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NixOS and dotfiles

Personal NixOS and Home Manager configuration with support for multiple machines and private secrets management.

Table of Contents

Overview

This is a flake-based NixOS configuration repository that manages both system-level (NixOS) and user-level (Home Manager) configurations. It supports multiple machines and includes custom modules, packages, and overlays.

Key Features

  • Flake-based configuration - Modern Nix flakes for reproducible builds

  • Multi-machine support - Separate configurations for hyperion (server) and titan (workstation)

  • Home Manager integration - User environment management across NixOS and non-NixOS systems

  • Secrets management - Uses SOPS-nix for encrypted secrets

  • Custom packages - Custom derivations in pkgs/ directory

  • Modular architecture - Reusable NixOS and Home Manager modules

  • Binary caches - Pre-configured Cachix caches for faster builds

  • Multiple desktop environments - Support for GNOME, KDE, i3/Xfce

Repository Structure

.
├── flake.nix              # Main flake configuration
├── flake.lock             # Lock file for flake inputs
├── nixos/                 # NixOS system configurations
│   ├── common.nix         # Common NixOS settings
│   ├── hyperion/          # Server configuration
│   └── titan/             # Workstation configuration
├── home-manager/          # Home Manager configurations
│   └── sylvain/           # User configurations
│       └── x86_64-linux/  # Per-host user configs
├── modules/               # Custom modules
│   ├── nixos/             # NixOS modules (boot, cloud, docker, etc.)
│   └── home-manager/      # Home Manager modules (dev tools, shell, etc.)
├── pkgs/                  # Custom package derivations
├── overlays/              # Nixpkgs overlays
├── lib/                   # Helper functions for flake
├── templates/             # Nix templates (devshell, etc.)
├── shell.nix              # Development shell
└── nixpkgs.nix            # Nixpkgs configuration

Quick Start

Prerequisites

  • NixOS installed or Nix package manager on another Linux distribution

  • Git installed

  • (Optional) GitHub Personal Access Token for private repository access

Fresh NixOS Installation

# Enter a shell with git available
nix-shell -p git

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/scarisey/nixos-dotfiles.git
cd nixos-dotfiles

# Activate flakes feature
nix-shell

# Enable trusted users for binary caches (replace 'sylvain' with your username)
echo "trusted-users = root sylvain" | sudo tee -a /etc/nix/nix.conf && sudo pkill nix-daemon

# Build and activate NixOS configuration (replace 'hostname' with your machine name)
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#hostname

# Build and activate Home Manager configuration
nix run . -- switch --flake .
# OR if home-manager is already in PATH:
home-manager switch --flake .

Non-NixOS Systems

For Home Manager on other Linux distributions:

# Clone and enter the repository
git clone https://github.com/scarisey/nixos-dotfiles.git
cd nixos-dotfiles
nix-shell

# Build Home Manager configuration
home-manager switch --flake .

To set zsh as the default shell:

echo "$HOME/.nix-profile/bin/zsh" | sudo tee -a /etc/shells
chsh -s "$HOME/.nix-profile/bin/zsh"

Forking This Repository

Step 1: Fork and Clone

# Fork on GitHub, then clone your fork
git clone https://github.com/YOURUSERNAME/nixos-dotfiles.git
cd nixos-dotfiles

Step 2: Update Personal Information

Edit flake.nix and update:

  • Private repositories: Change private-vault and private-modules URLs to your own (or remove them) - check this repository as an example.

  • Cachix caches: Update or remove the scarisey-public.cachix.org cache

Edit nixos/common.nix:

  • Username: Replace sylvain with your username (lines 26, 42)

  • Timezone: Update time.timeZone (line 30)

  • Locale: Update i18n.defaultLocale (line 33)

  • Keyboard layout: Update console.keyMap (line 35)

  • SSH keys: Replace with your own SSH public keys (lines 47-50)

Edit home-manager/sylvain/common.nix:

  • Username and home directory: Update to match your system (lines 25-26)

Step 3: Create Your Machine Configuration

For NixOS Systems

# Create a new host configuration directory
mkdir -p nixos/mymachine

# Generate hardware configuration
sudo nixos-generate-config --show-hardware-config > nixos/mymachine/hardware.nix

# Create configuration.nix
cat > nixos/mymachine/configuration.nix << 'EOF'
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
  imports = [
    ../common.nix
    ./hardware.nix
  ];

  networking.hostName = "mymachine";

  # Add machine-specific configuration here

  system.stateVersion = "25.05";
}
EOF

For Home Manager Configurations

The repository uses a specific structure: home-manager/USERNAME/SYSTEM/HOSTNAME/home.nix

# Create your user's home configuration
mkdir -p home-manager/youruser/x86_64-linux/mymachine

cat > home-manager/youruser/x86_64-linux/mymachine/home.nix << 'EOF'
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
  imports = [
    ../../common.nix
  ];

  # Machine-specific home configuration

  home.stateVersion = "23.05";
}
EOF

# Create common.nix for your user
cat > home-manager/youruser/common.nix << 'EOF'
{ outputs, inputs, config, ... }:
{
  imports = builtins.attrValues outputs.homeManagerModules
    ++ [ inputs.sops-nix.homeManagerModules.sops ];

  nixpkgs.config = {
    allowUnfree = true;
    allowUnfreePredicate = _: true;
  };

  programs.home-manager.enable = true;
  home.username = "youruser";
  home.homeDirectory = "/home/youruser";

  systemd.user.startServices = "sd-switch";

  home.stateVersion = "23.05";
}
EOF

Step 4: Remove or Adapt Private Modules

If you don’t have private repositories, remove these imports from flake.nix:

# Remove from inputs:
private-vault = { ... };
private-modules = { ... };

And remove references in:

  • nixos/common.nix: Remove inputs.private-modules.nixosModules.privateModules

  • home-manager/sylvain/common.nix: Remove SOPS secrets configuration or adapt to your needs

Step 5: Build and Test

# For NixOS
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#mymachine

# For Home Manager
home-manager switch --flake .

SOPS Secrets Management

This configuration uses SOPS with age for managing secrets.

Setting Up SOPS

Generate Age Key

mkdir -p ~/.config/sops/age
age-keygen -o ~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt

Keep your public key (starts with age1…​) for the next step.

Create Private Vault Repository

You can follow some of the steps below, or take inspiration from this repository as an example.

# Create a new private repository on GitHub
# Clone it locally
git clone https://github.com/YOURUSERNAME/vault.git
cd vault

# Create .sops.yaml configuration
cat > .sops.yaml << 'EOF'
keys:
  - &user1 age1your_public_key_here
creation_rules:
  - path_regex: secrets.yaml$
    key_groups:
      - age:
          - *user1
EOF

# Create secrets file
sops secrets.yaml

Update Flake to Use Your Vault

In flake.nix, change:

private-vault = {
  url = "github:YOURUSERNAME/vault";
};

Update Secrets

On a machine that can already decrypt:

sops updatekeys secrets.yaml

Accessing Private Repositories

To allow Nix to access private GitHub repositories:

  1. Create a Personal Access Token (PAT) on GitHub with repo scope

  2. Configure Nix:

mkdir -p ~/.config/nix
cat >> ~/.config/nix/nix.conf << EOF
access-tokens = github.com=YOUR_PAT_HERE
EOF

Available Hosts

Current configurations:

  • hyperion: Home server with Docker, Immich, Audiobookshelf, Samba, VPN server, etc.

  • titan: Desktop workstation with KDE/GNOME/i3

Custom Modules

NixOS Modules (modules/nixos/)

  • bootanimation.nix - Plymouth boot animation

  • cloud.nix - Cloud provider settings

  • distrobox.nix - Distrobox container support

  • docker.nix - Docker and container runtime

  • gnome.nix - GNOME desktop environment

  • i3.nix - i3 window manager

  • kde.nix - KDE Plasma desktop

  • network.nix - Network configuration

  • qemu.nix - QEMU/KVM virtualization

  • vpn.nix - VPN client configuration

Home Manager Modules (modules/home-manager/)

  • android.nix - Android development tools

  • autoUpdate.nix - Auto-update configuration

  • devtools.nix - Development tools and IDEs

  • ghostty/ - Ghostty terminal configuration

  • git/ - Git configuration

  • gnome.nix - GNOME user settings

  • gui.nix - GUI applications

  • i3Xfce/ - i3 + Xfce configuration

  • kde/ - KDE user settings

  • myshell.nix - Shell environment (zsh, starship)

  • nvim/ - Neovim configuration

  • quickemu.nix - Quick VM management

  • restic.nix - Restic backup configuration

  • ssh/ - SSH configuration

  • tmux/ - Tmux configuration

  • vim/ - Vim configuration

Custom Packages

Custom packages are defined in pkgs/:

  • adoc - AsciiDoc tools

  • antora - Documentation site generator

  • glab-tools - GitLab CLI tools

  • graalvm-21 - GraalVM JDK

  • msgconvert - Email converter

  • And more…​

Templates

The repository includes templates for common use cases:

  • devshell - Development shell for running non-Nix software

Use with:

nix flake init -t github:scarisey/nixos-dotfiles#devshell

Binary Caches

Pre-configured binary caches for faster builds:

  • ghostty.cachix.org - Ghostty terminal builds

  • nix-community.cachix.org - Community packages

  • scarisey-public.cachix.org - Custom packages

These are automatically configured when you use this flake.

Updating Dependencies

# Update all inputs
nix flake update

# Update specific input
nix flake lock --update-input nixpkgs

# Rebuild after update
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#hostname
home-manager switch --flake .

Troubleshooting

Build Fails Due to Missing Private Repositories

If you see errors about private-vault or private-modules, you need to either:

  1. Create your own private repositories and update the URLs in flake.nix

  2. Remove the private inputs and all references to them

SOPS Decryption Fails

Ensure:

  • Age key exists at ~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt

  • Your public key is added to .sops.yaml in the vault repository

  • Secrets file has been updated with sops updatekeys secrets.yaml

Trusted User Not Working

After adding trusted users, restart the Nix daemon:

sudo systemctl restart nix-daemon

Contributing

This is a personal dotfiles repository, but feel free to:

  • Open issues for questions

  • Submit PRs for bug fixes

  • Fork and adapt for your own use

License

See LICENSE file for details.

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