Rachit's NixOS System Configuration

Declarative. Reproducible. Minimal.

📔 Instructions for installation

I am presuming that a bootable USB is already prepared. Boot into the computer.

🧪Enable Experimental Features

Experimental features are not enabled in NixOS by default. It can be enabled by exporting the NIX_CONFIG variable. It can also be enabled by passing the --extra-experimental-features flag to nix command utility in NixOS.

First enter into a root shell.

$ sudo -i

Run this to enable flakes and the nix-command utility.

$ export NIX_CONFIG="experimental-features = nix-command flakes"

↙️ Clone this Repo

Clone it into /tmp.

$ mkdir -p /tmp
$ cd /tmp
$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/rachitvrma/nixdots.git

💾 Run Disko to Prepare Disks

Disko is available in the nixpkgs repository. But it is advisable to run the latest commit from the nix-community github repo. This repository has the ability to support multiple users and hosts. Make sure that the disko-config.nix belongs to the correct host. By default, it's for nixpavilion, the default host machine that I use. Every host has a disko-config.nix file, which is a hard-coded disk layout configuration for each host. There may be a future configuration where I might enable multiple disk layouts. But it's not a very common thing that users choose different disk layouts for the same host every time they re-install for the same host.

$ cd /tmp/nixdots/modules/nixosModules/hosts/nixpavilion

For now, use the disko-config for nixpavilion for installation.

$ nix run github:nix-community/disko/latest -- --mode destroy,format,mount ./disko-config.nix

This will prompt for a password for the disk encryption set in the disko-config.nix.

🐧 OS Installation

Copy the cloned repo into /mnt/etc/nixos.

$ mkdir -p /mnt/etc
$ cp -r /tmp/nixdots /mnt/etc/nixos

Run the nixos-install command. It can be run with many flags. See nixos-install --help for useful flags. It is advisable to enable the --no-root-passwd in nixos-install if users.users.<username>.initialPassword option is set in configuration.nix.

$ nixos-install --no-root-passwd --root /mnt --cores 8 --max-jobs 1 --flake /mnt/etc/nixos#nixpavilion

It will not prompt for the password. Reboot after unmounting.

$ umount -R /mnt
$ reboot

You will land on the greeter. Follow the instructions further down.

💻 Post-OS-Installation

🔒 Change user password

Remember that the password is global and hasn't changed. There's no root user yet. Change the current user password

$ passwd $USER

It will prompt for the current user password and for the new ones.

🏠 Bring /etc/nixos to $HOME/nixdots

$ cp -r /etc/nixos $HOME/nixdots
$ sudo rm -rf /etc/nixos
$ sudo ln -sf /home/$USER/nixdots /etc/nixos

🚶‍♂️ Further Steps.

1. Git actions

   Change the link from https://github.com/rachitvrma/nixdots.git to git@github.com:rachitvrma/nixdots.

2. Firefox

   Some Firefox extensions need to enabled manually. Some features are still not implemented by me. For example the Nord Extension has to be enabled manually.

Common issues

• On changing git repo, it may just stop working. Don't worry, remove all backup files and just rebuild.
• My NixOS bootloader malfunctioned once. I put up a query on NixOS discourse. Here's the solution.

🚧 Work In Progress

• fish (NixOS module with pkgs.wrapFish)
  • Set up useful fish plugins
  • Set up useful fish functions
• Manage themes from one place. [DEPRECATE not using stylix anymore]
  • Place conditionals:
  • Wallpaper
  • Icon Theme
  • Cursor Theme
• NEXT: Write systemd user services
  • noctalia shell
  • poweralertd
• Move to using wrappers.
  • taskwarrior
    • Also integrate taskwarrior with neovim
  • Set up xplr
    • Key for bookmarks
    • For visiting history
  • Set preferences options to make font, icon and theme name globally available
  • aria2
  • yt-dlp
  • btop
  • bottom
  • cava
  • firefox
  • Wezterm
    • Configure plugins
    • bar.wezterm
    • Tab Bar plugins for aesthetics
    • When using neovim: smart-splits.nvim and wezterm-config.nvim
    • Apply base16 scheme to the wrapper and import from self's theme
  • niri
  • neovim
    • Also install note.nvim to link notes to a code line or take quick notes
  • Swayidle
    • wrap the config around the binary
    • create a systemd service to run the binary
  • mpv
  • Zathura pdf reader
  • noctalia [PARTIAL]
    • Use Stylix's base16 modules to integrate with own theme set
    • See this PR
  • shell tools
    • nh wrapper
    • Zoxide
    • Fzf
    • Git
      • Global Ignore file
      • Global Config
      • gitui
      • gh
        • gh-dash
    • Ripgrep
    • bat
    • rmpc music player
    • kew music player
    • iamb
    • feedo
    • discordo and endcord
  • Set GTK Theme using NixOS configuration module
  • Set Fonts using NixOS module
    • Remove Home-Manager stylix font modules
• Use import-tree and flake-parts to manage config as flake modules.

Todo

• Move all shell tools into a package called in environment (like in Vimjoyer's Configuration). And use it in users.users.krish.shell
• Learn jj and move to jjui

📚 Resources

• Wallpapers Repo by krishna4a6av
• Wrapper Configurations
• List of TUIs for the terminally addicted

📃 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See the LICENSE file for details