❄️ Ryan4Yin's Nix Config ❄️

My configuration is becoming more and more complex, and it may be difficult for beginners to read it. If you are new to NixOS and want to know how I use NixOS, I would recommend you to take a look at the ryan4yin/nix-config/releases first, checkout to some simpler older versions, which will be much easier to understand.

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

1. NixOS Desktops: NixOS with home-manager, i3, hyprland, agenix, etc.
2. macOS Desktops: nix-darwin with home-manager, share the same home-manager configuration with NixOS Desktops.
3. NixOS Servers: virtual machines running on Proxmox/KubeVirt, with various services, such as kubernetes, homepage, prometheus, grafana, etc.

See ./hosts for details of each host.

Why NixOS & Flakes?

Nix allows for easy-to-manage, collaborative, reproducible deployments. This means that once something is setup and configured once, it works (almost) forever. If someone else shares their configuration, anyone else can just use it (if you really understand what you're copying/refering now).

As for Flakes, refer to Introduction to Flakes - NixOS & Nix Flakes Book

Want to know NixOS & Flaks in detail? Looking for a beginner-friendly tutorial or best practices? You don't have to go through the pain I've experienced again! Check out my NixOS & Nix Flakes Book - 🛠️ ❤️ An unofficial & opinionated 📖 for beginners!

If you're using macOS, check out ryan4yin/nix-darwin-kickstarter for a quick start.

Components

	NixOS(Wayland)	NixOS(Xorg)
Window Manager	Hyprland	i3
Terminal Emulator	Zellij + Kitty	Zellij + Kitty
Bar	Waybar	polybar
Application Launcher	anyrun	rofi
Notification Daemon	Mako	Dunst
Display Manager	GDM	GDM
Color Scheme	Catppuccin	Catppuccin
network management tool	NetworkManager	NetworkManager
Input method framework	Fcitx5	Fcitx5
System resource monitor	Btop	Btop
File Manager	Yazi + thunar	Yazi + thunar
Shell	Nushell + Starship	Nushell + Starship
Music Player	mpd, ncmpcpp, mpc, Netease-cloud-music-gtk	Netease-cloud-music-gtk
Media Player	mpv	mpv
Text Editor	Neovim + DoomEmacs	Neovim + DoomEmacs
Fonts	Nerd fonts	Nerd fonts
Image Viewer	imv	imv
Screenshot Software	flameshot + grim	flameshot
Screen Recording	OBS	OBS
Filesystem & Encryption	tmpfs on /, Btrfs subvolumes on a LUKS encrypted partition for persistent, unlock via passphrase	tmpfs on /, Btrfs subvolumes on a LUKS encrypted partition for persistent, unlock via passphrase
Secure Boot	lanzaboote	lanzaboote

Wallpapers: https://github.com/ryan4yin/wallpapers

Hyprland + AstroNvim + DoomEmacs

I3 + AstroNvim

Neovim

See ./home/base/tui/editors/neovim/ for details.

Emacs

See ./home/base/tui/editors/emacs/ for details.

Secrets Management

See ./secrets for details.

How to Deploy this Flake?

🔴 IMPORTANT: You should NOT deploy this flake directly on your machine :exclamation: It will not succeed. This flake contains my hardware configuration(such as hardware-configuration.nix, Nvidia Support, etc.) which is not suitable for your hardwares, and requires my private secrets repository ryan4yin/nix-secrets to deploy. You may use this repo as a reference to build your own configuration.

For NixOS:

To deploy this flake from NixOS's official ISO image(purest installation method), please refer to ./nixos-installer/

Need to restart the machine when switching between wayland and xorg.

# deploy one of the configuration based on the hostname
# sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#ai_i3
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#ai-hyprland

# deploy via `just`(a command runner with similar syntax to make) & Justfile
# just i3    # deploy my pc with i3 window manager
just hypr  # deploy my pc with hyprland compositor

# or we can deploy with details
# just i3 debug
just hypr debug

For macOS:

# If you are deploying for the first time,
# 1. install nix & homebrew manually.
# 2. prepare the deployment environment with essential packages available
nix-shell -p just nushell
# 3. comment home-manager's code in lib/macosSystem.nix to speed up the first deplyment.
# 4. comment out the proxy settings in scripts/darwin_set_proxy.py if the proxy is not ready yet.

# 4. deploy harmonica's configuration(macOS Intel)
just ha

# deploy fern's configuration(Apple Silicon)
just fe

# deploy with details
just ha debug
# just fe debug

What y'all will need when Nix drives you to drink. (copy from hlissner's dotfiles, it really matches my feelings when I first started using NixOS...)

References

Other dotfiles that inspired me:

• Nix Flakes
  • NixOS-CN/NixOS-CN-telegram
  • notusknot/dotfiles-nix
  • xddxdd/nixos-config
  • bobbbay/dotfiles
  • gytis-ivaskevicius/nixfiles
  • davidtwco/veritas
  • gvolpe/nix-config
  • Ruixi-rebirth/flakes
  • fufexan/dotfiles: gtk theme, xdg, git, media, anyrun, etc.
  • nix-community/srvos: a collection of opinionated and sharable NixOS configurations for servers
• Modularized NixOS Configuration
  • hlissner/dotfiles
  • viperML/dotfiles
• Hyprland(wayland)
  • notwidow/hyprland: This is where I start my hyprland journey.
  • HeinzDev/Hyprland-dotfiles: Refer to the waybar configuration here.
  • linuxmobile/kaku
• I3 Window Manager
  • endeavouros-i3wm-setup: I started using i3 here, and my i3 configuration is also based on it, but made a lot of changes.
  • denisse-dev/dotfiles
• Neovim/AstroNvim
  • maxbrunet/dotfiles: astronvim with nix flakes.
• Misc
  • 1amSimp1e/dots