How to use unfree software declaratively with nixos module?

[MichaelBergquistSuarez]

I'm trying to describe my entire OS, including the user environments through my configuration file. So I don't want to use nix-env or home-manager switch to create my user environment.

So I have the following configuration:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  home-manager.users.some-user.programs.vscode.enable = true;
}

Running nixos-rebuild test, it fails with:

Package ‘vscode-1.28.2’ in /nix/store/v9zg9mc9zmgghm016dw3db37qfjhil60-nixos-18.09.1228.a4c4cbb613c/nixos/pkgs/applications/editors/vscode/default.nix:94 has an unfree license (‘unfree’), refusing to evaluate.

a) For `nixos-rebuild` you can set
  { nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true; }
in configuration.nix to override this.

b) For `nix-env`, `nix-build`, `nix-shell` or any other Nix command you can add
  { allowUnfree = true; }
to ~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix.

Since I already have nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true; in my nixos configuration, I throught I'd create ~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix for the user.

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  # `./nixpkgs-config.nix` contains `allowUnfree = true;`
  home-manager.users.some-user.home.file.".config/nixpkgs/config.nix".source = ./nixpkgs-config.nix;
  home-manager.users.some-user.programs.vscode.enable = true;
}

No luck. Then I added allowUnfree = true for the root user (since nixos-rebuild require sudo):

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  # `./nixpkgs-config.nix` contains `allowUnfree = true;`
  home-manager.users.some-user.home.file.".config/nixpkgs/config.nix".source = ./nixpkgs-config.nix;
  home-manager.users.some-user.programs.vscode.enable = true;

  home-manager.users.root.home.file.".config/nixpkgs/config.nix".source = ./nixpkgs-config.nix;
}

Still no luck. Same error message. But then I uncommented vscode so that the ~/.config/nixpkgs/config.nix files could be created. And then I ran the code above again.

It worked! But needing to rebuild the OS twice feels wrong. So how could I allowUnfree = true; so that home-manager understands directly?

[rycee]

Try also adding

nixpkgs.config = import ./nixpkgs-config.nix;

to your configuration. That will supply the configuration into Home Manager.

[MichaelBergquistSuarez]

Thank you for the quick response! Weird, unfortunately I can't get it to work.
nixos-option nixpkgs.config results in:

Value:
{ allowUnfree = true; }

That was also how it was before. Could there be some config I'm missing or entering the wrong way?

# Inside `nix repl '<nixpkgs/nixos>'
config.nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree
# Result:
# true

(import config.home-manager.users.some-user.home.file.".config/nixpkgs/config.nix".source).allowUnfree
# Result:
# true

(import config.home-manager.users.root.home.file.".config/nixpkgs/config.nix".source).allowUnfree
# Result:
# true

[rycee]

Sorry, I wasn't paying close enough attention! The nixpkgs.config = import ./nixpkgs-config.nix will only affect the system configuration. Try adding

home-manager.users.some-user.nixpkgs.config = import ./nixpkgs-config.nix;

which hopefully will give the right result.

[MichaelBergquistSuarez]

OMGYES, it worked! Thanks a lot

It seems that I don't even need the home-manager.users.?.home.file.".config/nixpkgs/config.nix".source = ./nixpkgs-config.nix; files, which of course is awesome.

[rycee]

Glad it worked for you 🙂

Note, you still need the home.file line if you want to perform nix-shell, nix-env, etc. commands using the nixpkgs-config.nix configuration. This is because the

home-manager.users.some-user.nixpkgs.config = import ./nixpkgs-config.nix;

setting will only apply to packages installed, accessed through the declarative Home Manager configuration.

[srid]

For those wondering this is now:

nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;

[RitickMadaan]

Had to add this as well to make it work thanks to Today I learned:

nixpkgs.config.allowUnfreePredicate = (_: true);