armbian-build/config/desktop

Desktop configuration

Please use lowercase letters for all config / folder files

├──${RELEASE}                                     The name of the distribution
│   ├──environments                               DE packages lists and scripts
│   │   ├──${DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT}                 The name of the DE (xfce, gnome, kde, ...)
│   │   │   |──${DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG_NAME} Different configuration name prefixed with "config_" (config_basic, config_full, ... )
│   │──appgroups                                  Application groups packages lists and scripts
│   │   ├──${DESKTOP_APPGROUPS_SELECTED}          Appgroups names (editors, programming, ...)

In each directory representing a desktop environment, a desktop environment configuration or an appgroup, the following files can be present :

• packages
  If present, the content of the file will be added to the list of packages 'required' by the Armbian desktop package.
• debian/postinst
  If present, the content of the file will be added to the postinst script of the Armbian desktop package, which will be executed after installing it.
• armbian/create_desktop_package.sh
  If present the content of this script will be executed, by the build script, just before actually creating the Armbian Desktop .deb package.
  Any variable recognized and function defined by the build script, at that point, can be used.
• sources/apt
  If present, the directory will be scanned for .source files, which should contain APT URL, in a form that add-apt-repository understand.
  The system is restricted to ONLY ONE APT URL per file, since it's basically calling :
  add-apt-repository $(cat "/that/apt/file.source")
  For each .source file parsed, if there's a corresponding .source.gpg file, the file will be considered as a package signing key and will be passed to apt-key.
  For this one, the file is copied into ${SDCARD}/tmp and then apt-key is called like this : apt-key "/tmp/file.source.gpg".

Then in each directory representing a desktop environment, a desktop environment configuration or an appgroup, you can add :

• custom/boards/${BOARD}/
  For example custom/orangepipc.
  A Board (odroidc4, tinkerboard, bananapi, ...) specific directory where you can provide additionalpackages, debian/postinst and armbian/create_desktop_package.sh. The files, if present, will be parsed accordingly when building for that specific board, if the element (desktop environment, appgroup, ...) is selected.

Then in each appgroup, you can add :

• custom/desktops/${DESTKOP_ENVIRONMENT}/
  For example custom/desktops/xfce.
  A desktop environment specific directory where you can provide additional packages, debian/postinst and armbian/create_desktop_package.sh.
  The files, if present, will be parsed accordingly if the appgroup AND that desktop environment are both selected during a build.
• custom/boards/${BOARD}/custom/desktops/${DESTKOP_ENVIRONMENT}/
  For example custom/boards/tinkerboard/custom/desktops/kde.
  A Board AND desktop environment specific directory where you can provided additional packages, debian/postinst and armbian/create_desktop_package.sh.
  The files, if present, will be parsed accordingly if the appgroup, that specific board and that specific desktop environments are all selected during a build.

Adding a desktop environment

Currently, only official repositories are supported.

Let's say that you want to add that new desktop environment "superduperde", that is now available on official on Debian/Ubuntu repositories.

First, focus on one specific distribution like focal (Ubuntu) or buster (Debian). In our example, will take focal.
We'll create our first configuration 'full', which should provide the DE along with all its specific apps, widgets and the kitchen sink.

• Create the directory config/desktop/focal/environments/superduperde/config_full
• Create the file config/desktop/focal/environments/superduperde/config_full/packages
• Open the packages file, add the list of packages for apt.

Then select it in the configuration menu, or pass the following variables to ./compile.sh :

BUILD_DESKTOP="yes" RELEASE="focal" DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT="superduperde" DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG_NAME="config_full"

Then test the resulting image !

Tips

Keep most complete configuration in latest stable versions (Ubuntu Focal and Ubuntu Buster) and link their sub-components / directories. The same goes for DE. We keep XFCE as a base and others linked to it - where this make sense.