My NixOS system

Caution

This README.md is highly out of date

Preview

lockscreen

displayManager (sddm)

Installation steps

Important

Backup your /etc/nixos folder before installation.

Preparing

Clone repo in any folder you'd like.

Caution

common/hardware-configuration.nix and common/I_HATE_NVIDIA.nix contain hardware specific information so read this section as carefully as possible to avoid bad thigs

common/hardware-configuration.nix specifies how partitions are being mounted to your fs and other important stuff. It needs to be replaced with config generated by nixos for your PC. It's either stored in /etc/nixos or you can generate it with nixos-generate-config.

common/I_HATE_NVIDIA.nix specifies nvidia gpu driver installation and some other gpu related stuff. Here is list of things you can do with it to make it match your hardware:

• delete it (and import of it in common/configuration.nix);
• replace path to your device specific configuration if you find it in nixos-hardware repo;

imports = [
    # -------------------replace here------
    # ------------------- \/  \/  \/ ------
    "${nixos-hardware}/huawei/machc-wa"
];

• figure out by yourself what you need (IF you need) to do with your gpu NixOS wiki about NVIDIA.

Installing

Run ./scripts/rebuild-boot.sh script and reboot:

./scripts/rebuild-boot.sh && reboot

Personal data

Be careful when sharing these files, they contain personal information:

• home.nix imports secrets/secrets.nix which sets up secrets e.g. github token:

{...}:{
  nix.settings.access-tokens = [
    "github.com=........"
  ];
  programs.git = {
    userName  = "...";
    userEmail = "...";
  };
}

My method of managing secrets is definitely not the best and secure. Check out this project: sops-nix to deal with secrets management.

Features

Apps, their features and files that contain their configuration

Global

Configs in common directory are described below.

• configuration.nix Set up i3 session, gdm, keyboard layouts, touchpad scroll direction, time zones, 2x scaling (i have hi-dpi screen), automatic nix garbage collection. Enables gnupg, ssh.

• bootloader.nix GRUB 2 with theme from AdisonCavani. Also you can uncomment plymouth config.

• fonts.nix Installs my favourite fonts (e.g. Iosevka), some fonts are installed in their nerd versions. Also sets default system fonts:

  • serif: IosevkaTermSlab;
  • sansSerif: Arimo;
  • monospace: Iosevka;
  • emoji: OpenMoji Color.

• power_management.nix Enables thermald, upower, tlp. Configuration is just basic tweaks to make my laptop's battery life longer.

• I_HATE_NVIDIA.nix Installs hardware specific drivers for nvidia gpu. You definitely need to check out official repo for hardware specific configs: repo.

• hardware-configuration.nix All left default (generated during installation) except for mounting /home directory which i store at separate partition for the sake of distrohopping. Also configures swap and zram.

Apps

Configs in nix_modules directory are described below.

Most of the apps listed below are configured using home-manager and themed with stylix. When trying to reconfigure something look in corresponding nix_modules/<app_you_want>.nix and dotfiles/<app_you_want>.

home.nix configures apps to install, sets github token for home-manager to fetch github without restrictions, enables:

• flameshot screenshot daemon
• copyq clipboard management tool
• poweralertd daemon which notifies you some info about power of your battery and connected devices

List of apps configured (links provided):

• alacritty.nix Great terminal site;
• autorandr.nix autorandr can save your monitor configurations and quickly change them. Very useful for laptops if you connect them to monitor at different places;
• betterlockscreen.nix Nice looking and highly customizable lockscreen (uses i3lock under the hood) link;
• dunst.nix Dunst notification daemon link;
• eww.nix Highly customizable widgets framework. Made a bar with it. link;
• fastfetch.nix System fetch with my custom layout and png nixos logo (supported by kitty/wezterm) link;
• fish.nix Fish shell. Almost entire config stolen from my previous Garuda Linux installation. link;
• git.nix You know what git is. Configured gpg signing by default and some credentials. Also enables amazing git tui gitui;
• helix.nix vim killer Pretty editor i use as drop-in replacement for vim in some cases. Configured essential for me language servers (latex, python, c/c++, etc...). Theme is somewhat tweaked from what default stylix gave me. link;
• i3.nix My favourite window manager. Theme is custom build from stylix colors. Configures keybindings, essential appearance settings, starts up apps (flameshot, dunst, etc). link;
• mime_apps.nix Configures default apps for opening some file types (like pdf -> evince);
• nixvim.nix Neovim configuration in "nix" way. Configuration in progres link;
• nnn.nix cli file manager. Configuration in progress link;
• picom.nix compositor. By default you'll get the default "light" configuration, but you may uncomment my custom made config which provides animations and some other settings (more power-consuming) link;
• polybar.nix My old configuration of polybar which i don't use now (switched to eww) link;
• rofi.nix dmenu alternative for popup menus like application launcher, powermenu, etc. link. Using themes from this link;
• starship.nix Beautiful shell prompt i use. Like fish, config is stolen from my previous Garuda Linux installation (i guess it's almost default) link;
• stylix.nix Configures stylix - a NixOS module which applies the same colour scheme, font and wallpaper to a range of applications and desktop environments. Sets up systemwide dark mode, color scheme, wallpaper, icon-pack (Papirus Dark), cursor-pack (Bibata Modern Ice), fonts. link;
• wezterm.nix My favourite terminal with multiplexer capabilities. link.

Theming

To install more fonts add them to common/fonts.nix (this will just install them but not apply them everywhere). To apply fonts everywhere use stylix as described below.

To set the theme, wallpaper, fonts, cursors, icons you need to edit it in nix_modules/stylix.nix. More details at stylix wiki.

If stylix.base16Scheme is not specified, stylix will generate your colorscheme from colors of your wallpaper (stylix.image) but in my opinion colorschemes made using this method is pretty bad (very low contrast, narrow spectrum of colors from dark to bright, few or none of 'highlight' colors that distinguish themselves from other).

Check out configuration/wallpapers directory for wallpapers that i use.

Note

Applications will get their theme from stylix almost in every case except for the apps listed below. I tweaked colors which they get so their look may be bad.

List of applications with colors tweaked by me:

• i3
• eww
• rofi
• dunst
• helix
• betterlockscreen

TODO

• maintain README.md
• sops-nix secret management
• kitty theme recolor
• i3 resize mode show in eww
• i3 bindsym -> bindcode
• show caps lock

In case of emergency

Recovery steps.

Load from usb. (In debug mode you won't be able to connect to wifi, so i'd prefer default mode)

Mount everything:

1. As in hardware-configuration.nix (like with impermanence):

mount -t tmpfs -o "defaults,size=25%,mode=755" tmpfs /mnt

mkdir -p /mnt/home
mount -t tmpfs -o "defaults,size=25%,mode=755" tmpfs /mnt/home

mkdir -p /mnt/persist/home
mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/74219b09-f02e-43f9-a15b-375ff4037772 /mnt/persist
mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/12d128c8-46ef-4b58-9c59-f7cc2ce799c3 /mnt/persist/home

mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount -o "fmask=0077,dmask=0077" /dev/disk/by-uuid/B24C-64BF /mnt/boot

2. Or in a simple way:

mkdir -p /mnt/home
mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/74219b09-f02e-43f9-a15b-375ff4037772 /mnt
mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/12d128c8-46ef-4b58-9c59-f7cc2ce799c3 /mnt/home

mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount -o "fmask=0077,dmask=0077" /dev/disk/by-uuid/B24C-64BF /mnt/boot

3. Or even simpler (if you haven't splitted /home and /)

mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/74219b09-f02e-43f9-a15b-375ff4037772 /mnt

mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount -o "fmask=0077,dmask=0077" /dev/disk/by-uuid/B24C-64BF /mnt/boot

Activate and enter your system

chroot /mnt /nix/var/nix/profiles/system/activate
chroot /mnt /run/current-system/sw/bin/bash
# any recovery steps needed, for example:
passwd

Alternatively look into nix-enter