NixOS Is The Power User Distro (Now With An Easy Installer!)
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2025
- NixOS recently had a new release, and it's a big one! Now, NixOS comes with an easy-to-use graphical installer (calamares). This could be a real game changer because the traditional NixOS installation is a barrier to entry for novice NixOS users. So I'm going to try out the new NixOS calamares installer and see if it works!
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There was a checkbox saying "Require strong password" in the installer
NICE! My one complaint about the installer has already been solved! :D
A better UI design might place that checkbox ABOVE the entry fields rather than below it. Because obviously, I hadn't read down that far to see the warning when I get to the password entry. But....depending on how much work would be involved to make that change, it might not be worth it.
@@DistroTube there's an option in calamares build to not have this "strong password" option.
The developers can or not use the config
brain dead moment
You can always change your password to the strong and complicated password of your choice.
@bigmike obama it is, a bug in arch install leaked it once
I use NixOS btw! (and i was involved in the creation of the GUI Installer)
Thanks for covering it!
Great job to you and the Team.
Do you have link to resource for beginners? I’m using Arch but interested in trying out Nix and learn more.
Thanks
@@seanpaul7069 just like arch, the nixOS wiki is amazing
@Fsociety never seen the gentoo wiki. But considering what gentoo is it’s probably good
NixOS basically is another Arch Linux...
@@alphabeta4028 how is that. can you explain?
I know many NixOS users used Arch before, but i think they are very different.
I love that NixOS is getting a graphical installer to make it more approachable. The only thing I'd change to it is to show snippets of Nix code at each step that updates as you change the fields to show what the options will look like once its installed. Just installing the system without showing any of the configuration I don't feel helps people actually get into NixOS as well as they could. Users are going to need to touch the configuration file eventually, so use the installer to people them a taste of it in a safe environment where they can manipulate a more familiar interface to see how it effects the code under the hood. Giving the option to also modify the config file directly could also be a nice bonus, but would be harder to get right.
That's a fantastic idea
Yes, but let's be real. If you're installing NixOS, you know what you're doing. This is not a beginner friendly distro, and I doubt people outside the IT bubble would be able to understand what this OS can do. Worst case they'll try to use it like Ubuntu.
@@victorhf9804 With NixOS the complexity isn't (supposed to be) from knowing the right commands to use from the text prompt. It's how you wish to configure the system. Having a graphical installer is perfectly fine, but it should make sure to introduce them to the configuration language and how various changes they'd want to make map to the text file.
this... super important.
sharex screen recording s/w on windows live shows the change in ffmpeg cli options right as the user is changing things in GUI.
it adds a separate checkbox above that command preview text widget to toggle specifying flags manually.
@@victorhf9804 Well I am one of those who do exist. Aware of why I want/need better than Ubuntu, and not in any IT bubbles. Barely grasping halfway through NixOS explainers, but willing to do my homework.
It's tough. But whatever.
Hey DT, just wanted to let you know that your videos were what pushed me over the edge to switch to Linux. It's been 3 weeks on Manjaro and I wouldn't switch back to Windows if you paid me. Thanks!
Glad to hear you're enjoying it :D It can be rough to transition, as there's quite a few things that are very different, but if you stick to it, it'll pay back in spades.
They pay me and I use it but thanks Microsoft for WSL, with out it I would go crazy or go job hunting!
It''s been several months for me on Linux Mint, beside having to use some Windows exclusive software for university there haven't been any problems, I got around those as well.
DT does a disservice by promoting distros based on first looks. His experience doesn't represent the majority of people that actually used a distro. Manjaro horrible. - Just do a search like "what's wrong with manjaro".
@@madthumbs1564 Manjaro is perfectly fine for your average user, especially a newbie. There is no distro that caters to everyone's preferences.
just letting you know, after doing a nixos-rebuild , you dont have to reboot for your stuff to get installed(it just helps make sure some services gets started correctly.)
Yep if you use switch, it’ll load everything up immediately, if you use reboot, it’ll only apply on reboot
@@huantian i think it's boot to make the generation available on next boot but not this one there's also build which just builds the gen which you could apply later or test test only applies to the current boot without adding itself to the bootloader
sometimes you do tho. for example when you change display-manager, it won't immediately restart the service for obvious reasons
@@marusdod3685 can´t you just log out in that case but why would you even care about the display manager it´s not exactly an important system component you´ll only see it when logged out if you"re logged out you probably just booted into the system anyway
@@genericgamer1319 how else am I supposed to see the changes when I hop to another desktop environemnt
I think, they should probably add a menu to select various apps to install in the calamares installer and also save the configuration option to install same stuff in either different computers or reinstalling purposes.
Thanks DT, you just turned me on to my next 'for fun' bare metal distro I haven't done in awhile. Looks like a cool installation ‼️👍
Thanks for this!!! This video finally got me off my butt and helped to motivate me to install NixOS on one of my older desktop machines. I've been using Nix in Ubuntu for a while now, and I've been looking for an opportunity to deepen my understanding of it all. The graphical installer really helps for someone who's just trying to do this for the first time. I got stuck with some errors that I couldn't understand, until I figured out that UEFI didn't work with NixOS on that machine. When I used "Classic BIOS" instead, installation worked like a charm!
great video, everyone has already said the password thing in the installer but I'm just here to say you don't have to reboot when you change your config! you switch to the new configuration immediately without rebooting. you could immediately go to the terminal and type emacs and run emacs. the issue (and one of my only two issues with nixos) is that the .desktop file entries don't immediately appear in graphical menus for desktop environments until you log out and back in. and even just recaching the .desktop files doesn't do it because they all exist at different paths in the nix store and those paths only get updated when you log back into your DE (my only other issue with nixos is that whenever your DE gets updated it gets restarted without warning). edit: desktop files seem to be getting recached nowadays?? i hadnt noticed when this changed but the first complaint is no longer a thing!!
really glad to see nixos getting more user friendly. I've long said that nixos has the potential to be the most user friendly linux distro and the best distro for noobs and experienced people alike when nix-gui is finished -- it's an ongoing project to write a graphical tool to configure nix, which, i mean, think about it. it would make it so your entire system could be configured from a single consistent and simple graphical tool without editing any files. a new user could get (most of) the power of an experienced user without having to touch an rc file ever, exclusively using drop-downs and checkboxes and text boxes. meanwhile the system just doesn't break. nixos has a LOT of potential to become very broadly popular and im excited.
Declarative system configuration is the future.
My present :)
This
NixOS is really a different beast. It is THE distribution for power users. I am quite happy with it. But I have to agree there is a steep learning curve but once you are past it, it is better than any other, in my experience.
It limits you inside the Nix ecosystem, but Nix is just so powerful it doesn't matter, it even becones a good thing.
Not sure about that myself. Easier for power users who have'nt wrote custom scripts that can already do all that stuff anyways. Good package manager though.
@@krozarequnless you literally wrote NixOS, no you can’t do everything with a few scripts 😂
Am I going to compliment this fan boy's video? Yes I am. Great job. Fascinating diestro and we'll presented on your part, DT
Great video, DT! I never heard about Nix before and this made me consider trying it out!
Thanks for sharing this. This is one of the few I haven't tested yet. So far it's really interesting. Installing a version right now :)
thank you for spreading the word on NixOS, DT!
u should have given a try to Kate, since it was pre-installed. I'd been curious to see its sudo integration and in general how much has it improved, when I last saw it 2 decades ago :)
I was even surprised by nano having syntax highlighting :)
also, if you show nix-env -i, that's a good gateway for ppl who are used to the mutation-based approach
You don't need to reboot after nixos rebuild switch, it automatically switches you into the new config
i wonder how many ppl don't know this, i had no clue lol
thanks i was just wondering about this
This is true for everything except for the kernel, at least from what I can tell. It doesn't seem to switch the kernel.
To an extent. You'd still have to reboot to activate a new kernel.
NixOS is single-handedly the smartest approach to any OS I've ever experienced. It gives you a rolling-based possibility while removing the "broke computer before meeting due to update" kind of stuff. This thing is nuts.
Nixos is a good learning OS, cause it allows the user to play with the config. This is really cool almost like an app where you play with the preference.
Kudos to the team for getting calamaris
10:58
i do not think spacing matters for syntax. but its much easier to read with consistent spaces
12:56
You do not have to reboot for most things
installing software will work in the same boot
But sometimes the application menus will not update with the new applications
so i kill lxqt-panel and restart the panel
there are also other switches on nixos-rebuild
nixos if you want to really use it, you really need to read the manual for because you will just get upset when your normal programs built for a FHS linux will fail to run
Just be understanding that nixos does not use FHS (there are tools to emulate it)
yep
its a list basically
so ig it does not matter if its a newline or intend
What does FHS in FHS linux means ?
@@Winnetou17 Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, i.e the proper standard where all the config files(placed in usr), libs(placed in usr/lib), binaries(/bin) , etc are stored in their respective directories
wherease nixos follows a different structure where all packages are stored in nix store under their own sub root...something like that
@@drishalballaney Got it, thanks!
Favourite linux content based youtuber👍
Wow, thanks!
I second this sentiment.
I love Nix. So happy to see it getting love lately
12:55. Most changes don't actually require a reboot. Applications and services should be ready when the rebuild is done
2 minutes into the video, and NixOS sounds very nice. This is my first time hearing of it.
It is!
You should also hear of something called GNU Guix, just saying.
@@haidermirza192 guix is nix but better
A "dictionary check" scans a list of most used passwords, a password dictionary, that hackers use to brute force a password. Its called a "dictionary attack".
A brute force attack literally tries every possible combination of characters until it finds the correct password. A dictionary attack is not that, it's a very limited set of possibilities that is sometimes successful, but not always, and doesn't take a lot of time to complete (either successfully or unsuccessfully). A brute force attack always finds the solution if you let it run long enough.
Nick did a really good job with this OS
:rimshot:
You convinced me that anything Arch is the only way to live. This video feels like treason.
NixOS is a step past Arch. Arch teaches you the fundamentals. NixOS makes you productive. Lets you easily recover the system, isolate your projects, packages. Automatically collects junk. Syncs many hosts. There are so many good reasons to use NixOS. Specially for PU.
Arch is still a much better choice for desktop use
@@lambdanil I’ve been using nix OS for 3 years on my main desktop. Prior to that I used arch for 2 years. Nix OS is far superior to arch For desktop use IMO
@@SuperHeroINTJ does it have good wiki/documentation and community support?
@@rizkyadiyanto7922 the community support is great with the discord being open at all times for support and questions
the docs are good-ish but since the community isn't large and there's so much that can/should be done with nix that I often find myself running into walls where the docs are too outdated or what I'm doing is too fringe for there to be anything on it, tdlr they're usable but don't compare to how thorough arch's are
I have recently tried linux again (from windows), because of some friends on my coding discord server mentioning nixos.
And i have to say, at least if u understand a bit of programming, writing the configuration and all that kind of makes a difference for me.
I have had problems with killing my Bootloader, even now i still sometimes kill my bootloader, yet with nixos it's like no issue what-so-ever, since my configuration is already in one single space.
Literally the only reason i tried linux again, and i think i couldn't be happier with any other distribution.
@Benign Dunno. Grub just dies on me after updates / upgrades from time to time..
@Benign no.
Oh my god, this makes it SO much easier to re-install compared to Arch! With Arch I constantly needed to write-down all the apps I want to keep in a text file on my phone, and retype paragraphs worth of apps every time I'd re-install Arch on a different machine.
This is convincing me to try NixOS whenever I get the chance.
man, been using arch lately because of it's archinstall command, so practical. I wish there was something like that for gentoo. also need to edit my configuration.nix, some months ago i installed NixOS on my laptop, enjoyed it, very nice distro.
Nice video, unfortunately I don't have time to try these distros myself so your videos are a live saver
6:37 LMAO, you know he is watching, he 'was' your biggest fan!
I've been wondering when you would dive into NixOS. Now I don't have to wonder any more!
I looked at NixOS in previous videos. Actually, the laptop you see in the background on many of my videos (my cmatrix server) runs NixOS.
@@DistroTube cmatrix server
This distro is awesome. It just took me a few minutes to setup samba share from a fresh install.
That one moment when DT really put in a "Strong and Complicated Password" :rofl:
That rollback feature at the grub menu looks really interesting and useful.
Love your DT content ... and you almost managed to talk me out of even trying NixOS given what seemed like your struggles with its nanny-state password enforcement (before reading posted comments here that suggest it's not really required after all with check box).
But I have tried repeatedly to do a live install using a USB smart card (8 gig) created through Etcher (that has no problem performing in this capacity for EndeavourOS) yet fails to get past "Stage 1" installation with NixOS. Just gets stuck asking for me to do unclear steps in root manual mode without providing any useful info.
So I'm giving up for now. Clearly I'm missing something. Not an expert in Linux, but certainly not a noob...
I guess I'd be a lot more motivated if I actually had problems with Arch + i3 ( = awesome) but I have not suffered from any of these "breakages" that seem to plague others ... either lucky or perhaps it's all that clean living? ;-)
Tell me a grandma could even install windows. Grandma would probably forget her strong and complicated password.
I’ve been using nixos for about a month now on you know I eventually plan to switch over to a tiling window manager, but right now I’m trying to learn nix
I would like to see a follow-up with home-manager. Nice video.
Hey DT, besides reproducible builds and backup configurations, (both of which can be achieved using a custom made Arch install script and timeshift on btrfs [though not the same]) what are some other benefits of NixOS over something like Arch?
Using guix, just not caring about dependencies. Guix and nix basically install software with all the dependencies it needs and remove them when you uninstall it.
@@florianfelix8295 I think I can have a similar effect if I stick to using Flatpaks and Appimages... or even Snaps
@@technomatic6285 but that’s only for apps and guix/nix are not containers. They are transparent systems that allow easy modification of packages.
Just imagine uploading these configuration file onto multiple systems and creating identical systems in minutes
I tend to buy second-hand computers so having a reproducible environment is really great, going to start playing around with nixOS soon. Thanks for the overview!
I honestly think that nixos is the endgame distro and that even at the peak of your Linux knowledge you should be on nixos
nixos is easily the most innovative distro and really introduces a new paradigm to linux
really the only reasons to not use nix are that you don't have the experience for it and that you REALLY hate systemd
The endgame distribution is GNU Guix - it doesn't use systemd.
@@maxsievers8251 Gentoo doesn't use systemd as well as Void and the list goes on.
@@olexp9017 I think Gentoo with their compile your own software and choose your own own init is truly the end game distro.
@@flow5718 don’t see why uncomfortability is end game. Though I’d like guix to provide more init systems (not gonna happen), it also provides another kernel though… ;)
@@florianfelix8295 I was thinking more like the ultimate distro that can be anything the user wants it to be. Gentoo and LFS fits the bill there.
One thing I love about Nix the language is that white space indentation doesn't actually matter.
Thanks again for another informative vid.
One strong argument you could make for NixOS is, if you had trouble installing it without the installer, you probably should skip it. It's quite different from other distro's and to get the most out of it you will need to learn the Nix language, how to use nix-shell, etc. Just a basic install is nice to get started but you can get stuck easily after that if you didn't read any of the documentation.
The script based CLI installer is really nice and has never been a roadblock for me. Combined with the module system it makes the installation easier than, say, Arch, even the first time.
IMO what Calamares is gonna do is make more people stop using Nix after installing it than before. Still a welcome change of course.
Also all configs and stuff is in a different location so you can't use the glorious arch & Gentoo wikis
@@spicynoodle7419 you kinda can, but you have to translate it in the langauge of the modules, ie. spend a lot of time reading nixpkgs source code.
@@akkesm exactly, so an easy installer won't help at all.
the arch linux installer is best installer i ever seen, you are right, NixOS requires lot of reading, but it is worth it.
I really like what NixOS is offering here with reproducibility and I strongly believe this crucial feature it has will be eventually adopted by the major Linux distros out there. I would also recommend NixOS folks to work on the GUI edit manager of the config file, which will help people to quickly and easily modify and edit their specific configuration with the option to go deeper into the command/syntax line.
Thank u for making this vid!
A GUI configuration creator for NixOS would probably look a lot like the Windows deployment manager used in enterprise to create unattended install config files. And I would love that.
On paper it sounds like the best thing since sliced bread, but in practice it is really complicated and doesn't give me even the slightest clue to what is going on - or rather why it is failing to do stuff. Particularly after install it just drops me into a text login, and after login, it's a blinking cursor and that's it.
Great Video DT. Loved it.
NixOS is the Docker for desktop linux
Did that say 2x 12-core threadripper at 8:20 ? Or am I seeing that wrong?
Seems better than DT's experience with GNU Guix 😂
I have a lot of failed installs on NixOS, where some random stuff I don't understand is missing.
You can ask for help in Discourse or Matrix or even Telegram.
it also has active discord community, which is pretty responsive
How about during the setup using the graphical interface it has list of applications to add to the install or remove from the install like in old windows setup. Maybe even an option to install from media some programs for offline installs. Maybe a search function for compatible repositories. The scripting for the install looks simple enough to use and would help for mass installs or restore drives. I would of loved this for my Mint XFCE with Twister UI.
Seems very interesting! Are you able to copy the configurations.nix file into the usb drive that you boot from, so you can have the exact same software? Can you install packages in ways other than adding them to the config file?
Nix does allow for reproduced systems in that way and home manager can do most of your dot files in the home directory. The nix package manager can be run similar to pacman or apt. Sudo nix -iA name-of-package. I love it for quick deployment. You can also use flatpak if need be.
what a brilliant idea.
One thing to keep in mind is that it does require some learning. It uses its own declarative language and its file structure is different from a standard Linux system. I chose to learn it because it is useful for my needs, but it is nice for redeployment.
@@chrisheater4118 how fast could you be up and running on any computer (that allows booting from usb) with your preferred packages, desktop environment, etc?
@@Anonymous4045 Not counting the internet, i would say around ~5 minutes using flakes.
Imagine people uploading their config files and people could just copy paste that and install nixOS. I also think that's the future.
Thank you for another great video. I've been using nixos for few months when I saw nice introduction on this channel. It was great experience in the beginning, but I went back to Arch because of aur and some configurations that I just didn't know how to set without knowing nix. Nixos is very interesting distro but Arch is still my favorite.
Nano did some basic syntax highlight while vim did not. That's some extra points for nano.
For vim, it is just :syntax on, that's it. You can put that into the vimrc through nixos vim_configurable. I have yet to try out home-manager or flake so I put those things in system config.
So hey DT, you mentioned NetworkManager is a good thing to use all the time (and I agree), and was playing around with DTOS on a vm. So two questions: 1) Got a recommended solution for DTOS? (or just whatever? Usually I go blueberry on this, but LinuxMint sounds like they're moving away from it) and 2) DTOS on NixOS when? (kidding.. kind of..)
I am hoping you decide to switch from Arch to NixOS (not sure how DTOS would work under NixOS). I have been living in Nix for a couple of days now and it's slick but a tad bit confusing when it comes to home-manager and flakes. But still a strong contender to replace Arch.
I take a glance at dtos and some of the stuff are not doable. Just think of this simple thing, how can you revert those changes? You can't easily. So for nixos, some of the options from dtos are available and you can look them up on nixpkg options. Think of that dtos script as a manual rather than a run and forget
Glad you changed your mind about NixOS
BTW, I use NixOS! I love nixos-hardware channel, makes it really easy to get sketchy hardware like GPD Pocket 3 to work without any issues.
It’s what it always needed. Impressive!
It would be nice to get as suckless as possible distro (like void) combined with a source based nature and high configurability (like gentoo) with a package manager similar to Nix and ability to run your own builds on a third party server using your very own config so you get an optimised build "for free".
Bedrock
You could use Nix package manager on Gentoo.
@@bigpod Of course any distro can use the packages built from sources and even more - every package has been compiled from a source. But you know what I mean - the flexibility of Gentoo in this regard is unbeatable.
@@folksurvival Sure, but I have doubts it can replace portage.
Nix/nixpkgs/nixos as an idea is pretty good, the implementation and the project itself is at most an academic toy. The benefit is having an almost monolingual, somewhat testable codebase seems to be worth it. And it's easier to package and build stuff, compared to arch.
a very interesting distro. I might have to give it a go. Thanks, DT!
Great idea. Why not use a heterogeneous configuration manager like Terraform to deploy your OS?
A little fast for my old man brain - but I'm going to give Nix another shot - in a VM of course. - But I sure wish they had a Wimpy User widget like Garuda / Endeavor have - where a user can pre- choose all the packages at install. Nevertheless - its an impressive ISO.
motoko works upon nix, thats how u know a distro is truly supreme
tbh there are some reasons I dont really use nixos...for eg its not that easy to manually compile software for eg dwm
you have to use stuff like overlays and all that to get dwm working
then again if incase you mess up the dwm config and want to rebuild it again it becomes a PITA because patch command does not work really well with nix
Same thing with say something like building a custom kernel
Also the package downloads can become INSANELY large specially on unstable repos, for eg on NixOS package downloads went as much as 4gb after 3-4 days whenever the updates were pushed out
Then again since it uses different ways to manage dependencies the base system can also take up a lot of space compared to some lightweight fully FHS distro (like Arch Linux)
Meanwhile on Arch with the similar packages, updating weekly are atmax 1.5gb
Also NixOS afaik has only 1 mirror...so which means if it goes down or the ISP decides to throttle it then rip downloads
(but I still do use Nix Flakes+Home manager on my Arch system for managing my dotfiles)
All the packages you get from nixpkg repo is already tested to work just fine. Overlay is to change things here and there, notably src. With locally compiled softwares, I make sure they compile first before specifying into the configuration (so nix-shell for that environment). One thing you can definitely do is to pin a dwm version rather than patching it. Not sure how nixos would screw up patch from your saying.
Also, nixos is a source based distro, there is no mirror, only binary cache. If you get so so throttled then you can definitely compile those packages from your pc. Don't compile browser though.
I have not worked on any custom kernel but I think there is a way to overlay that just fine.
@@just__khang tbh throttling happens once in a ehile, speeds just suddenly drops once in a while when downloading but speedtest shows perfectly fine speeds of 100mbps
Hi can't you do your uploads on rumble as well. Is it a lot of extra work?
Haha loved that nix made dt change his usual strong and complicated password 😂😂😂
I haven't tried NixOS yet, but I can't help but wonder if it has anything resembling a "configuration.nix.d" or "configuration workspaces" of some kind. That is, small, temporary overrides and additions you could layer onto the base config depending on the specific task you wanna do at the moment. This would be good to keep extra software and development packages you don't use frequently out of the system when you don't need them, while still being able to reenable those changes easily and on the spot when you need them, or being able to multiboot several mostly-identical configurations that only differ slightly for things like VFIO. This could allow to keep systems incredibly lean and bloat-free for most of their runtime.
u can also install pkgs normally like on other distros, there is nix-shell which let's u use pkgs without installing them as long as u don't close your shell
I thought a power user distro would make it as hard as possible to filter out noobs 🤣
Great for a strong server. Oddly enough what Longhorn was supposed to have been.
im confused - so can you install stuff outside of the config, but the config is just for installing an OS all in 1 go with your core apps? cool stuff!
Yes you can install stuff outside of your config. But it is better to install it in your config if you are committed to the stuff. Eg, you are using alsa utils, if you have alsa utils specified in the config file and also installed in your environment (not systemwide) then your pc will confuse of which one to use and you will encounter some edge case errors. If you are really into using a different alsa version then it is sort of possible but not practical.
you can do more than just install an os in one go, you can config many of those apps too.
I have almost all of my system configuration contained in one text file.
everything from my entire sway config to the kernel modules I need to the custom css I use for Firefox can be installed in one command to another pc from my nixos config file
Nice video!
Thanks! :D
a lot of people can't install windows themselves (I know, since I've had to install windows for a lot of people)
Nix is so wonderful and I love neovim so much. I am just wandering install all my config in nix container and port it everywhere with zero configuration. But I cannot use the project env with a batch of python package install. How can I use the nvim in nix container as well as the env in host machine or other container? Do you have any suggestion?
I'm using pure arch, but the thought of re-installing arch and opening up the wiki to get my configs back in order and updated is always such a daunting task. Just not enough time in the week. I don't want to go through the wiki anymore; just want to get stuff done. Using Calamares is nice, but the challenge is that what happens when Calamares doesn't have software that you need? Or say I want to switch to a DE vs WM, and then I need different packages, and have to remember where I put my list of software for that setup.
I believe NixOS is the middle ground to really blend the best of both worlds. One config file to get a reproducible system, or maybe two or three config files total to get the different flavors of Linux that I want to work. It does sound amazing. I'm going to give this a spin in a VM as well!
I believe arch should evolve to adopt this style of installation. Feed it one single, easy-to-use & read config file, and build the system entirely off of that.
IMO it's impossible for Arch to imitate NixOS. What you don't see in the config file is the enourmous module system that makes it all work. And Home Manager for user configs, that's a separate thing. And flakes only add complexity.
Oh and you don't normally use a single file, this video barely scrathes the surface. A typical NixOS dotfiles git repo is modularized, configures multiple machines and can configure multiple users.
@@akkesm or you can be completely insane like me and put it all in one 900 line file for increased portability and simplicity
@@nilnailscrew4784 wtf
@@nilnailscrew4784 HOW
@@drishalballaney home manager and all my pure nixos stuff in my configuration.nix
then via home manager i set up my wm config and my (incredibly simple) eww bar along with my firefox config
i still want to declaratively define doom emacs, my cursor (not in nixpkgs) and my betterdiscord config but i can't figure out how
It comes with 5.15 LTS currently... yes the one with serious issues with Alder Lake processors. It seems easy to update to 6.0 however. and 6.1 LTS is coming possibly before February 2023
Is there any terminal/command line installation method like ArchLinux for nixOS base installs?
EDIT: Oh, I'm referring to a untar kinda install, I know nix has like a...Terminal install script of sorts?
It is just one configuration file and internet connection.
You do partition, copy one configuration file, run one command, run for your pc to compile (which is just some part because there are binary cache on nixos server)
@@just__khang
Oh they store the "tarball" on their server?
Hope they release it somehow on other places in case they go down
@@uuu12343 not exactly "tarball", moreso binary cache. Because nixos is reproducible, if your build signature matches whatever they have on their server, you could choose to download that binary instead of compiling, because it eventually is what you have so you don't need to use some computing power. You can choose to compile it on your own tho if you want to.
@@just__khang
I see
That's interesting, gotta read more about it
Feels like a rabbit hole as deep as Gentoo
anybody else notice a slight thump (not loud) like DT is tapping his filter screen?
Hey DT. I really want to give Nixos a try on my production machine to test hardware, printer, scanner,etc so I hope you show us how we can dual boot Nixos with archlinux.
You could test it in the live environment of the Installer.
nixos seems to me almost more like a more skid-esque version of gentoo
It is more than gentoo because of the build signature shtick where you won't need to compile the same package (that other users might have) because the nixos server might already have that exact build for you.
I used Gentoo for years but I hated it so much for their ebuild syntax and chunky build system.
14:31 why aint this syntax highlighted in vim, while it is in nano 10:13 ?
I chose " install alongside " and it keeps failing . obviously user error but I don't know what I'm doing wrong., ??
my grandma wouldn't install nixos, she is using arch btw.
Way to go, granny!
DT who did you watch on youtube about linux, back when you first started. GVDT
So you need to reboot after every package installation?
no, u don't
3 questions:
Where is Nixos grabbing packages from?
Can you specify stable vs nightly build for a package
Can I tell it to grab a config file from a Git repo and put it in my home directory (e.g. .vimrc or .bashrc)?
nixos is grabbing packages from the nix repos
by installing the unstable repos you can then declare any packages you want to be installed from those repos, you can even have them at the same time as the versions from stable!
and I'm pretty sure you can do the last one although in my experience it's easier just copy pasting it into the file itself and using the file create command to make the file
> Where does Nix get its packages from
Nix's package definitions are in the Nixpkgs repository. The Nix package definitions typically download + build from the source code of whatever project; but for some Nix packages, the Nix package will download a release binary. With Nix, building from source should result in the same behaviour as downloading a built Nix package from somewhere else. Nix does have servers which cache most of the Nixpkgs packages.
> Can you specify stable vs nightly build for a package
Nix is very expressive. You can do all sorts of things. However, the Nix community isn't (yet) large enough to have an LTS set of nixpkgs.
> Can I tell it to grab a config file from a Git repo and put it in my home directory (e.g. .vimrc or .bashrc)?
There's a relatively popular project called "Home Manager" which does this sort of thing. I use it just to symlink my dotfiles. I think it's more difficult than it's worth until you're familiar with Nix, unless you're just copy-pasting someone else's config.
Whether it has a graphical installer or not, I really can't recommend someone who doesn't have experience with some sort of programming. Installing is relatively easy compared with Gentoo. But using the NixOS as your daily driver needs a huge understanding of the Nix language. I had to read Nix Pills (huge Nix language documents) few times to fully understand Nix itself. I start using NixOS for months now, but I still don't have the confidence I had in Gentoo. Especially if you’re someone who uses suckless software, you’ll find huge pain while using NixOS.
The only problem I have is that my configs get stuck in feature creep! 😅
I've been trying to install it using virt-manager, but my virt-manager appears to not want to connect to the Internet at the moment. T_T
4:28 ... there is a checkbox bellow it for requiring a strong password that is on by default
This nixOS looks very appealing, but not sure if I'm ready to jump off fedora.
Thank you DT
Please make a video about how to install dwm on nixOS
No need to use nano even for the first edit of the config file, since you can use vim from a nix-shell.
You finally found an installer to have u behave yourself with the password ^_^