My development machine, as code

• Powered by NixOS and four partitions:
  • /, ephemeral, deleted at EVERY boot
  • /boot
  • /home, persistent, where my important home lives in
  • /nix, persistent, but mounted as read-only

Setup

1. (Optional) if you want to dual-boot with Windows, install Windows first and then continue this tutorial.

2. Download NixOS minimal ISO image from the NixOS's download page.

3. Burn it into a USB stick.

   lsblk
   umount "${partition}"
   parted "${device}" -- mktable msdos
   dd bs=1MiB if="${iso}" of="${device}" oflag=direct status=progress

4. Boot from the USB stick, start the installation and then sudo su.

5. Allocate some empty disk space for NixOS to live in.

   Use the following commands as needed, replace "${device}" by the address of the main disk:

   • List block devices: lsblk -f
   • Managing partitions: parted "${device}"
     • Create a partition table: (parted) mktable gpt
     • Remove a partition: (parted) rm "${number}"
6. Setup the NixOS file system in the free space allocated in the previous step.

   parted "${device}"
   
     # Generic setup
     (parted) unit GiB
     (parted) print
   
     # Setup boot partition
     (parted) rm "${number}" # Remove existing boot partitions
     (parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 0.5
     (parted) set "${number}" esp on
   
     # Setup other partitions
     (parted) mkpart home "${start}" "${end}" # 50 GiB
     (parted) mkpart nix "${start}" "${end}" # 100 GiB
     (parted) mkpart root "${start}" "${end}" # 50 GiB

7. Finish NixOS installation.

   cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/disk/by-partlabel/home
   cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/disk/by-partlabel/nix
   cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/disk/by-partlabel/root
   cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/disk/by-partlabel/home crypthome
   cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/disk/by-partlabel/nix cryptnix
   cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/disk/by-partlabel/root cryptroot
   
   mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/disk/by-partlabel/ESP
   mkfs.ext4 -L home /dev/mapper/crypthome
   mkfs.ext4 -L nix /dev/mapper/cryptnix
   mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/mapper/cryptroot
   
   mount /dev/disk/by-label/root /mnt
   mkdir /mnt/boot
   mkdir /mnt/home
   mkdir /mnt/nix
   mount /dev/disk/by-partlabel/ESP /mnt/boot
   mount /dev/disk/by-label/home /mnt/home
   mount /dev/disk/by-label/nix /mnt/nix
   
   nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
   cat << EOF >> /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
     // { boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
         boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
         environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.wpa_supplicant ];
         services.nscd.enable = true; }
   EOF
   if not_connected_to_the_internet; then
     ip a
     wpa_supplicant -B -i "${interface}" -c <(wpa_passphrase "${ssid}" "{psk}")
   fi
   nixos-install
   reboot

8. Clone this repository and rebuild.

   if not_connected_to_the_internet; then
     ip a
     wpa_supplicant -B -i "${interface}" -c <(wpa_passphrase "${ssid}" "{psk}")
   fi
   cd "$(mktemp -d)"
   nix-shell -p git just
   git clone https://github.com/drestrepom/machine
   cd machine
   just rebuild switch
   reboot

9. Get your GitHub API token from the secrets file and export it into the terminal.

10. Setup the state.

    • github/drestrepom/machine

            mkdir -p /home/github/drestrepom \
        &&  pushd /home/github/drestrepom \
          &&  git clone "https://drestrepom:${GITHUB_API_TOKEN}@github.com/drestrepom/machine" \
        &&  popd

    • github/drestrepom/secrets

          mkdir -p /home/github/drestrepom \
      &&  pushd /home/github/drestrepom \
        &&  git clone --depth 1 "https://drestrepom:${GITHUB_API_TOKEN}@github.com/drestrepom/secrets" \
        &&  cd secrets/machine \
          &&  ./install.sh \
      &&  popd

    • github/fluidattacks

          mkdir -p /home/github/drestrepom \
      &&  pushd /home/github/drestrepom \
        &&  git clone [email protected]:drestrepom/makes \
        &&  git -C makes remote add upstream [email protected]:fluidattacks/makes \
      &&  popd

    • github/nixos

          mkdir -p /home/github/nixos \
      &&  pushd /home/github/nixos \
        &&  git clone [email protected]:drestrepom/nixpkgs \
        &&  git -C nixpkgs remote add upstream [email protected]:nixos/nixpkgs \
      &&  popd

    • gitlab/fluidattacks

          mkdir -p /home/gitlab/fluidattacks \
      &&  pushd /home/gitlab/fluidattacks \
        &&  git clone [email protected]:fluidattacks/product \
        &&  git -C product config user.email [email protected] \
        &&  git clone [email protected]:fluidattacks/services \
        &&  git -C services config user.email [email protected] \
      &&  popd

11. Enjoy!

Timedoctor

You may find useful to install Timedoctor via Nix.

1. $ NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE=1 nix-build -A timedoctor https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/archive/7310407d493ee1c7caf38f8181507d7ac9c90eb8.tar.gz

2. $ ./result/bin/timedoctor*

Source: Pull 127590

Caveats:

• It does not work with Gnome Display Manager (gdm), use LightDM (lightdm)
• It only works with X.org server, not Wayland, etc.

Useful links

• NixOS options
• NixOS options search
• Home Manager options

Future work