My nixos flake

This is my nixos configuration.

Installation

To install either run the following script, or follow the instructions.

curl https://gitlab.com/SpoodyTheOne/nixos-config/-/raw/master/install.sh -o install.sh
sudo chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

Disko partitioning

Finding your disk

run lsblk to find the name of your drive. In my case it was /dev/nvme0n1 but other names it can have are /dev/sd[a-z] or /dev/vd[a-z] if you are installing on a virtual machine.

Acquire disko config

run

curl https://gitlab.com/SpoodyTheOne/nixos-config/-/raw/master/modules/disko/disko-luks.nix -o /tmp/disko.nix

to download the latest version of my disko config

Run disko partitioning

This will run my disko config and partition your disk.

Warning

This command will erase all data on the chosen disk. Make sure you partition the correct disk and that you've backed up anything important on it

The command to run the config is

sudo nix --experimental-features "nix-command flakes" \
run github:nix-community/disko -- \
--mode disko /tmp/disko.nix \
--arg device '"<YOUR DISK HERE>"' \
--arg swap-size '"<eg. 8G>"'

Note

The swap size can be any number suffixed with the standard K,M,G for gigabytes and such.

During the installation you will be prompted for a password. This is the password used for unencrypting your disk every time you boot. You will be prompted twice, once to lock it, and then again to unlock it.

The device will now be mounted on /mnt and should contain the following structure

• /persist
• /boot
• /nix

Generate configuration

You need to generate the hardware-configuration.nix file for your system. To do this run

sudo nixos-generate-config --no-filesystems --root /mnt

This will generate a folder called /mnt/etc/nixos with the hardware configuration file in it.

Next step is to move hardware-configuration.nix into /tmp and then clone the git repo to /etc/nixos

nix-shell -p git                                                                # For the git command
sudo mv /mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix /tmp                          # Move configuration away
sudo rm -rf /mnt/etc/nixos                                                      # Nuke config folder so we can clone
sudo git clone https://gitlab.com/SpoodyTheOne/nixos-config.git /mnt/etc/nixos  # Clone config

Configuring config

Start by replacing the bootstrap hosts hardware-configuration with your own

# Move hardware configuration
sudo mv /tmp/hardware-configuration.nix /mnt/etc/nixos/hosts/bootstrap
# go to /etc/nixos
cd /mnt/etc/nixos
# Add hardware configuration to git for nix to recognize it
sudo git add .

Configure users

Go to /mnt/etc/nixos/flake.nix and change the config for the bootstrap host disko module to have the same settings you used for setting up your disk.

sudo vim /mnt/etc/nixos/flake.nix

Install

Now that everything is configured run

# Copy configuration to permanent storage so its not nuked on reboot
sudo cp -r /mnt/etc/nixos /mnt/persist
sudo nixos-install --root /mnt --flake /mnt/etc/nixos#bootstrap

to install everything and then reboot.

After reboot

After the reboot you will be prompted for your disk password. After inputting it the system will boot as normal.

Once booted log in using the user bootstrap and the password 1234.

Next step, modify the bootstrap host configuration to enable impermanence and change the user and password. Then rebuild and reboot

cd /persist/nixos
sudo vim hosts/bootstrap/configuration.nix

in the config go to imports and uncomment this block

# UNCOMMENT AFTER REBOOT
# Delete unwanted files
# (import ../../modules/disko/delete-on-boot.nix {
#   inherit lib;
#   persistExtraDirectories = [ ];
#   persistExtraFiles = [ ];
# })

Futher down in the file theres a line that says users.users."bootstrap". Modify the string to your desired username and change the following lines in the user

# Generate a password and place the output in a file
mkpasswd > /tmp/passwd

Then in vim read the contenst of the password into the hashedPassword field

:read /tmp/passwd

The end result should look something like this

- initialPassword = "1234";
+ hashedPassword = "$y$j9T$TK08gB8eSmQdGaS2Gfiex/$L2moQMRxYDEiuEeql/MidoQhFBAJC1qnOTx7ChpAOtC"';

Move /persist/nixos/ to /etc/nixos and rebuild. Then the installation will be done

sudo mv -r /persist/nixos /etc

Then rebuild

sudo nix-rebuild switch --flake /persist/nixos#bootstrap
reboot

Don't worry about all the errors that occur during the rebuild. This only happens the first time after switching to impermanence

Post Installation

Once you've installed you're free to create a new host and modify it to your hearts content. You can base it off of my laptop host, it has a lot of nice things

My config includes an alias for rebuilding the system called nix-rebuild for fast iterations

Update

In order to update the flake inputs simply run

cd /etc/nixos
nix flake update