/nixos-config

My personal nixos config

Primary LanguageNix

MarioGK’ NixOS System Configuration Flake

rsc/NixOS.svg

Table of Content

NixOS Installation Guide

This flake currently has 2 hosts

  1. desktop
    • UEFI boot w/ systemd-boot
  2. laptop
    • UEFI boot w/ systemd-boot

Flakes can be build with:

  • $ sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake <path>#<hostname>
  • example $ sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#desktop

Partitioning

This will depend on the host chosen.

UEFI

In these commands

  • Partition Labels:
    • Boot = “boot”
    • Home = “nixos”
  • Partition Size:
    • Boot = 512MiB
    • Swap = 32GiB
    • Home = Rest
  • No Swap: Ignore line 3 & 7
# parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt
# parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 512MiB -8GiB
# parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap -32GiB 100%
# parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 512MiB
# parted /dev/sda -- set 3 esp
# mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1
# mkswap -L /dev/sda2
# mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/sda3

Installation

UEFI

In these commands

  • Partition with label … to …
    • “nixos” -> /mnt
    • “boot” -> /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
# mkdir -p /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/disk/by-label/boot /mnt/boot

Mounting Extras

In these commands

  • /mnt/ssd
  • Label of storage:
    • ssd2
  • If storage has no label:
    • mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/ssd2 /mnt/ssd
# mkdir -p /mnt/ssd
# mount /dev/disk/by-label/ssd2 /mnt/ssd

Generate

In these commands

  • Swap is enable:
    • Ignore if no swap or enough RAM
  • Configuration files are generated @ /mnt/etc/nixos
    • If you are me, you don’t need to do this. Hardware-configuration.nix already in flake.
  • Clone repository
# swapon /dev/sda2
# nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
# nix-env -iA nixos.git
# git clone https://github.com/MarioGK/nixos-config /mnt/etc/nixos/<name>

Optional if you are not me
# cp /mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix /mnt/etc/nixos/nixos-config/hosts/<host>/.

Possible Extra Steps

  1. Switch specific host hardware-configuration.nix with generated /mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix
  2. Change existing network card name with the one in your system
    • Look in generated hardware-configuration.nixos
    • Or enter $ ip a
  3. Change username in flake.nix
  4. Set a users.users.${user}.initialPassword = ...
    • Not really recommended. It’s maybe better to follow last steps
  5. If you are planning on using default2.nix doom emacs, don’t forget to rebuild after the initial installation when you link to this nix file.
    • Don’t forget to change the flake location in flake.nix
    • This is because userActivationScript is used for the setup and some locations are partially hardcoded
    • It will automatically install if ~~/.emacs.d~ does not exist

Install

In these commands

  • Move into cloned repository
    • in this example /mnt/etc/nixos/<name>
  • Available hosts:
    • desktop
    • laptop
# cd /mnt/etc/nixos/<name>
# nixos-install --flake .#<host>

Finalization

  1. Set a root password after installation is done
  2. Reboot without livecd
  3. Login
    1. If initialPassword is not set use TTY:
      • Ctrl - Alt - F1
      • login as root
      • # passwd <user>
      • Ctrl - Alt - F7
      • login as user
  4. Optional:
    • $ sudo mv <location of cloned directory> <prefered location>
    • $ sudo chown -R <user>:users <new directory>
    • $ sudo rm /etc/nixos/configuration.nix
    • or just clone flake again do apply same changes.
  5. Dual boot:
    • OSProber probably did not find your Windows partion after the first install
    • There is a high likelyhood it will find it after:
      • $ cd <repo directory>
      • $ sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#<host>
  6. Rebuilds:
    • <flakelocation>$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#<host>

Nix Installation Guide

This flake currently has 1 host

  1. pacman

The Linux distribution must have the nix package manager installed. $ sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon To be able to have a easy reproducible setup when using the nix package manager on a non-NixOS system, home-manager is a wonderful tool to achieve this. So this is how it is set up in this flake.

Installation

Initial

In these commands

  • Get git
  • Clone repository
  • First build of the flake
    • This is done so we can use the nix flake commands
$ nix-env -iA nixpkgs.git
$ git clone https://github.com/MarioGK/nixos-config ~/.setup
$ cd ~/.setup
$ nix build --extra-experimental-features 'nix-command flakes' .#homeConfigurations.<host>.activationPackage
$ ./result/activate

Rebuild

Since home-manager is now a valid command we can rebuild the system using this command. In this example it is build from inside the flake directory:

  • $ home-manager switch --flake .#<host>

This will rebuild the configuration and automatically activate it.

Finalization

Mostly optional or already correct by default

  1. NixGL gets set up by default, so if you are planning on using GUI applications that use OpenGL or Vulkan:
    • $ nixGLIntel <package>
    • or add it to your aliasses file
  2. Every rebuild, and activation-script will run to add applications to the system menu.
    • it’s pretty much the same as adding the path to XDG_DATA_DIRS
    • if you do not want to or if the locations are different, change this.

FAQ