroup greetd video doas rc-update add greetd ``` change `/etc/greetd/config.toml` ``` command = "cage -s -- gtkgreet" ``` and create `/etc/greetd/environments` with a single line `river` and reboot. I didn't find a way to make cage+gtkgreet handle HiDPI, the text is very tiny. An alternative is agreety, but for some reason it seems that both greeter and standard linux login prompt run at the same time on the same terminal, making it impossible to actually login. ### Installing Waybar ``` doas apk add waybar ``` and add startup section at the end of river init file (`~/.config/river/init`): ``` # startup riverctl spawn "waybar" ``` ### HiDPI ``` doas apk add kanshi mkdir .config/kanshi ``` and create `.config/kanshi/config` with the following: ``` profile { output eDP-1 enable scale 2.5 } ``` (`eDP-1` identifier was obtained by installing sway, running sway (by adding it to `/etc/greetd/environments`, and in terminal inside sway executing `swaymsg -t get_outputs`). #### HiDPI - cursors And in order to have decently sized mouse cursors instead of the tiniest ones, add the following line to the top of `.config/river/init`: ``` riverctl xcursor-theme Adwaita 24 ``` This will only affect river itself, the cursor will stay tiny in waybar and firefox and maybe other applications. To solve this: ``` doas apk add gsettings-desktop-schemas gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme 'Adwaita' ``` ### Environment In order to not have to create wrapper scripts for all apps: Create `/usr/local/bin/inga-river` (and later `chmod +x /usr/local/bin/inga-river`) with the following (found in google): ``` #!/bin/sh export GDK_BACKEND=wayland,x11 export MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 export CLUTTER_BACKEND=wayland export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland-egl export ECORE_EVAS_ENGINE=wayland-egl export ELM_ENGINE=wayland_egl export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland export _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1 export NO_AT_BRIDGE=1 export BEMENU_BACKEND=wayland river $@ ``` and replace `river` with `inga-river` in `/etc/greetd/environments`. ### Launcher `doas apk add bemenu`, and then add this line into your river config: ``` riverctl map normal Super R spawn 'bemenu-run -i -n' ``` ## Other software ### Clipboard? ### Firefox ``` doas apk add firefox firefox ``` go to `about:support` and make sure that Window Protocol is wayland, not xwayland. (it should be wayland because MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND is set to 1 by inga-river) ## Hardware ### Sleep Laptop goes to sleep after some idle period. When it wakes up, the root fs is readonly, meaning that I have to restart the laptop. ### WiFi At the moment Linux kernel does not support TODO Qualcomm WiFi module installed in this laptop. Otherwise, alpine wiki describes how to configure WiFi using `iwd`. ### Backlight ``` doas apk add light doas nano /etc/udev/rules.d/backlight.rules ``` add the following lines into backlight.rules to make it possible for all users in video group (not just superusers) to control backlight: ``` ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="backlight", KERNEL=="amdgpu_bl0", RUN+="/bin/chgrp video /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness" ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="backlight", KERNEL=="amdgpu_bl0", RUN+="/bin/chmod g+w /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness" ``` and then ``` doas rc-service udev restart ``` Backlight control with Fn+F5/F6 should work now. (`amdgpu_bl0` is specific for this laptop; value for others can be obtained from `/sys/class/backlight/`) ### Trackpoint ``` find /sys/devices/platform/i8042/ -name name | xargs grep -Fl TrackPoint ``` to find which serio corresponds to trackpoint, then ``` echo 70 | doas tee /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/sensitivity ``` for reasonably low sensitivity (does not persist). TODO ### Sound Based on https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/PipeWire ``` doas apk add dbus dbus-openrc doas rc-service dbus start doas apk add pipewire wireplumber rtkit alsa-utils pipewire-alsa doas addgroup YOURUSER rtkit doas addgroup root audio alsamixer ``` In alsamixer, use F6 to find the target sound card (most likely 0 is HDMI and 1 is ordinary). Remember its number, and in `/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf`, replace `defaults.ctl.card` and `defaults.pcm.card` with the target number. In `/usr/local/bin/inga-river`, replace `river $@` with `dbus-run-session -- river $@`, relogin (Ctrl+Shift+E). Then ``` doas rc-service alsa start doas rc-update add alsa /usr/libexec/pipewire-launcher ``` Make sure that everything works (with `wpctl status`, `pw-cat -p YOURFILE.flac` or just opening YouTube in FF). Then make pipewire start automatically: in river config, add another startup line: ``` riverctl spawn "/usr/libexec/pipewire-launcher" ``` Control microphone and volume with `alsamixer`. Note that the internal microphone does not work and is not detected by pipewire. Only external microphones work. ### Webcam Should work after following the steps for "Audio". Can be tested in https://webrtc.github.io/test-pages ### Mic in browser Does not work???