EmergentMind's Nix-Config

Where am I?

You're in a rabbit hole.

How did I get here?

The door opened; you got in.

Somewhere between then and now you discovered this cairne in the fog. I hope it is useful in some way. Inspiration, reference, or whatever you're looking for.

This is written perhaps as more of a reminder for myself than it is for you, but then again you could be future me or maybe past me stuck in a strange loop...

$ whoami
error: entity unknown or undefined

Steady...

The way out, is through.

Table of Contents

• Feature Highlights
• Roadmap of TODOs
• Requirements
• Structure
• Adding a New Host
• Secrets Management
• Initial Install Notes
• Troubleshooting
• Acknowledgements
• Guidance and Resources

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Watch NixOS related videos on my (YouTube channel)[https://www.youtube.com/@Emergent_Mind].

Feature Highlights

• Flake-based multi-host, multi-user NixOS and Home-Manager configurations
  • Core configs for hosts and users
  • Modular, optional configs for user and host-specific needs
• Secrets management via sops-nix and a private nix-secrets repo which is included as a flake input
• Automated remote-bootstrapping of NixOS, nix-config, and nix-secrets
• Multiple YubiKey device handling and agent forwarding
• Basic NixOs and Home-Manager build automation recipes

The roadmap of additional features is laid across functionally thematic stages that can be viewed, along with short term objectives, in the Roadmap of TODOs.

Completed features will be added here as each stage is complete.

Requirements

• NixOS 23.11 or later to properly receive passphrase prompts when building in the private nix-secrets repo
• Patience
• Attention to detail
• Persistance
• More disk space

Structure Quick Reference

For details about design concepts, constraints, and how structural elements interact, see the article and/or Youtube video Anatomy of a NixOS Config available on my website.

For a large screenshot of the concept diagram, as well as previous iterations, see Anatomy.

• flake.nix - Entrypoint for hosts and user home configurations. Also exposes a devshell for manual bootstrapping tasks (nix develop or nix-shell).
• hosts - NixOS configurations accessible via sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#<host>.
  • common - Shared configurations consumed by the machine specific ones.
    • core - Configurations present across all hosts. This is a hard rule! If something isn't core, it is optional.
    • disks - Declarative disk partition and format specifications via disko.
    • optional - Optional configurations present across more than one host.
    • users - Host level user configurations present across at least one host.
  • genoa - stage 3
  • ghost - stage 4
  • grief - Lab - Qemu VM
  • gooey - stage 5
  • guppy - Remote Install Lab - Qemu VM
  • gusto - Theatre - Asus VivoPC - 1.5GHz Celeron 1007U, 4GB RAM, onboard Intel graphics
• home/<user> - Home-manager configurations, built automatically during host rebuilds.
  • common - shared home-manager configurations consumed the user's machine specific ones.
    • core - Home-manager configurations present for user across all machines. This is a hard rule! If something isn't core, it is optional.
    • optional - Optional home-manager configurations that can be added for specific machines. These can be added by category (e.g. options/media) or individually (e.g. options/media/vlc.nix) as needed. The home-manager core and options are defined in host-specific .nix files housed in home/<user>.
• lib - Custom library used throughout the nix-config to make import paths more readable.
• modules - Custom modules to enable special functionality for nixos or home-manager oriented configurations.
• nixos-installer - A stripped down version of the main nix-config flake used exclusively for generating ISOs and during installation of NixOS and nix-config on hosts.
• overlays - Custom modifications to upstream packages.
• pkgs - Custom packages meant to be shared or upstreamed.
• vars - Custom variables used throughout the nix-config. Most of the variables are focused on the primary user across all hosts.
• scripts - Custom scripts for automation, including remote installation and bootstrapping of NixOS and nix-config.

Secrets Management

Secrets for this config are stored in a private repository called nix-secrets that is pulled in as a flake input and managed using the sops-nix tool.

For details on how this is accomplished, how to approach different scenarios, and troubleshooting for some common hurdles, please see my article and accompanying YouTube video NixOS Secrets Management available on my website.

Acknowledgements

Those who have heavily influenced this strange journey into the unknown.

• FidgetingBits - You told me there was a strange door that could be opened. I'm truly grateful.
• Misterio77 - Structure and reference.
• Ryan Yin - A treasure trove of useful documentation and ideas.
• Mic92 and Lassulus - My nix-config leverages many of the fantastic tools that these two people maintain, such as sops-nix, disko, and nixos-anywhere.
• VimJoyer - Excellent videos on the high-level concepts required to navigate NixOS.

Guidance and Resources

• Official Nix Documentation
  • Best practices
• NixOS & Flakes Book - Ryan Yin gets a second mention here. This book he's writing is fantastic.
• Impermanence
• Yubikey
  • https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Yubikey
  • DrDuh YubiKey-Guide

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