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NixOS on Microsoft Surface Pro 9, config and some dev

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NixOS Surface

Trying out NixOS on a Microsoft Surface Pro 9. Mostly keeping notes for myself and just to store the NixOS configuration for it.

Hostname for my system is papyrus, so that will pop up in random commands.

I moved notes and scripts from development into the linux-surface-dev repo to not clutter my nix files here.

Useful links;

Useful Commands;

Build top level:

To build the top level filesystem result, this also works from a non NixOS host;

nix build .#nixosConfigurations.papyrus.config.system.build.toplevel

From Brian McGee's post on how to setup a nix machine.

When large local builds have to happen, add -L for logging and set the amount of build cores;

NIX_BUILD_CORES=10 nix build .#nixosConfigurations.papyrus.config.system.build.toplevel -L

Then, we can copy closure that with (assuming ivor is in trusted-users):

nix copy --to "ssh://ivor@papyrus" ./result

Actually switch to the new config

nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#papyrus

Format this repo

nix fmt

Discard old NixOS generations

List them with;

nix-env --list-generations --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system

Discard with;

nix-env --delete-generations --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system <number>

Discard all but most recent 5;

nix-env --delete-generations --profile /nix/var/nix/profiles/system  +5

Build the recovery image

The flake.nix file has some custom settings for generating a recovery image that includes this repository in the /home/nixos/nixos-surface/ path.

The USB image can be built with:

nix build .#nixosConfigurations.recovery.config.system.build.isoImage --out-link recovery.priv.result -L

Installation

Some quick notes for myself.

Bios: Volume up while turning on.

Boot from USB: Volume down while turning on.

Disabling secure boot in the bios does trigger Windows' bitlocker thing, prompting for the recovery key.

Installing windows

It is nigh impossible to resize the EFI partition after Windows is installed. I tried following a few guides from stackoverflow, but managed to brick Windows several times. In the end I followed this stackoverflow answer on how to install Windows with a differently sized efi partition:

  1. In the windows installer, go to the partition selection.
  2. Press shift + f10 to open a prompt.
  3. Start diskpart.
  4. List disks with list disk, identify your harddisk's number.
  5. Use select disk 0 (or number from step 4).
  6. Create EFI with your size create partition efi size=1000, size is in MiB.
  7. Exit diskpart with exit
  8. Click refresh in the partition selection.

Partition & filesystem

Original setup was:

I resized the Windows partition from Windows, resize it, then from a live cd use fdisk -l, record the size. Then from Windows I created an NTFS partition in the now available space. Both look the same from the linux side (both ntfs); use the size to distinguish.

With the new harddisk I used fdisk to create two new partitions;

nvme0n1     259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0  1000M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p2 259:9    0    16M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p3 259:10   0   230G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p4 259:11   0    50G  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p5 259:12   0 650.5G  0 part

A 50 GB disk in case I need to transfer between operating systems, then a 650gb disk to be used for NixOS.

The, we proceed with setup, guided by NixOS full disk encryption:

# Setup luks
cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p5
# Open the encrypted partition.
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p5 cryptroot

I installed btrfs on that cryptroot partition; I went with btrfs, blew away the ntfs file system with:

[root@nixos:~]# mkfs.btrfs -f -L nixos /dev/mapper/cryptroot
...
Devices:
   ID        SIZE  PATH
    1   650.52GiB  /dev/mapper/cryptroot

Then, subvolume creation:

[root@nixos:~]# mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt

[root@nixos:/mnt]# btrfs subvolume create /mnt/root
Create subvolume '/mnt/root'

[root@nixos:/mnt]# btrfs subvolume create /mnt/home
Create subvolume '/mnt/home'

[root@nixos:/mnt]# btrfs subvolume create /mnt/nix
Create subvolume '/mnt/nix'

# Now unmount /mnt;
umount /mnt

Followed by mounting the respectivy btrfs subvolumes:

[root@nixos:/]# mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=root /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt

[root@nixos:/]# mkdir /mnt/{home,nix}

[root@nixos:/]# mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=home /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/home

[root@nixos:/]# mount -o compress=zstd,noatime,subvol=nix /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/nix

# and finally, mount the EFI partition into boot;

[root@nixos:/]# mkdir /mnt/boot

[root@nixos:/]# mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot

So then we end up with;

# lsblk
NAME          MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINTS
loop0           7:0    0 799.6M  1 loop  /nix/.ro-store
sda             8:0    1  29.8G  0 disk  
├─sda1          8:1    1   833M  0 part  /iso
└─sda2          8:2    1     3M  0 part  
nvme0n1       259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk  
├─nvme0n1p1   259:1    0  1000M  0 part  /mnt/boot
├─nvme0n1p2   259:9    0    16M  0 part  
├─nvme0n1p3   259:10   0   230G  0 part  
├─nvme0n1p4   259:11   0    50G  0 part  
└─nvme0n1p5   259:12   0 650.5G  0 part  
  └─cryptroot 254:0    0 650.5G  0 crypt /mnt/nix
                                         /mnt/home
                                         /mnt

# mount -l
/dev/mapper/cryptroot on /mnt type btrfs (rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,space_cache=v2,subvolid=256,subvol=/root) [nixos]
/dev/mapper/cryptroot on /mnt/home type btrfs (rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,space_cache=v2,subvolid=257,subvol=/home) [nixos]
/dev/mapper/cryptroot on /mnt/nix type btrfs (rw,noatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,space_cache=v2,subvolid=258,subvol=/nix) [nixos]
/dev/nvme0n1p1 on /mnt/boot type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)

Then, the config can be generated;

[root@nixos:/]# nixos-generate-config --root /mnt/
writing /mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix...
writing /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix...
For more hardware-specific settings, see https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware.

Remember to edit configuration.nix to include these options that would not be picked up if the hardware-configuration.nix file is ever regenerated.

Be sure to add vim to the system packages.

Then, do the install with;

cd /mnt
nixos-install

I did add myself as a user (as per the install manual) with

useradd -c 'Ivor' -m ivor
passwd ivor

and then added that user to wheel with these lines. I'm not sure why users need to be added manually if they're also in the configuration.nix.

Connecting via SSH

Boot from minimal nixos image from usb, then run the 'start wifi' from the motd, then use:

$ wpa_cli
> add_network
0
> set_network 0 ssid "myhomenetwork"
OK
> set_network 0 psk "mypassword"
OK
> set_network 0 key_mgmt WPA-PSK
OK
> enable_network 0
OK

To connect to wifi, followed by giving root a password with passwd, then ssh in from another machine by ssh root@nixos.

Recovery if Windows uninstalls / disables the bootloader

Boot live cd, then manually mount the partitions with:

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p6 cryptroot
mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=root /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt
mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=home /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/home
mount -o compress=zstd,noatime,subvol=nix /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/nix
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot

Chroot to our real system that's now at /mnt/:

nixos-enter

Calling it without arguments uses the root at /mnt

First attempt was:

# nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#papyrus

But that complained about systemd-boot not being installed in ESP, which was likely the problem in the first place, that was fixed with:

bootctl install

Boot now succeeded.

Build the recovery image with nix build .#nixosConfigurations.recovery.config.system.build.isoImage.

Misc config

Give gnome minimize and maximize buttons;

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout "appmenu:minimize,maximize,close"

(Default is appmenu:close).

Flake reminders

  • This flake is always available in /run/booted-system/flake/, flake current is that.
  • The current#pkgs points to nixosConfigurations.papyrus.pkgs.
  • The nixpkgs# flake points at the pinned upstream nixpkgs without overlays.

Todo

  • On screen keyboard

    • Figure out how to make the gnome onscreen keyboard display normal !@#$%^&*()_+ symbols. Forked enhanced osk.
    • Make on screen keyboard not waste precious pixels. Filed cass00/enhanced-osk-gnome-ext#7
    • Make the new on screen keyboard appear in lock screen. Magically solved itself with the reinstall...
    • Give it an 'inhibit' option, where it doesn't automatically pops up when you click text, for when you have the typecover attached.
    • Extension is again gone in gdm, fixed with the gnome dconf database now such that it's always good.

  • Pen

  • Power / Battery

    • Suspended over night, drained 68% to 45%, did not wake from suspend in the morning, this type cover issue where it can't wake from suspend in some conditions seems applicable. Currently disabled the buttons, see also this issue and wiki entry. Likely caused by incorrect suspend from cover.
    • Can we investigate trickle charging / not keeping battery at 100% for longevity? Battery charge IC likely is BQ25713. See smart charging, ruled out by BatteryDm.cs, it explicitly throws when trying to ste it to true, likely really not possible.
    • Disabled enable_psr for now to mitigate screen flickering, could pursue it against latest kernel, intel seems to be doing work on it.

  • Thermal stuff

    • Make fans turn on quicker, may just be a matter of installing thermald? Even on windows things get pretty hot, maybe that's normal? Research!
    • Logging messages from windows, all the way from boot. irpmon wiki improvements
    • Make fan rpm monitoring module: linux-surface/kernel#144
    • Make platform profile switch the fan profile: linux-surface/kernel#145
    • Have to make thermald do the thing instead, figure this out, contrib config to thermald contrib dir. Thermald is really hard to configure, are there alternatives? Can't find alternatives, current profile is clunky, but at least we don't to the overheat stage. Currently piggybacks off of wifi, should revisit once this is merged. Good enough for now, but should get more tuning before contrib upstream.

  • OS / System / Nix stuff

    • Deploy some encryption, either LUKS & TPM or ecryptfs on the homedir. See also this, now using LUKS2, typecover works with appropriate kernel modules.
    • Fix multiboot clock, done by setting the registry key found in the windows subdirectory.
    • Create live cd with this readme and config, in case we need to recover.
    • Sometimes we can't type at the full disk encryption page, if we use USB keyboard, only half of the kernel modules get loaded, platform profile for example is missing. Not seen since kernel update.

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NixOS on Microsoft Surface Pro 9, config and some dev

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