Nix Configuration

This repository is home to the nix code that builds my systems.

TODO

Enable disk encryption to enhance data security
Xcursor.size does not take effect in i3

Why Nix?

Nix allows for easy-to-manage, collaborative, reproducible deployments. This means that once something is setup and configured once, it works forever. If someone else shares their configuration, anyone can make use of it.

Want to know Nix in detail? Looking for a beginner-friendly tutorial or best practices? Check out NixOS & Nix Flakes Book - 🛠️ ❤️ An unofficial & opinionated 📖 for beginners!

Screenshots

Hosts

› tree hosts
hosts
├── harmonica  # my MacBook Pro 2020 13-inch, for work.
└── idols
    ├── ai         # my main computer, with NixOS + I5-13600KF + RTX 4090 GPU, for gaming & daily use.
    ├── aquamarine # my NixOS virtual machine with R9-5900HX(8C16T), for distributed building & testing.
    ├── kana       # yet another NixOS vm on another physical machine with R5-5625U(6C12T).
    └── ruby       # another NixOS vm on another physical machine with R7-5825U(8C16T).

How to Deploy this Flake?

Note: you should NOT deploy this flake directly on your machine, it contains my hardware information and personal information which is not suitable for you. You may use this repo as a reference to build your own configuration.

After installing NixOS with nix-command & flake enabled, follow the steps below to deploy this flake.

For NixOS, use the following commands:

# deploy one of the configuration based on the hostname
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .

# we can also deploy using `make`, which is defined in Makefile
make deploy

For MacOS, use the following commands:

# deploy the darwin configuration(harmonicia)
make darwin

# deploy with details
make darwin-debug

Install Apps from Flatpak

We can install apps from flathub, which has a lot of apps that are not supported well in nixpkgs.

# Add the Flathub repository
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

# install apps from flathub
flatpak install netease-cloud-music-gtk

# install 3d printer slicer - cura
flatpak install flathub com.ultimaker.cura

# or you can search apps from flathub
flatpak search <keyword>
# search on website is also supported: https://flathub.org/

How to create & managage VM from this flake?

use aquamarine as an example, we can create a virtual machine with the following command:

# 1. generate a proxmox vma image file
nom build .#aquamarine  # `nom`(nix-output-monitor) can be replaced by the standard command `nix`

# 2. upload the genereated image to proxmox server's backup directory `/var/lib/vz/dump`
#    please replace the vma file name with the one you generated in step 1.
scp result/vzdump-qemu-aquamarine-nixos-23.11.20230603.dd49825.vma.zst root@192.168.5.174:/var/lib/vz/dump

# 3. the image we uploaded will be listed in proxmox web ui's this page: [storage 'local'] -> [backups], we can restore a vm from it via the web ui now.

Once the virtual machine aquamarine is created, we can deploy updates to it with the following commands:

# 1. add the ssh key to ssh-agent
ssh-add ~/.ssh/ai-idols

# 2. deploy the configuration to the remote host, using the ssh key we added in step 1
#    and the username defaults to `$USER`, it's `ryan` in my case.
nixos-rebuild --flake .#aquamarine --target-host aquamarine --build-host aquamarine switch --use-remote-sudo --verbose

# or we can replace the command above with the following command, which is defined in Makefile
make aqua

The commands above will build & deploy the configuration to aquamarine, the build process will be executed on aquamarine too, and the --use-remote-sudo option indicates that we will use sudo on the remote host.

Other Tips

alacritty - Multi-Window on macOS: command + N

Other Interesting Dotfiles

Other dotfiles && docs that inspired me:

NixOS-CN/NixOS-CN-telegram
Tips&Tricks for NixOS Desktop
notwidow/hyprland: hyprland configuration
denisse-dev/dotfiles
notusknot/dotfiles-nix
xddxdd/nixos-config
bobbbay/dotfiles
gytis-ivaskevicius/nixfiles
fufexan/dotfiles
davidtwco/veritas
gvolpe/nix-config
Ruixi-rebirth/flakes
maxbrunet/dotfiles: astronvim with nix flakes.

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