wa4chq Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 Good morning all..... I think I brought up Alpine last year. I was trying it on my Raspberry Pi. At the time, I don't think anyone here was using Alpine full time...or maybe I didn't see a reply from an Alpine user. I wonder if maybe somebody here is using it now? The reason I ask is because for the life of me, I can't get a desktop! I can in VM, but not after installing the iso to the micro SD card. (...is it possible to copy the working Alpine from VM to a SD card?) I've found several YT vids on setting up Alpine's desktop but it ain't working for me. It boots to the terminal just fine....I'm using a Rasperry Pi4 and I've tried the latest Alpine iso and also a few of the earlier versions. Right now I'm enjoying Tmux with the screen split into thirds. The top is sporting 'asciiquarium' and the bottom two have 'htop' and 'mc'. Life is good here in southeast Virginia... Anyway, if someone is using Alpine w/ a desktop, I may need some help. Thanks! Have a great weekend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 Never even heard of alpine OS before but here is their guide for setting it up on RPI https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi Specifically, this section: Linux Kernel Graphics Modes By default system configuration will use legacy video driver: this driver has some limitations and is lacking support. It is recommended to enable Linux DRM-KMS driver by adding the following to usercfg.txt: # Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d max_framebuffers=2 # Don't have the firmware create an initial video= setting in cmdline.txt. # Use the kernel's default instead. disable_fw_kms_setup=1 Note: This overlay disables legacy video options. Install the Mesa drivers (Pi4 and Pi5): apk add mesa-dri-gallium Then reboot: lbu_commit -d; reboot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 10 Author Share Posted May 10 53 minutes ago, securitybreach said: Never even heard of alpine OS before but here is their guide for setting it up on RPI https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi Specifically, this section: Linux Kernel Graphics Modes Hey SB....You have heard about Alpine cuz you commented on my Alpine posts last year...lol. I've been to the wiki and thought I followed it....I'll give it another try. Let me find another sd card and see what happens..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 10 Author Share Posted May 10 I just found a spare card and I had install the usercfg.txt to the boot file. But I had: dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d arm_boost=1 disable_overscan=1 I'm gonna try the other suggestions. I do know none of the sites I went too for Alpine on Pi mentioned installing the Mesa drivers...giving it a try. ciao Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 I dont recall that but I did used to use Alpine email client years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 4 hours ago, wa4chq said: I just found a spare card and I had install the usercfg.txt to the boot file. But I had: dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d arm_boost=1 disable_overscan=1 I'm gonna try the other suggestions. I do know none of the sites I went too for Alpine on Pi mentioned installing the Mesa drivers...giving it a try. ciao Well and that is also from their wiki so it should work if someone documented and nobody said it wasn't right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 11 Author Share Posted May 11 3 hours ago, securitybreach said: I dont recall that but I did used to use Alpine email client years ago. When I first started using Linux, I used Pine for email as well as Mutt. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 11 Author Share Posted May 11 3 hours ago, securitybreach said: Well and that is also from their wiki so it should work if someone documented and nobody said it wasn't right. yeah....of course it's right...lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 So you good now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 11 Author Share Posted May 11 10 hours ago, securitybreach said: So you good now? Nope....still not getting a desktop. I'm gonna give it a break and try something else. If I need a desktop when using the RPi4, I'll plug the RPi sd card in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 Well if it helps any, I always found the desktop very laggy on RPIs. I usually just start ssh and remote into them to do anything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 3 hours ago, securitybreach said: I always found the desktop very laggy on RPIs I never found that when I used Window Maker with Arch on a Pi. Mind you it makes sense as it has such low overheads unlike say Gnome or some such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 I was referring to even the official distro and environment, lxde I think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 12 Author Share Posted May 12 12 hours ago, abarbarian said: I never found that when I used Window Maker with Arch on a Pi. Mind you it makes sense as it has such low overheads unlike say Gnome or some such. I remember a few years back seeing on the official RPi site, downloads for other OS's besides raspian. I don't see them listed anymore on their software site. But I'm looking at this site now that shows how to install arch on a Pi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 7 hours ago, wa4chq said: But I'm looking at this site now that shows how to install arch on a Pi. Well its a fork of Archlinux for the ARM processor. They rebuild most of the packages for ARM but Archlinux only supports the x86_64 processor. 90% of the wiki will still be useful since Archlinux uses mostly vanilla upstream sources for the packaging. It's why its useful on really most distros. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 And like other things, the best info comes from their own wiki. For instance, here is how you do the initial install for RPI Zero, 3 and 4: https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom Click each entry and then the Installation tab. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 Afterward, just follow the wiki part. Most all packages will be available and other things will be the same except for the repos that it pulls packages from. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 10 hours ago, wa4chq said: I remember a few years back seeing on the official RPi site, downloads for other OS's besides raspian. I don't see them listed anymore on their software site. But I'm looking at this site now that shows how to install arch on a Pi. It was a lot snappier with Arch as opposed to the official os and it was just as reliable as the ordinary Arch. Combination of Arch and Window Maker used a whole heap less ram too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 12 Author Share Posted May 12 Well....I finally got Arch booting from RPi. I un-commented a few links on the mirrorlists, saved/sync'd and even rebooted but I getting all errors. lol ...um, where's my raspian SD card??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 You need an upgraded mirrorlist. I'm on my phone right now but use this one: https://mirror.archlinuxarm.org/$arch/$repo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 29 minutes ago, securitybreach said: You need an upgraded mirrorlist. I'm on my phone right now but use this one: https://mirror.archlinuxarm.org/$arch/$repo https://archlinuxarm.org/about/mirrors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 12 Author Share Posted May 12 (edited) OK...but here is where I went for them. I just picked a few at random. I think my pic above reflects another mirrorlist site. None worked. They looked pretty current to me. Edited May 12 by wa4chq Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted May 12 Author Share Posted May 12 I was thinking maybe the problem was because I wasn't connecting to the internet....but pinging google.com had results. I reckon I'll start all over.....but not right now...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 On 5/11/2024 at 1:57 PM, securitybreach said: I was referring to even the official distro and environment, lxde I think Yep, a customized version of LXDE specifically for the pi hardware. If I remember correctly, they called it Pixel, but it was definitely LXDE. For a resource constrained machine, such as the Pis, a DE makes very little sense. Should probably stick with WMs like Openbox, Fluxbox, PekWM, JWM, IceWM, and yes....WindowMaker! FWIW... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 1 hour ago, Hedon James said: Yep, a customized version of LXDE specifically for the pi hardware. If I remember correctly, they called it Pixel, but it was definitely LXDE. For a resource constrained machine, such as the Pis, a DE makes very little sense. Should probably stick with WMs like Openbox, Fluxbox, PekWM, JWM, IceWM, and yes....WindowMaker! FWIW... Or i3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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