NixOs

This repo contains the nixos cfg for a few of my systems. It tends to be under heavy development as I am still in the "keep trying things" phase of my Nix learnings. This repo has moved from Gnome -> Pantheon -> Hyprland - > Gnome -> sway -> Hyprland -> Gnome. You see where I am going with this. It "feels" like Gnome is where I plan to stay for some time. I found the user experience to be good, and the OOTB configuration seems to work best. It allows me to stop messing around to a degree and get "back to work."

Which NIX is causing me to fail right now. "back to work." :)

Status

WIP, forever.

Code Flow

• All code under the modules folder is imported via autoimport.nix. The modules folder code is set up with options, which are not used unless you enable the options in your system config.
• themodules are then grouped into suites and enabled there. But can be enabled directly in the system config if you prefer or need a "one-off".
• The suites are then enabled in the archetype, a grouping (i.e., laptop, server, tower, workstation) of suites enabled for a specific system.
• Then archetype on the systems of choice

Example of a system cfg

# Shows using the archetype to enable a laptop and workstation
archetype = {
    laptop.enable = true;
    workstation.enable = true;
  };

    # enable my user of choice
    # Note - still some refactoring in some modules to adjust if you move from a "dustin" user to an additional user or different user
    users.dustin.enable = true;

    # enable the desktop I want to use on this system
    desktops.pantheon.enable = true;

    # enable an app directly vs via an archetype or suite
    apps = {
        syncthing = {
            enable = true;
            host.evo = true;
        };

        # another exaple of direct module use
        desktopFile = {
        enable = true;
        reboot-firmware = true;
        seabird = true;
        beeper = true;
        monokle = true;
        cursor = true;
        spacedrive = true;
        };
    };

Home Manager Useage

• I do use Home Manager, but not in the usual pattern.
• I hated having two different locations to configure the same application if I had to (or wanted to) use base nix and home manager config.
• So, I figured out how to have it all in one file. The modules/desktops/gnome/default.nix have an excellent example of this. In that file you will see:

# Above is traditional NixOS config

##### Home Manager Config options #####
    home-manager.users."${username}" = {
# Everything in here is home-manager config

Secrets

• My secrets just use git-crypt.
• I know about SOPs, etc., but I wanted to be able to make a secret substitution in my code. You can see its use in modules/cli/git/default.nix, such as (I was rendering a config file for a tool):

[openai]
        api_base = "https://api.openai.com/v1"
        api_key = "${secrets.openai.api-key}"
        #model = "gpt-3.5-turbo-16k"
        retries = 2
        proxy = ""

Notes

Espanso

The Espanso service is funny. At times, the service will not start after an update. The fix "seems" to be:

• upgrade the system.
• Unregister the Espanso service with espanso service unregister
• reboot, and let the services.espanso.enable = true; in my config, start the service.

Getting StartupWMClass For Web Apps

Getting the StartupWMClass is a pain in Wayland.

Steps for my setup

• create the base desktop file, and rebuild
• open the app
• enable the looking-glass gnome extension
• open looking glass and go to windows
• take a screenshot of ONLY the class text
• press ctrl-alt-o, and it will run a script to OCR the text from my the screenshot and put the results on my clipboard
• paste it into the desktop file, and rebuild

TODO

• Pantheon

  • small window controls
  • chromium web apps do not launch
  • set my preferred keyboard shortcuts for:
    • going to workspaces
    • closing windows
    • terminal launch
    • 1password
  • no app indicators
  • missing panel until you use Superkey
  • finish adding options to Pantheon for optional config
  • set wallpaper
  • add a screenshot shortcut that accounts for the desktop keyboard
  • set user photo
  • The fingerprint reader seems to want a manual login after locking the laptop. You should be able to use a fingerprint.
  • My screenshot OCR script seems to not work in Pantheon. I need to fix that.
  • VSCode
    • vscode not seeing keyring

• Firefox

  • change FF to be declarative
  • test FF web wrapper

• user name

  • eval where the user name is used and make it a variable

• Test A********