A continuously updated reproducable config for:

• a desktop workstation
• a mail+calendar+web+DNS server running in AWS (edwardh)
• a laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad)
• a router (old DELL Optiplex machine) (gateway)
• a Nix binary cache server running on a Raspberry Pi 5

Where everything about my systems is controlled by NixOS in plenty of detail, making for a perfectly-configured install every time, down to the seconds on the clock!

• Tour
• Desktop Screenshots
• Network Layout
• Want to try it out?
• Installation
• Troubleshooting
• Tasks

Here is an overview of the most important files and folders in my config:

• modules/nixos is the most most important folder, as it contains the core of my configuration (desktop environment/theming, ssh config, git config, zsh config, etc.) as parts that can be included and reused across systems.
• systems contains the individual configurations for each of my systems, importing some of the modules, and adding some per-device extras.
• flake.nix defines the ssh keys used for login across all of my systems, along with the versions of nixpkgs to use, and the files to use for each machine's config.
• custom-packages contains modified versions of existing programs used by me.
• neovim contains lua-based neovim configuration, modified from @a-h's config.

Try out my demo configuration in a virtual machine with Nix! To log in, use the password demo for my user.

nix run nixpkgs#nixos-rebuild -- build-vm --flake .#demo

Just want to see it in-action? Check out this breif demo video.

sudo systemctl start wpa_supplicant
sudo wpa_cli
> add_network
> set_network 0 ssid "your_ssid_here"
> set_network 0 psk "your_password_here"
> enable_network 0
> save_config
> quit

cfdisk /dev/drivename

Now, delete all partitions on the disk and create the new partitions:

• A 525M "EFI System" partition,
• a "Linux Swap" partition,
• and a generic "Linux Filesystem" partition to fill the rest of the disk.

First, format the EFI System partition with FAT:

mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/drivename1

Then, format the swap partition, giving it the label of 'swap':

mkswap -L swap /dev/drivename2

And finally, format the main Linux Filesystem partition with ext4, giving it the label of 'nixos':

mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/drivename3

These drive labels are used by the system config in fileSystems.nix to avoid hardcoding drive UUIDs.

To edit the contents of the disk, it needs to be mounted into a folder. First, mount the main Linux Filesystem:

mount /dev/whatever3 /mnt # Mount root filesystem

Then, mount the boot filesystem:

mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount /dev/whatever1 /mnt/boot # Mount boot partition

Finally, enable the swap:

swapon /dev/whatever2 # Use the swap partition

Generate example configuration as referance.

nixos-generate-config --root ./

Download this repo. This is stored in a tmpfs, so it will be lost on reboot.

nix-shell -p git
git clone https://github.com/headblockhead/nixos.git

Build and install. Set a root password, it can be anything as we will disable direct root in a minute.

cd nixos
nixos-install --root /mnt --flake .#HOSTNAME
reboot

Use a TTY shell to login as root, then set the user password.

passwd headb

Finally, delete the password for the root user and lock the root account.

sudo passwd -dl root
sudo usermod -L root

source: firefox-gnome-theme

curl -s -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rafaelmardojai/firefox-gnome-theme/master/scripts/install-by-curl.sh | bash

gpg --card-edit
> fetch
> quit

Complete the first half of the setup form, then quit when reaching 'generating new key pair'.

gopas clone git@github.com:headblockhead/gopass

Try re-installing the bootloader from installation media. Or move EFI files to generic locations for old BIOSes:

mv /boot/EFI/NixOS-boot /boot/EFI/boot
mv /boot/EFI/boot/grubx64.efi /boot/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi

Try adding nomodeset to the kernel parameters in GRUB.

Switch to the new nixos configuration.

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .# --accept-flake-config

Switch to the new home-manager configuration for the current user.

home-manager switch --flake ".#$USER@`hostname`" 

Deploy the nixos configurations to all machines, without setting the boot-default.

nixos-rebuild test --target-host 172.16.1.1 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#gateway
nixos-rebuild test --target-host 172.16.3.41 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi4-01 --fast
nixos-rebuild test --target-host 172.16.3.42 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi4-02 --fast
nixos-rebuild test --target-host 172.16.3.51 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi5-01 --fast
nixos-rebuild test --target-host 172.16.3.52 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi5-02 --fast
nixos-rebuild test --target-host 172.16.3.53 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi5-03 --fast
nixos-rebuild test --target-host edwardh.dev --use-remote-sudo --flake .#edwardh --fast

Deploy the nixos configurations to all machines, setting the boot-default.

nixos-rebuild switch --target-host 172.16.1.1 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#gateway
nixos-rebuild switch --target-host 172.16.3.41 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi4-01 --fast
nixos-rebuild switch --target-host 172.16.3.42 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi4-02 --fast
nixos-rebuild switch --target-host 172.16.3.51 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi5-01 --fast
nixos-rebuild switch --target-host 172.16.3.52 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi5-02 --fast
nixos-rebuild switch --target-host 172.16.3.53 --use-remote-sudo --flake .#rpi5-03 --fast
nixos-rebuild switch --target-host edwardh.dev --use-remote-sudo --flake .#edwardh --fast

TODO: replace with power.ups options. Poweroff all lab machines.

ssh 172.16.3.53 'sudo systemctl poweroff' 
ssh 172.16.3.52 'sudo systemctl poweroff' 
ssh 172.16.3.51 'sudo systemctl poweroff' 
ssh 172.16.3.42 'sudo systemctl poweroff'
ssh 172.16.3.41 'sudo systemctl poweroff' 
ssh 172.16.1.1 'sudo systemctl poweroff'