❄️ Ryan4Yin's Nix Config ❄️

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

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!

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

Components

	NixOS(Wayland)	NixOS(Xorg)
Window Manager	Hyprland	i3
Terminal Emulator	Kitty	Kitty
Bar	Waybar	i3block
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	ranger + thunar	ranger + 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	Neovim
Fonts	Nerd fonts	Nerd fonts
Image Viewer	imv	imv
Screenshot Software	grim	flameshot
Screen Recording	OBS	OBS

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

Hyprland + AstroNvim

I3 + AstroNvim

Neovim

See ./home/base/desktop/neovim for details.

Hosts

See ./hosts 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, cifs-mount.nix, Nvidia Support, etc.) which is not suitable for your hardware, and my private secrets repository ryan4yin/nix-secrets that only I have access to. You may use this repo as a reference to build your own configuration.

For MacOS:

# deploy the darwin configuration(harmonicia)
make ha

# deploy with details
make ha-debug

For NixOS:

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

# we can also deploy using `make`, which is defined in Makefile
make i3    # deploy my pc with i3 window manager
# make hypr  # deploy my pc with hyprland compositor

# or we can deploy with details
make i3-debug
# make hypr-debug

To deploy this flake from NixOS's official ISO image(purest installation method), please refer to ryan4yin/nix-config/nixos-install

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 all the remote host with tag `@dist-build`
# using the ssh key we added in step 1
colmena apply --on '@dist-build' --show-trace

If you're not familiar with remote deployment, please read this tutorial first: Remote Deployment - NixOS & Flakes Book

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.
• 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