❄️ NixOS setup with flakes ❄️

💻 Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 14 (8th generation)

NixOS is now my everyday system, I hope this repository will help you build yours!

Main configuration

NixOS release	25.11
Display Manager	GDM
Window Manager/Compositor	Niri (Wayland)
Desktop	Dank Material Shell
Terminal Emulators	kitty
Shell	zsh + powerlevel10k

How to install and manage system configuration with Git

Git handles very well text files such as NixOS configuration ones; I strongly suggest you to use it to keep track of the changes you made and for easy rollback.

The system's configuration is located by default in /etc/nixos. As it is a root directory, it is not practical to initialize a Git repository directly in this folder. What could be done is making this directory a symbolic link to a more user friendly one.

Backup your current configuration

sudo mv /etc/nixos /etc/nixos-old

Download this configuration...

cd ~/Documents && git clone git@github.com:LalieA/nixos-config.git

... or initialize yours

cd ~/Documents/nixos-config
cp -R /etc/nixos-old/* .
git init

Create a symbolic link from your friendly directory

sudo ln -s ~/Documents/nixos-config /etc/nixos

And deploy your configuration!

sudo nixos-rebuild switch

How this configuration is built

                      (3)   ┌──────────┐ (4)
                     ┌─────►│./home.nix├────┐
                     │      └──────────┘    ▼
┌─────────┐ (1) ┌────┴───┐                ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│flake.nix├────►│hive.nix│                │./modules/{,system,packages,...}/_.nix│
└─────────┘     └────┬───┘                └──────────────────────────────────────┘
                     │    ┌─────────────┐   ▲
                     └───►│./hosts/_.nix├───┘
                      (2) └─────────────┘(4)

This configuration is designed to keep NixOS configurations that define hardware, system, and user-specific settings as separate as possible. Machine and user configurations are linked together in the hive.nix file (1), which is used by Colmena to facilitate the deployment of a NixOS configuration locally and on remote machines. This also makes the flake.nix file lighter. Configuration options specific to the machine on which NixOS is to be deployed are defined in files within the ./hosts directory (2), while desktop environments and user packages are defined in ./home* directories (3). Finally, common features such as audio configuration, Bluetooth, or Intel iGPUs will often require the same options and services to be enabled and are therefore described in files under ./modules (4). This helps limit the number of lines of code that need to be duplicated for similar functions across two NixOS systems that include them.

/
├── home/
│   ├── desktop-environment/
│   ├── programs/
│   ├── shell/
│   ├── ...
│   └── default.nix --> includes from ./modules/packages
├── hosts/
│   ├── tuxedo/
│   │   ├── hardware-configuration.nix --> hardware-specific configuration (e.g. CPU microcode, kernel modules)
│   │   ├── system.nix --> system-specific configuration (e.g. locales, fonts, network)
│   │   ├── ...
│   │   └── default.nix --> includes from ./modules/system
│   └── ...
├── modules/
│   ├── packages/ --> pre-made lists of useful programs
│   │   ├── base.nix
│   │   ├── desktop.nix
│   │   ├── dev.nix
│   │   ├── kali.nix --> packages provided in Kali Linux images
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── system/
│   │   ├── audio.nix
│   │   ├── bluetooth.nix
│   │   ├── intel-graphics.nix
│   │   ├── virtualization.nix
│   │   └── ...
│   └── ...
├── flake.nix --> includes configs from hive.nix
└── hive.nix --> defines complete NixOS configs from ./hosts and ./home

Going further with Colmena

Colmena is a great tool to manage multiple NixOS deployments with a stateless tool. The configuration in this repository can be updated in two ways, for a local NixOS system:

# the classic NixOS way
sudo nixos-rebuild switch

# or with Colmena
sudo colmena apply-local [--impure] [--verbose]

If another configuration has to be defined for a remote machine, it can be done in hive.nix:

### DEPLOYMENTS ###
...
"computer-hostname" = {
    networking.hostName = "computer-hostname";
    imports = [
        # NixOS host
        ./hosts/new-computer

        # Users
        home-manager.nixosModules.home-manager {
            home-manager.users."new-user" = import ./new-home;
        }
    ];
    deployment = {
        targetHost = <computer-ip>;
        targetPort = <computer-ssh-port>; # Don't forget to add your ssh key to be able to connect
        targetUser = "root";
    };
};
...

If necessary, create configuration files in ./hosts/new-computer and ./new-home based on your target. Then, deploy the newly setup NixOS configuration:

sudo colmena apply --on <computer-hostname> [--impure] [--verbose]

For more information about what can Colmena do, especially for secret management, take a look at the official documentation.

Create ISO for first installation

A minimal NixOS ISO image with only sshd can be generated for live or net boot purposes:

# Generate ISO
nix build .#nixosConfigurations.iso.config.system.build.isoImage

# Burn ISO to USB key -- check /dev/sdX
sudo dd if=./result/iso/nixos-live-minimal.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M status=progress oflag=sync

By setting the correct SSH public key for remote connection in ./hosts/live-minimal/system.nix, you should be able to install a complete NixOS configuration using nixos-anywhere and tools like Disko for disk paritioning, then perform further updates through Colmena as usual. This step replaces the need for a classical NixOS installation that can be time-consuming for some needs.

1. On target machine, boot from USB key, BIOS or UEFI as preferred
2. Give both machines an IP address from the same subnet: ip a add <ip_main> dev enp0s20f0u4u3 (main PC), ip a add <ip_target> dev eno1 (target)
3. Ping target from main PC: ping <ip_target>
4. SSH from main PC to target: ssh root@<ip_target>
5. Run nixos-anywhere to partition target disks with Disko layout: nixos-anywhere -- --flake .#<computer-hostname> root@<ip_target>
6. Deply further updates with Colmena: colmena apply --on <computer-hostname>

What has been tested

• Wifi
• Bluetooth
• Integrated camera
• Integrated microphone
• Screen streaming through web-based video conferences
• Multi-screen (built-in HDMI and 2 screens through USB-C)

What's planned in the future

• Handle secrets with sops-nix...
• ... and setup a LUKS fully encrypted disk...
• ... with master keys from a YubiKey
• Still improve this configuration while using it

To make my first steps into Nix and NixOS, I followed the awesome guide from ryan4yin, don't hesitate to check it out!