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authoremmett1 <emmett1.2miligrams@protonmail.com>2025-05-02 00:21:33 +0800
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+Install Alice
+=============
+
+Here is a guide to installing Alice Linux on your computer using the chroot method. You can do this from your existing Linux distribution or from a live environment, such as Alice Live or another Linux distribution. Make sure your chosen environment has the necessary partitioning tools, filesystem tools, and extraction tools.
+
+Get Alice rootfs tarball
+------------------------
+
+Download the Alice rootfs tarball from the [release](https://codeberg.org/emmett1/alicelinux/releases) page, along with its `sha256sum` file.
+ $ curl -O <url>
+ $ curl -O <url>.sha256sum
+Verify the checksum of the Alice rootfs tarball:
+
+ $ sha256sum -c alicelinux-rootfs-20240525.tar.xz.sha256sum
+
+Make sure it prints:
+ alicelinux-rootfs-20240525.tar.xz: OK
+
+
+Prepare the partition and filesystem
+------------------------------------
+
+Prepare the partition and filesystem of your choice. In this guide, I will use ext4 as an example.
+ # cfdisk /dev/sdX
+ # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdXY
+
+Mount your created partition somewhere. In this guide, I will use /mnt/alice as the mount point.
+ # mkdir /mnt/alice
+ # mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/alice
+
+Extract the Alice rootfs tarball
+--------------------------------
+
+Extract the Alice rootfs into the mounted partition.
+ $ tar xvf alicelinux-rootfs-*.tar.xz -C /mnt/alice
+
+Enter chroot
+------------
+
+First, chroot into Alice. (Replace /mnt/alice with your chosen mount point.)
+ # /mnt/alice/usr/bin/apkg-chroot /mnt/alice
+
+Any further commands after this will be executed inside the Alice environment.
+
+Clone Alice repos
+-----------------
+
+Fetch the Alice packages repositories somewhere. I'll fetch them inside the /var/lib directory to keep the system clean.
+ # cd /var/lib
+ # git clone --depth=1 https://codeberg.org/emmett1/alicelinux
+
+Once we have the repositories cloned, we need to configure `apkg`. `apkg` is Alice's package build system (or package manager). By default, Alice does not provide an `apkg` config file (yes, `apkg` can work without a config file), but we need to create one. The `apkg` config file should be located at `/etc/apkg.conf` by default. Let's create one.
+
+Configure apkg.conf
+-------------------
+
+First, we set `CFLAGS` and `CXXFLAGS`. Alice base packages are built using `-O3 -march=x86-64 -pipe`. You can use these settings or change them to your preference.
+ # echo 'export CFLAGS="-O3 -march=x86-64 -pipe"' >> /etc/apkg.conf
+
+And use whats in `CFLAGS` for `CXXFLAGS`.
+ # echo 'export CXXFLAGS="$CFLAGS"' >> /etc/apkg.conf
+
+Next set `MAKEFLAGS`. I will use `6` for my `8 threads` machine.
+ # echo 'export MAKEFLAGS="-j6"' >> /etc/apkg.conf
+
+I'm also going to set `NINJAJOBS` here. Without it, `ninja` will use all threads of your machine when compiling.
+ # echo 'export NINJAJOBS="6"' >> /etc/apkg.conf
+
+Next, we need to set the package's build scripts path (I'll call it `package repos`) so `apkg` can find them. The `APKG_REPO` variable can accept multiple values for multiple `package repos`.
+
+Alice provides four (4) `package repos` (at the time of this writing): `core`, `extra`, `xorg` and `wayland`. `core` contains all base packages, and `extra` includes other packages beyond the base. `xorg` and `wayland` contain packages for gui and their dependencies.
+
+First, get the absolute path of the `package repos` where we cloned them. By the way, we are still inside the `/var/lib` directory where we cloned the repo.
+>NOTE: USE TAB COMPLETION!
+ # realpath alicelinux/repos/core
+ /var/lib/alicelinux/repos/core
+ # realpath alicelinux/repos/extra
+ /var/lib/alicelinux/repos/extra
+
+After we have the path of our `package repos`, add it to the `APKG_REPO` variable in `/etc/apkg.conf`.
+ # echo 'APKG_REPO="/var/lib/alicelinux/repos/core /var/lib/alicelinux/repos/extra"' >> /etc/apkg.conf
+
+>NOTE: All repo paths must be declared in the APKG_REPO variable, seperated by a single space.
+
+After setting up our `package repos`, make sure `apkg` can find the packages. We can use `apkg -s <pattern>` to search for packages.
+ # apkg -s sway
+ swayidle
+ swaybg
+ swaylock
+ sway
+
+If the output appears, then we are good to go.
+
+Next, we will set up directories for `packages`, `sources`, and `work`. By default, these directories are inside the package template, but we will change them to `/var/cache/pkg`, `/var/cache/src`, and `/var/cache/work` respectively. You can change these to any location where you want to store these files.
+
+First, create the directories:
+ # mkdir -p /var/cache/pkg
+ # mkdir -p /var/cache/src
+ # mkdir -p /var/cache/work
+
+
+Then add these paths to `/etc/apkg.conf`.
+ # echo 'APKG_PACKAGE_DIR=/var/cache/pkg' >> /etc/apkg.conf
+ # echo 'APKG_SOURCE_DIR=/var/cache/src' >> /etc/apkg.conf
+ # echo 'APKG_WORK_DIR=/var/cache/work' >> /etc/apkg.conf
+
+Full system upgrade/rebuild
+---------------------------
+
+On the first install, we should upgrade the system first.
+> NOTE: Use uppercase `U` for a system upgrade, and lowercase `u` to upgrade a specific package of your choice.
+ # apkg -U
+
+If you changed `CFLAGS` and `CXXFLAGS` to something other than the default, it's a good time to perform a full rebuild first. In this case, you can skip upgrading the system because performing a full rebuild will already use the latest version in `package repos`.
+
+> NOTE: Add the `-f` flag to force rebuild of existing prebuilt package.
+> NOTE: `apkg -a` prints all installed packages on the system.
+
+ # apkg -u $(apkg -a)
+
+Install development packages
+----------------------------
+
+Before installing any additional packages, we need to install development packages.
+ # apkg -I meson cmake pkgconf libtool automake perl
+
+Install kernel
+--------------
+
+You can configure your own kernel from [kernel.org](https://kernel.org/) or use the one provided by Alice.
+> NOTE: The provided kernel will take a lot of time to compile because many options are enabled.
+
+If you want to use Alice's kernel, just run:
+ # apkg -I linux
+
+Install firmware
+----------------
+
+If your hardware requires firmware, install it using:
+ # apkg -I linux-firmware linux-firmware-nvidia
+
+Install bootloader
+------------------
+
+In this guide, I'm going to use `grub` as the bootloader. Install `grub`:
+ # apkg -I grub
+
+Then generate grub config:
+ # grub-install /dev/sdX
+ # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
+
+Hostname
+--------
+
+Change `alice` to the hostname of your choice.
+ # echo alice > /etc/hostname
+
+Fstab
+-----
+
+Change the partition and filesystem of your choice below:
+ # echo '/dev/sda1 swap swap defaults 0 1' >> /etc/fstab
+ # echo '/dev/sda2 / ext4 defaults 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
+
+Enable runit services
+---------------------
+
+Alice uses busybox's `runit` as its main service manager. Enable the required services:
+ # ln -s /etc/sv/tty1 /var/service
+ # ln -s /etc/sv/tty2 /var/service
+ # ln -s /etc/sv/tty3 /var/service
+
+I'm enabling 3 `tty` services. `tty` is required; without it, you won't be able to log in (or run any commands).
+> The runit service directory is `/etc/sv`.
+> Create a symlink from `/etc/sv/<service>` to `/var/service` to enable it; remove the symlink to disable it.
+
+Setup user and password
+-----------------------
+
+Add your user:
+ # adduser <user>
+
+Add your user to the `wheel` group:
+ # adduser <user> wheel
+
+You might need to add your user to the `input` and `video` groups to start the Wayland compositor later, and the `audio` group to have working audio:
+ # adduser <user> input
+ # adduser <user> video
+ # adduser <user> audio
+
+
+Root password
+-------------
+
+Set the password for the `root` user:
+ # passwd
+
+Networking
+----------
+
+You might want to set up networking before rebooting. Use `wpa_supplicant` and `dhcpcd`.
+ # apkg -I wpa_supplicant dhcpcd
+
+Configure your SSID:
+ # wpa_passphrase <YOUR SSID> <ITS PASSWORD> >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
+
+Enable the service:
+ # ln -s /etc/sv/wpa_supplicant /var/service
+ # ln -s /etc/sv/dhcpcd /var/service
+
+Timezone
+--------
+
+Install `tzdata`:
+ # apkg -I tzdata
+
+Then create a symlink for your timezone to `/etc/localtime`:
+ # ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kuala_Lumpur /etc/localtime
+
+Alternatively, you can copy it and then uninstall `tzdata` to keep your installed packages minimal:
+ # cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kuala_Lumpur /etc/localtime
+ # apkg -r tzdata
+
+Reboot and enjoy!
+-----------------
+
+Exit the chroot environment and unmount the Alice partition, then reboot:
+ # exit
+ # umount /mnt/alice
+ # reboot
+
+Some important notes
+====================
+
+- `Alice` uses `spm` and `apkg` as its package manager and package build system. Run with the `-h` flag to see available options.
+- Additional scripts are provided with the name `apkg-<script>` which will be added (or removed) from time to time.
+- Use `revdep` to scan for broken libraries and binaries after system upgrades and package removals. You can use `revdep -v` to print out missing required libraries, and use `apkg -f -u $(revdep)` to scan and rebuild broken packages.
+- Run `updateconf` to update config files in `/etc` after package upgrades.