This is a beginners guide to setting up a NixOS system using flakes.

Why this flake?

• I'm offering the best structure from real world experience.

When you checkout someone else's flake or want to modify your own, it should make sense where things are.

This flake assumes you already have NixOS installed and are ready to transition to flakes, home manager is included.

Benefits of using flakes include:

• Version locking
• Mix stable & unstable with ease
• Compatable with third party modules
• True reproducability

2 desktops & 2 profiles are provided to begin with.

Structure

┌─ modules
│  ├─ apps
│  ├─ commands
│  └─ desktop
└─ profile
    ├─ home
    └─ workstation

Import flow

┌─ flake.nix                (Start)
├─ compose.nix              (Common code)
├─ profile/
│  └─ home/
│     ├─ configuration.nix  (Select your modules)
│     └─ hardware.nix
└─ modules/
   ├─ apps/
   │  └─ software.nix       (Package list)
   ├─ commands/
   │  ├─ software.nix       (Package list)
   │  └─ shell.nix
   └─ desktop/
      └─ gnome.nix          (Your desktop)

---

Setup

git clone https://github.com//fndov/flake-template ~/.flake && rm -rf ~/.flake/.git

cp /etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix ~/.flake/profile/home/hardware.nix
cp /etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix ~/.flake/profile/workstation/hardware.nix

Set your username.

nano ~/.flake/flake.nix

Specify your drive type (scroll to the bottom)

nano ~/.flake/compose.nix

Set your password, use this to get the hash

mkpasswd -m sha-512 <password>

Place the output in hashedPassword = "";

nano ~/.flake/compose.nix

Rebuild & reboot to be safe, or just switch.

sudo nixos-rebuild boot --flake ~/.flake#home

---

Commands

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake ~/.flake#home

nixos-rebuild has a few options:

• switch : switches to the new configuration immediately
• boot : builds the next generation but does not switch until reboot
• dry-run : only evaluates the code to see if it works
• test : switches to the new generation but does not save it to the boot menu

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake ~/.flake#home --rollback

Rolls back to the previous generation.

sudo nix-collect-garbage

Deletes all previous generations so you don't run out of space.

sudo nix flake update --flake ~/.flake#home

Update system.

nix-shell -p cowsay

Installs software to the shell (not the system) and is discarded when the shell (terminal) is closed.

Important links:

How to setup NVIDIA
Copy paste to compose.nix and add config to { settings, ... }: => { settings, config, ... }:

  hardware.nvidia.open = false;
  hardware.nvidia.package = config.boot.kernelPackages.nvidiaPackages.production;
  boot.blacklistedKernelModules = [ "nouveau" ];
  services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "nvidia" ];
  boot.kernelParams = [
    "nvidia_drm"
    "nvidia_modeset"
    "nvidia_uvm"
    "nvidia-drm.fbdev=1"
    "nvidia"
  ];

NixOS packages

NixOS options

Home manager options