nixdots/guides/installation.md
2024-02-21 21:00:51 +01:00

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# Installation
This is a full NixOS installation guide, from live cd to a working OS.
Once done, you will be left with a complete system, that uses my configuration.
This installation will push to use flakes out of the box, configuration.nix will
only be needed to add support for flakes and rebuild.
## Live ISO
This assumes you've chosen one of the ISO images with a graphical installer, and
followed though with the installation, getting you to a basic NixOS installation.
During this installation, make sure you allow non-free programs, and in the desktop environment selection, pick the option without any DE, we'll get to install that ourselves.
## Set up configuration.nix
First thing you'll need to do is to make your useer account own the
`/etc/nixos` directory. You'll want to do this to allow you to easily manage
your config with git (which is a requirement when using flakes). You can use
system wide git, however it is much more convenient to just leave it to the
user, as you'll have your git configuration there.
```sh
cd /etc/nixos
sudo chmod -R itsdrike:users .
```
Out of the box, NixOS only comes with `nano` editor, so we'll have to use that to edit the `configuration.nix` for the first time.
```sh
nano configuration.nix
```
In there, change the `environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [];` like, and include `git` and `vim`.
After that, let's enable flakes, by adding the following at the end of your `configuration.nix` (but still within the function body - before the last `}`):
```nix
nix = {
package = pkgs.nixUnstable;
extraOptions = ''
experimental-features = nix-command flakes
''
};
```
Now you can save the changes and rebuild the system:
```sh
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
```
## Set up flakes
Now, since a git repository is required for flakes, let's set up git:
```sh
git config --global user.email "itsdrike@protonmail.com"
git config --global user.name "ItsDrike"
```
Now we have 2 options, the first one I'll show will set up my configuration
from this repository. Once done, you will have your system set up in the same
way that I do. In the second option, I will go over a basic setup to create
your own flake.
## Set up with my configuration
Finally, we're ready to migrate to flakes. At this point, you can simply pull this repository
to the `/etc/nixos` directory, to get my setup, like so:
```sh
git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/ItsDrike/nixdots
git branch -M main
git pull origin main
```
## Create your own custom flake
Initialize an empty git repository:
```sh
git init
```
Create a very basic `/etc/nixos/flake.nix`:
```sh
{
description = "ItsDrike's NixOS configuration";
inputs = {
# the version here should match your system.stateVersion in configuration.nix
nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-23.11";
};
outputs = { self, nixpkgs, ...} @ inputs: {
nixosConfigurations = {
nixos = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
system = "x86_64-linux";
modules = [ ./configuration.nix ];
};
};
};
}
```
This flake will still rely on your `configuration.nix`, we will eventually get
to a config which does not need this file, but to make starting out with flakes
simple, we'll do it in this way for now.
Let's add things to git!
```sh
git add flake.nix
git add configuration.nix
git add hardware-configuration.nix
```
Now you can run `sudo nixos-rebuild switch`. Yay, you're now using NixOS in flakes mode!
> [!NOTE]
> If you run the `sudo nixos-rebuild switch` command before adding all of these
> files to git, you will get an error, so it really is a requirement to have
> your configuration in a git repository when you're using flakes.
You can notice that this also created a `flake.lock` file, containing the exact
versions of all of the packages you're using. Let's add this file to git too:
`git add flake.lock`.
And now we're ready to make our first commit:
```sh
git commit -m "Initial commit"
```
## Updating
Over time, to update the software that's installed on your machine, you can use
`nix flake update`, to update your `flake.lock` file, and then `nixos-rebuild
switch`, to get switch your system to the new dependencies.
> [!TIP]
> This replaces the legacy (non-flake) regime's command: `nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade`