Prerequisites

Before you get into dive into this configuration, let’s establish a few things first. In order to make use of this system in the first place, you need the following components.

  • A NixOS installer image with flakes enabled. An example would be the unstable versions from NixOS project release page. As an additional option, you can also use my personalized NixOS installers which is primarily intended for me configs.

  • A flash drive or any storage device that will boot the installer image up for installation.

  • A computer with disabled secure boot. Because unfortunately, that’s the state of most Linux distros right now. [1]

This primarily uses Nix flakes so you can have a preview of what’s available in my config. 

nix flake show github:foo-dogsquared/nixos-config

All you have to do is to flash the installer image into the flash drive and boot with the drive (with the disabled secure boot).

For this example, we’ll assume you’re installing my desktop configuration which is at nixosConfigurations.ni.

Next, we’ll partition the disk of the system. This is already handled for us since this project uses disko modules. Just run the following command as root. 

nix run github:nix-community/disko -- --mode disko ./hosts/ni/disko.nix --arg disks '[ "/dev/nvme0n1" ]'

Then install the NixOS configuration (also as root). 

nixos-install --flake github:foo-dogsquared/nixos-config#INSTALLABLE

Despite being a NixOS system, it isn’t entirely reproducible to the point of installing this config will work out-of-the-box. It has some things needed in the first place to work like my external backup setup where it needs my SSH private keys to work in the first place. You can see more details from What should not be here?. Nonetheless, the parts is it isn’t reproducible is only about 10% of this config. Everything else is fine and dandy and can be deployed successfully (but not used as intended).

Appendix A: Installing with a persistent NixOS installer

In some cases such as my main desktop configuration, it may be impossible to install it with a typical installer image like the official ISO. This is because the typical installer environment boots on a 2GB tmpfs which should be enough for most environments. Buuuuuut several of my NixOS configurations are not that, they basically contain at least 24GB of shenanigans and the collective build files resulting from it is simply not enough in a little 2GB tmpfs and most likely creates a system crash. For this reason, it is very recommended to create an installer environment with a persistent live installer.

To do so, simply partition your storage device (e.g., a flash drive, external hard drive) of at least >=64GB. Then, you’ll have to install a NixOS system in the partition with graphical-installer NixOS configuration found in the project flake. As widespread throughout the project, you can use disko to install the system in a one-liner. 

disko --mode disko [--arg disk "/dev/sda"] --flake {canonical_flake_url}#external-hdd && nixos-install --no-root-passwd --root /mnt --flake {canonical_flake_url}#graphical-installer-x86_64-linux
1. But things change hopefully with Lanzaboote project into usable and stable state.