Hi Chris, love the videos. I'm going down the NixOS rabbit hole also (your fault! btw). In any case, a few comments on this video. Flakes... I use an "all-in-one" flake that configures 3 different systems according to host name (laptop, workstation, server), to distribute different software, hardware, network config per machine. Layout is the laptop will have tools for network troubleshooting and ACPI/power management configs, workstation will have GPU pass-through (I do have 2 GPU in one system) for Windows VM with looking glass. Home server for the usual stuff (NAS,Plex,bittorrent, etc...). On the network side, the plan is to give each one a static IPV6 IP with a hosts file entry so that when I'm in VPN, I can still get to them via IPV6. This takes 1 flake/1 default config.nix, 3 different software config.nix, 3 different hwconfig.nix files. You mentioned that Home Manager for managing dotfiles or configs was not worth it. However, there is a simple way to take what you already have and save it all with HM. Try making a 'dotfiles' dir in you nixos repo. Copy a config file in there or just a plain text file to test. In your home.nix make a new line 'home.file={".testfile"{source=./dotfiles/testfile;};};' git add/commit and run 'sudo nixos-rebuild switch' since you have HM module if I remember. That should give you a '~/.testfile' linked to your HM store file. Hope you find it useful! Take care
My first real use case for configuring my system through flakes was pulling in packages from multiple channels. Specifically, i mostly use the unstable channel, but at least in one case, i've pulled in a broken package that worked fine in stable.
I use home manager with flakes so I can install nix on any computer I regularly use and then just git pull and setup home-manager to have everything I need. My neovim config is there, and others like bash aliases are there. Modules also let me enable/disable applications and configs on the fly. Don't have a DE/WM on ssh, so just disable the gui-applications for that home config.
You should try using a local AI instead of ChatGPT. I would imagine a Navi 32 has enough VRAM for at least a basic model. Maybe could run mixture of experts.
I wonder if the people who write these help pages actually installed using those same steps. That man page you're looking at is clearly asinine. For a software that is 20 years in the making, this is atrocious.
The NixOS Wiki is designed for users familiar with programming. In programmable Linux distributions, no one is going to spell out every word to a noob like they do on the Arch Wiki. That's not the case here.
@@mucklussure, it doesn't have to be for beginners, but Gentoo wiki is extremely comprehensive and no one says Gentoo is hand holding. Don't defend bad documentation
home manager is a third-party crutch in NixOS. No other function other than organizing /home this thing has. That is, flakes and home manager make the NixOS a bit like Arch. Lots of dotfiles, frills, icons... practically no sense, except overcomplicating the system configuration. Do you want "reproducibility" and "specific package versions"? I do this by saving my configuration.nix in a convenient place(can even be stored in WhatsApp))))))) "files" and declaring "specific package version" in configuration.nix
That is your opinion and that's valid. Linux and very much NixOS are about choices and freedom of choice. I won't tell you how to set up your NixOS allow other the freedom to do the same. As someone who just getting into NixOS but not new to Linux i have found flakes and home manager to be a useful tool. That may change later, who knows.
@@genericgamer1319 That. I've always disliked the pile of config files in linux. I know the vast majority use flakes to decorate the system. I don't do decorating and in NixOS I configure absolutely everything in one file.
@@mucklus you can do the same with flakes all that flakes do is obvuscate some bits & let you lock inputs to certain versions a bit more easily also does absolutely everything include hardware config even nix puts that in a different file
Like Arch is good. Reproducibility is useless for a desktop computer one actively uses, which is exactly where you'd use home-manager for. For servers, I agree, it's not necessary.
I love home manager! So easy to get everything working together since it's all in one place!
Hi Chris, love the videos. I'm going down the NixOS rabbit hole also (your fault! btw). In any case, a few comments on this video. Flakes... I use an "all-in-one" flake that configures 3 different systems according to host name (laptop, workstation, server), to distribute different software, hardware, network config per machine. Layout is the laptop will have tools for network troubleshooting and ACPI/power management configs, workstation will have GPU pass-through (I do have 2 GPU in one system) for Windows VM with looking glass. Home server for the usual stuff (NAS,Plex,bittorrent, etc...). On the network side, the plan is to give each one a static IPV6 IP with a hosts file entry so that when I'm in VPN, I can still get to them via IPV6. This takes 1 flake/1 default config.nix, 3 different software config.nix, 3 different hwconfig.nix files. You mentioned that Home Manager for managing dotfiles or configs was not worth it. However, there is a simple way to take what you already have and save it all with HM. Try making a 'dotfiles' dir in you nixos repo. Copy a config file in there or just a plain text file to test. In your home.nix make a new line 'home.file={".testfile"{source=./dotfiles/testfile;};};' git add/commit and run 'sudo nixos-rebuild switch' since you have HM module if I remember. That should give you a '~/.testfile' linked to your HM store file. Hope you find it useful! Take care
Do you have your config in a github? Been looking for some examples for having multiple hosts.
My first real use case for configuring my system through flakes was pulling in packages from multiple channels. Specifically, i mostly use the unstable channel, but at least in one case, i've pulled in a broken package that worked fine in stable.
I use home manager with flakes so I can install nix on any computer I regularly use and then just git pull and setup home-manager to have everything I need. My neovim config is there, and others like bash aliases are there. Modules also let me enable/disable applications and configs on the fly. Don't have a DE/WM on ssh, so just disable the gui-applications for that home config.
teach me senpai?
Let's GOOOOOOOO!!!!! Home Manager is awesome!!!
You should try using a local AI instead of ChatGPT. I would imagine a Navi 32 has enough VRAM for at least a basic model. Maybe could run mixture of experts.
Don't make me to take down your channel....
Niron magnetics e yatırırım
I use NixOS btw....
I wonder if the people who write these help pages actually installed using those same steps. That man page you're looking at is clearly asinine. For a software that is 20 years in the making, this is atrocious.
Nixos wiki is so outdated.
The NixOS Wiki is designed for users familiar with programming. In programmable Linux distributions, no one is going to spell out every word to a noob like they do on the Arch Wiki. That's not the case here.
@@mucklussure, it doesn't have to be for beginners, but Gentoo wiki is extremely comprehensive and no one says Gentoo is hand holding. Don't defend bad documentation
home manager is a third-party crutch in NixOS. No other function other than organizing /home this thing has. That is, flakes and home manager make the NixOS a bit like Arch. Lots of dotfiles, frills, icons... practically no sense, except overcomplicating the system configuration. Do you want "reproducibility" and "specific package versions"? I do this by saving my configuration.nix in a convenient place(can even be stored in WhatsApp))))))) "files" and declaring "specific package version" in configuration.nix
That is your opinion and that's valid. Linux and very much NixOS are about choices and freedom of choice. I won't tell you how to set up your NixOS allow other the freedom to do the same. As someone who just getting into NixOS but not new to Linux i have found flakes and home manager to be a useful tool. That may change later, who knows.
what
in what sense does home manager make Nix OS like arch & how is home manager over-complicating anything
@@genericgamer1319 That. I've always disliked the pile of config files in linux. I know the vast majority use flakes to decorate the system. I don't do decorating and in NixOS I configure absolutely everything in one file.
@@mucklus you can do the same with flakes all that flakes do is obvuscate some bits & let you lock inputs to certain versions a bit more easily
also does absolutely everything include hardware config even nix puts that in a different file
Like Arch is good.
Reproducibility is useless for a desktop computer one actively uses, which is exactly where you'd use home-manager for.
For servers, I agree, it's not necessary.