My nixos configuration files

Useful links

• NixOS Wiki
• home-manager
• nix community's github
• nixos documentation
• nix package search engine

Initial install

Set keyboard layout for azerty

loadkeys fr

Set larger font if screen is 4K

setfont ter-v32n

If wifi is needed, start wpa_supplicant and connect to wifi

systemctl start wpa_supplicant.service

wpa_cli <<EOF
add_network
set_network 0 ssid "$WIFI_SSID"
set_network 0 psk "$WIFI_PASSWORD"
set_network 0 key_mgmt WPA-PSK
enable_network 0
EOF

Using fdisk, create partitions as follow:

device	start	end	type
/dev/sdx1	2048	+512MB	EFI System
/dev/sdx2	+512MB	100%	Linux LVM

fdisk /dev/sdx
# TODO : see how to do commands with parted

Create a luks volume label as crypted

cryptsetup --label crypted luksFormat /dev/sdx2

Open the luks volume and call it anything (e.g. "cryptlvm")

cryptsetup open /dev/sdx2 cryptlvm

Configure LVM physical volume and main volume group

pvcreate /dev/mapper/cryptlvm
vgcreate $TARGET_HOSTNAME /dev/mapper/cryptlvm

Create LVM volumes

lvcreate -L 50G $TARGET_HOSTNAME -n nix
lvcreate -L 10G $TARGET_HOSTNAME -n home
lvcreate -L 5G $TARGET_HOSTNAME -n root
lvcreate -L 2G $TARGET_HOSTNAME -n swap

Format volumes (create appropriate file system on each)

mkfs.ext4 -L nix /dev/$TARGET_HOSTNAME/nix
mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/$TARGET_HOSTNAME/root
mkfs.ext4 -L home /dev/$TARGET_HOSTNAME/home
mkswap -L swap /dev/$TARGET_HOSTNAME/swap
mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/sdx1

Mount the volumes on the live file system ready for the chroot

mount /dev/disk/by-label/root /mnt
mkdir /mnt/nix
mount /dev/disk/by-label/nix /mnt/nix
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/disk/by-label/home /mnt/home
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/disk/by-label/boot /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/disk/by-label/swap

Generate default configuration

nixos-generate-config --root /mnt

Change minial settings in /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

• uncomment the "networkmanager" line
• choose an hostname
• choose a timezone
• add the first user

users.users.tristan.isNormalUser = true;
users.users.tristan.extraGroups = ["wheel"];

Install the system base

NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE=1 nixos-install

reboot into the new system and login as root

Change my user's password

loadkeys fr
passwd tristan

Log in as tristan

Connect again to the wifi

nmcli device wifi connect "$WIFI_SSID" password "$WIFI_PASSWORD"

Configure channels (ad nixpkgs-unstable for pinning)

sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/release-23.05.tar.gz home-manager
sudo nix-channel --add https://channels.nixos.org/nixos-unstable nixpkgs-unstable
sudo nix-channel --update

Pull my configuration and apply user environnment

nix-shell -p git
git clone https://github.com/0b11stan/nixconfig.git ~/sources/github.com/0b11stan/nixconfig/
cd ~/sources/github.com/0b11stan/nixconfig/
sudo nixos-rebuild switch -I nixos-config=./system/configuration.nix

Todo's

• editor: neovim (config)
• window manager: swaywm (config)
• password manager: password store (config)
• browser: qutebrowser (config)
• terminal: alacritty (config)
• communication: tutanota and signal
• containerization: podman
• use waybar instead of i3status
• find a smart wallpaper
• format markdown files on save
• configure colored man pages
• merge "system" and "user" config ? (see here)
• install and configure swaylock
• install and configure swayidle
• failed password attempts trigger a picture (see this post)
• failed password attempts send the photo to myself (using signal-cli)
• failed password attempts show the picture on the login screen

Credits

• An amazing documentation
• Will T's nixos introduction series
• This reddit comment for packaging workflow