dotfiles

Reproducable configuration for all of my devices and gadgets. Now including netbooting!

Table of Contents

• Keyboard Configuration
• Installation
• Netbooting
• Extras
• Tasks

Keyboard configuration!

I have installed QMK on my keyboard so I decided to publish my configuration here. You can find it in the annepro2-qmk folder.

Update: I have moved back to the OEM software, due to some issues I was facing with QMK. You can find my json config in the annepro2-oem folder.

Installation

This is for installation to a typical, permanent storage machine (such as edward-desktop-01 or edward-laptop-01). For setting up netboot, see Netbooting.

1. Use the NixOS minimal ISO.

Use the NixOS mininal ISO for a more customisable install.

2. Set up internet using Network Manager.

   The simplest option for quick network without wires is using Network Manager. It is preinstalled and has a TUI for 30-second wifi setup.

   nmtui

3. Backup and partition.

   Here is a quick checklist of items for myself to backup to an external storage device before the disk is erased:

   • 3D Printer config,
   • encryption keys - SSH and GPG,
   • savegames (minecraft, etc.),
   • uncommitted git changes,
   • other files from outside the /home folder,
   • wireguard configuration,
   • clone hero songs,
   • the whole /home directory,

   Once the check list is done, the easiest option in my opinion for simple partitioning is cfdisk, another TUI utility. In commands relating to disks, whatever is the ssd or other storage nixos is being installed onto.

   cfdisk /dev/whatever

   Now, delete all partitions on the disk and create the new partitions:

   • A 525M "EFI System" partition,
   • a "Linux Swap" partition (size guide),
   • and a generic "Linux Filesystem" partition to fill the rest of the disk. Make sure to write the new changes before you exit cfdisk.

   Now, formatting!

   First, format the EFI System partition with FAT:

   mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/whatever1

   Then, format the swap partition, giving it the label of 'swap':

   mkswap -L swap /dev/whatever2

   And finally, format the main Linux Filesystem partition with ext4, giving it the label of 'nixos':

   mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/whatever3

   Theese drive labels are referenced by the system config.

4. Mount to edit.

   To edit the contents of the disk, it needs to be mounted into a folder. First, mount the main Linux Filesystem:

   mount /dev/whatever3 /mnt # Mount root filesystem

   Then, mount the boot filesystem:

   mkdir -p /mnt/boot
   mount /dev/whatever1 /mnt/boot # Mount boot partition

   Finally, enable the swap:

   swapon /dev/whatever2 # Use the swap partition

5. First system install.

   Generate the required config files. Don't rebuild yet.

   nixos-generate-config --root /mnt

   Dowload this repo from github. This is used because SSH has not been set up yet.

   curl -LO https://github.com/headblockhead/dotfiles/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
   unzip ./dotfiles-master.zip
   mv dotfiles-master dotfiles

   Build and install. Set a root password for first login, but we will disable direct root later.

   cd dotfiles
   nixos-install --root /mnt --flake .#HOSTNAME
   reboot

6. First Time Login. Login is not possible without a password - set a password using the root account.

   passwd headb

7. Final system setup.

Lock root account from login:

sudo passwd -dl root
sudo usermod -L root

In some cases, a boot option is not found. Sometimes this needs to be run from a bootable USB and then booted from, then the bootloader re-installed.

mv /boot/EFI/NixOS-boot /boot/EFI/boot
mv /boot/EFI/boot/grubx64.efi /boot/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi

This can help with detection.

Extras!

I use this section of my dotfiles to remind me how to run various complicated tasks, in case I forget them in the future.

Enable wake-on-wlan

Enables magic-packets to be recieved from wireless LAN.

sudo iw phy0 wowlan enable magic-packet

Pin nix shell to specific nixpkgs

Get the version of nixpkgs used in your flake.

nix flake info

Use it to pin flake:nixpkgs. This only applies to your user.

nix registry pin flake:nixpkgs github:NixOS/nixpkgs/<commit-hash>

If you want to remove this:

nix registry remove flake:nixpkgs

Running macOS using docker for XCode development.

Allow connections to the X Server.

nix run nixpkgs#xorg.xhost +

Create the main docker container. It should appear as a QEMU window.

docker run -it --device /dev/kvm -p 50922:10022 -e DEVICE_MODEL="iMacPro1,1" -e WIDTH=1440 -e HEIGHT=900 -e RAM=8 -e INTERNAL_SSH_PORT=23 -e AUDIO_DRIVER=pa,server=unix:/tmp/pulseaudio.socket -v "/run/user/$(id -u)/pulse/native:/tmp/pulseaudio.socket" -e CORES=2 -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix -e "DISPLAY=${DISPLAY:-:0.0}" -e GENERATE_UNIQUE=true -e MASTER_PLIST_URL=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sickcodes/osx-serial-generator/master/config-custom.plist sickcodes/docker-osx:ventura

Install OSX after using disk manager to format the drive. Installing may take an hour or so. Then, install XCode through the app store. This will also take a large amount of time.

Run usbmuxd for host forwarding.

sudo nix run nixpkgs#usbmuxd -- -fv

Make sure SSH is enabled on the host, so the socket can be forwarded.

In the mac, install brew and install the required packages for the forwarding script.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
brew install make automake autoconf libtool pkg-config gcc libimobiledevice usbmuxd socat

Now connect the host (172.17.0.1) to container socket using this script - thanks leonjza!

To test, list iOS devices connected.

idevice_id -l

Links

• Helpful blog post
• Mac script
• Homebrew

Tasks

Switch-system

Requires: switch-nixos, switch-home-manager

Rebuilds NixOS and home-manager and applies all configration changes.

Switch-NixOS

Rebuilds the system-wide NixOS configuration and applies it.

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake ".#`hostname`"

Switch-home-manager

Rebuilds the home directory of the headb user and applies it.

home-manager switch --flake ".#$USER@`hostname`"

Build-network

Builds all network-wide NixOS instances and uploads them to the netboot server. Devices must be rebooted for configuraton to apply.

echo not implementer

Garbage-collect

nix-collect-garbage --quiet