NixOS Configuration

A full set of configuration files managed via NixOS. This project follows the general structure of https://github.com/tiredofit/nixos-config

[!WARNING] DO NOT DOWNLOAD AND RUN nixos-rebuild ON THIS REPOSITORY! These are my personal configuration files. I invite you to look through them, modify them, and take inspiration from them, but if you run nixos-rebuild, it will completely overwrite your current system!

Running

Note on secrets management

Secrets are stored in a separate repo called nix-secrets, which is included here as a submodule. It gets pulled into the main config via hosts/common/default.nix. This is a poor man's secret management solution, but y'know what, it works. These "secrets" will be readable to users on the system with access to the /nix/store/, but for single-user systems, it's fine.

Initialize the submodule with:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Updating Flakes

This repo uses Flakes. To get the latest packages and update your flake.lock file, run this command before nixos-rebuild:

nix flake update

Applying the configuration

To apply the config for the first time (e.g. on a fresh install), run this command, replacing Shura with the name of the host:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#Shura

For subsequent builds, you can omit the hostname:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .

switch replaces the running system immediately, or you can use boot to only apply the switch during the next reboot.

Testing

To quickly validate the configuration, create a dry build. This builds the config without actually adding it to the system:

nixos-rebuild dry-build --flake .

To preview changes in a virtual machine, use this command to create a virtual machine image (remove the .qcow2 image after a while, otherwise data persistence might mess things up):

nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake .

Updating

flake.lock locks the version of any packages/modules used. To update them, run nix flake update first:

nix flake update && sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .

Home-manager also installs a ZSH alias, so you can just run update or upgrade for the same effect.

Layout

This config uses two systems: Flakes, and Home-manager.

• Flakes are the entrypoint, via flake.nix. This is where you include Flake modules and define Flake-specific options.
• Home-manager configs live in the users/ folders. Each user gets its own home-manager.nix file too.
• Modules are stored in modules. All of these files are imported, and you enable the ones you want to use. For example, to install Flatpak, set host.ui.flatpak.enable = true;.
  • After adding a new module, make sure to git add it and import it in default.nix.

Adding a host

When adding a host:

1. Create its config in hosts/hostname/<hostname>.nix. Add its hardware-configuration.nix here too.
2. Reference a profile from profiles/. This sets up its base configuration.
3. Include user accounts from users.
4. Add any host-specific options,
5. Import it in /hosts/default.nix.
6. Run nixos-rebuild.

Features

This Nix config features:

• Flakes
• Home Manager
• AMD and Intel hardware configurations
• Workstation and server base system configurations
• GNOME Desktop environment and KDE integrations
• Boot splash screens via Plymouth
• Secure Boot
• Disk encryption via LUKS
• Custom packages and systemd services (Duplicacy)
• Flatpaks
• Per-user configurations
• Default ZSH shell using Oh My ZSH
• Secrets (in a janky hacky kinda way)