This repository keeps my Nix/NixOS configuration. It contains a lot of my configuration of various software, Such as gnome desktop, such as vim and so on. You can use the configuration of this repository to configure a complete NixOS. You can also use some of the packages and modules to expand your own Nix/NixOS. If you want to try NixOS, refer to Install NixOS and Configure Nix. If you just want to try Nix, you can skip Install NixOS and go directly to Configure Nix. If you not only want to install Nix/NixOS, but also want to know more about Nix/NixOS, welcome to check out the documentation in this repo xieby1.github.io/nix_config.
- Use nix expression,not nix flakes
- Use NixOS stable channel (current version 22.05),not unstable channel
- Ubuntu-based usage habits
- Multiplatform
- NixOS: QEMU✅, NixOS single-boot system✅, NixOS+Windows dual-boot system✅
- Nix: Linux✅, Android (nix-on-droid)✅, WSL2✅
- Folder structure
- Relationship between Nix and NixOS
- Usage Scenarios
- Install NixOS
- Configure Nix
- Ideas behind my configuration
- References
- system.nix: system configuration (nixos-rebuild configuration)
- sys/cli.nix: system CLI configuration
- sys/gui.nix: system GUI configuration
- nix-on-droid.nix: android configuration (with home-manager configuration)
- home.nix: user configuration (home-manager configuration)
- usr/cli.nix: user CLI configuration
- usr/gui.nix: user GUI configuration
Nix is an advanced package management system for managing software packages. Its target is the same as that of common package managers such as apt and rpm. Comparing with these package managers, Nix adopts a pure function construction model, uses hashes to store packages and adopts other ideas. These ideas make it easy for Nix to do reproducible builds and resolve dependency hell. Nix is born from research conducted during Dolstra's PhD, which is detailed in his doctor dissertation1,
NixOS regards the entire Linux operating system (including the kernel) as a collection of software packages and uses Nix to manage it. In other words, NixOS is a Linux distribution that uses the Nix package manager.
You can use the Nix package manager alone to manage your user programs. You can also use NixOS to have your entire operating system managed by Nix. The most intuitive advantage brought by Nix/NixOS is that as long as the Nix/NixOS configuration files are kept, an identical software environment/OS can be restored. (Of course this is only ideal. The impure feature of nix 2.8, home-manager etc. are breaking this. But don't worry. As long as the configuration files are kept, an almost identical software environment/OS can be generated on Nix/NixOS)
At this point you may be wondering, Nix/NixOS can manage systems, software and their configuration, but what about data? Although Nix/NixOS does not directly manage data, Nix/NixOS can manage data synchronization software well. For example, using the open source software Syncthing, or the open source service NextCloud, or the commercial service Google Drive. Therefore, as long as you keep the configuration files of Nix/NixOS, you can easily build a software env/OS that contains the software, configuration, and data you are familiar with.
My Nix/NixOS configuration are hosted here github.com/xieby1/nix_config.
- OS re-installation: recover the env of old OS
- Dual boot OS: keep WSL and Linux have same env
- Virtual machine: keep local env and VM have same env
- Container: keep local env and container have same env
- Multiple devices: keep multiple computers/phones2 have same env
The installation refers to the official installation documentation. If you have already installed NixOS, you can skip this step and go directly to Install My Configuration.
QEMU:
# Download minimal ISO image: https://nixos.org/download.html
# Create a qemu hard disk (32GB in size)
qemu-img create -f qcow2 <output/path/to/nix.qcow2> 32G
# Install the ISO image to qemu hard disk
qemu-system-x86_64 -display gtk,window-close=off -vga virtio -device e1000,netdev=net0 -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5556-:22,smb=/home/xieby1/ -m 4G -smp 3 -enable-kvm -hda </path/to/nix.qcow2> -cdrom </path/to/nixos-minial.iso> -boot d &Physical machine:
# I haven't explored the method of connecting to wifi from the command line.
# So currently use gnome ISO instead of the minimal ISO.
# Download gnome ISO from: https://nixos.org/download.html
# Make a bootable usb stick
sudo dd if=<path/to/nixos.iso> of=</dev/your_usb>
sync
# Reboot into the usb system
# Noted: You need to cancel the secure boot in the BIOS, in some case the usb cannot boot.After entering the ISO system, create the partitions. 3 partitions are needed: a boot partition, an OS partition, a swap partition. QEMU and single-OS boot need all 3 partitions. Dual-OS boot needs the latter 2 partitions.
QEMU:
sudo bash
parted /dev/sda -- mklabel msdos
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 1MiB -8GiB
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap -8GiB 100%Single boot
parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 512MiB -8GiB
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap -8GiB 100%
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 512MiB
parted /dev/sda -- set 3 esp onDual boot
The detailed usage of parted has not yet been explored, and the disk software is currently used to visualize the partition process.
- Create an Ext4 partition and name it nixos
- Create Other->swap partition
mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/<os partition>
mkswap -L swap /dev/<swap partition>
swapon /dev/<swap partition>
mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/<boot partition> # for single boot
mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot # for single boot and dual boot
mount /dev/disk/by-label/boot /mnt/boot # for single boot and dual boot- Generate configuration file
nixos-generate-config --root /mnt- modify /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix,
- change
networking.hostName - enable proxy (if you are not bothered by GFW, skip this step)
- The host machine ip in QEMU is 10.0.2.2
- During the installation process, you need to use the proxy service of another computer or host
- After deploying my nixos configuration, the qv2ray service will be avialable
networking.proxy.default = "http://user:password@proxy:port/";networking.proxy.noProxy = "127.0.0.1,localhost,internal.domain";
- (For QEMU and single boot) Uncomment the following to enable grub support
boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda";
- (Optional) Remove the firewall so that kdeconnect works
networking.firewall.enable = false;
- (dual boot) Automatic detection of operating system startup entries
boot.loader.grub.useOSProber = true;
- Add a user
users.users.xieby1
- Add softwares
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [vim git];
- change
Finally,
nixos-install
rebootAfter rebooting, enter NixOS.
Nix installation refers to https://nixos.org/download.html
Import my configuration into the basic configuration.
git clone https://github.com/xieby1/nix_config.git ~/.config/nixpkgs
vim /etc/nixos/configuration.nix
# Add the path of system.nix to importsNoted: sudo may be omitted in Nix.
# (For users in mainland China) replace with Tsinghua tuna mirror
sudo nix-channel --add https://mirror.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/nix-channels/nixos-22.05 nixos # for NixOS
sudo nix-channel --add https://mirror.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/nix-channels/nixos-22.05 nixpkgs # for Nix
# Add home manager channel
sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-22.05.tar.gz home-manager
sudo nix-channel --updatesudo nixos-rebuild switch # Only for NixOS
# Install home-manager
nix-shell '<home-manager>' -A install
home-manager switchSome of the software I use depends on x11 and cannot run in wayland, so I choose x11. For example autokey (I am trying to replace autokey with espanso). Still keep x11 until a suitable replacement is found.
UI, plugins, shortcut keys, etc. affect the intuitive feeling of the desktop system experience. Configure the gnome desktop system using gui/gnome.nix. A large number of settings can be viewed/modified through dconf to assist with modification.
This module is used to configure file types and default open programs. Type settings and default program settings are implemented through xdg-mime.
This module is used for gsettings configuration. The existing dconf.settings does not cover all gsettings functions. For example, the top bar of gnome-termimal needs to be hidden through gsettings. For details, refers to this answer which explains the difference between gsettings (schema id) and dconf (schema path).
qv2ray has stopped updating and does not adapt well to high-resolution screens. Possible GUI replacement v2rayA.
qv2ray requires v2ray core. Through usr/gui.nix: home.file.v2ray_core, put v2ray core in the default folder of qv2ray.config/qv2ray/, so that qv2ray can be used out of the box.
The support for NeoVim and Vim in the NixOS community is unequal, as can be seen from the plugin management.
Configuring the vim plugin requires vim_configurable.customize, which is very complicated. For details, see nixpkgs git commit: 3feff06b4dee3fd59312204eee0a2af948098376.
NeoVim can use programs.neovim.plugins, so choose NeoVim.
After Typora added "anti-user encryption", the nixpkgs community stopped supporting typora.
Marktext is slow to update, and plugins are not yet supported. Every time you close the file, regardless of whether it is edited or not, you will be prompted to save.
Obsidian experience is not bad!
Follow the usage habits of ubuntu, use fcitx.
- Chinese: cloudpinyin (supports fuzzy sounds, automatic online thesaurus)
- Japanese: mozc
- Korean: hangul
chroot needs to mount many directories to make ubuntu work properly. But NixOS doesn't provide all FHS directories.
So use docker to provide ubuntu command line environment.
Footnotes
-
Dolstra, Eelco. “The purely functional software deployment model.” (2006). ↩
-
github.com/t184256/nix-on-droid a termux fork, supporting nix ↩