My development machine, as code

This repository contains everything that is needed to create a clone of my operative system, exactly as I use it every day.

This is roughly a NixOS with four partitions:

• /, encrypted, ephemeral, erased at every boot.
• /nix, encrypted, persistent, but mounted as read-only for maximum immutability.
• /data, encrypted, persistent, and backed up regularly.
• /boot, an initial RAM disk to bootstrap the kernel and start the system.

This system has:

• The latest stable Linux Kernel, updated regularly to avoid running a system with known publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
• Nvidia drivers.
• Multi-booting support.

In general, the system is made out of the following components:

• books: An eBook reader with the theme that I like.

• browser: Web browser, extensions, and bookmarks.

• editor: My code editor, extensions, theme, keyboard shortcuts, etc.

• terminal: My terminal configuration, shell aliases, installed packages, and so on.

• ui: The window manager, fonts, and graphical elements.

• buildkite: Some https://buildkite.com/ agents that run in my computer and serve as CI/CD of my open source projects.

• k8s: A Kubernetes cluster.

• networking: Wifi settings, mostly.

• nix: Configurations of the Nix daemon that powers this machine.

• spark: An Apache Spark cluster.

• virtualization: Containers, virtual machines and emulated architectures.

• secrets: SSH, GPG, system password and secrets locations.

• users: Admin and user accounts.

• well-known: Name, username and email of the main user.

• controllers: Kernel, drivers, firmware, and sound system.

• physical: Boot loader and external devices identifiers (disks, swap, etc).

Setup

1. Download NixOS minimal ISO image from the NixOS's download page. Or build from source code by cloning the repository and running:

   $ ./build-installer

2. Burn it into a USB stick.

   • If you are currently on Windows use Rufus.

   • If you are on an unix-like operative system, you can do so from the command line:

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

3. (Optional) If you want to dual-boot with Windows, install Windows first on your whole disk.

   You'll get a partition scheme like this:

   Number Start    End      Size     File system  Name                          Flags
   1      0.00GiB  0.25GiB  0.25GiB  fat32        EFI system partition          boot, hidden, esp
   2      0.25GiB  0.27GiB  0.02GiB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
   3      0.27GiB  953GiB   953GiB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
   4      953GiB   954GiB   0.98GiB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
   

   All you need to do is to open Disk Manager on Windows, and resize the msftdata partition to make some free space for NixOS:

   Number Start    End      Size     File system  Name                          Flags
    1     0.00GiB  0.25GiB  0.25GiB  fat32        EFI system partition          boot, hidden, esp
    2     0.25GiB  0.27GiB  0.02GiB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
    3     0.27GiB  271GiB   271GiB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
    5     271GiB   953GiB   682GiB   -            -
    4     953GiB   954GiB   0.98GiB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
   

   After this tutorial you'll be able to pick which Operative System you want to use when the computer starts.

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

   If for some reason your system refuses to boot into the USB, enter the BIOS and disable Secure Boot or try enabling Legacy Boot support.

5. Make sure that we have 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 partition scheme in the free space allocated in the previous step.

   parted "${device}"
   
     # Generic setup
     (parted) unit GiB
     (parted) print
   
     # Setup boot partition
     (parted) mkpart ESP fat32 "${start}" "${end}" # 1GiB
     (parted) set "${number}" esp on
   
     # Setup other partitions
     (parted) mkpart data "${start}" "${end}" # At least 50 GiB
     (parted) mkpart root "${start}" "${end}" # At least 50 GiB
     (parted) mkpart nix "${start}" "${end}" # At least 100GiB

   It should look like this:

   Number  Start    End      Size     File system  Name                          Flags
    1      0.00GiB  0.25GiB  0.25GiB  fat32        EFI system partition          boot, hidden, esp
    2      0.25GiB  0.27GiB  0.02GiB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
    3      0.27GiB  271GiB   271GiB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
    5      271GiB   272GiB   0.68GiB  fat32        ESP                           boot, esp
    6      272GiB   322GiB   50.0GiB               data
    7      322GiB   372GiB   50.0GiB               root
    8      372GiB   953GiB   581GiB                nix
    4      953GiB   954GiB   0.98GiB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
   

   The Windows partitions (1, 2, 3 and 4) are optional if you do not want to dual boot with Windows.

7. Encrypt disks with LUKS:

   cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/disk/by-partlabel/data
   cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/disk/by-partlabel/nix
   cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/disk/by-partlabel/root
   cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/disk/by-partlabel/data cryptdata
   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 data /dev/mapper/cryptdata
   mkfs.ext4 -L nix /dev/mapper/cryptnix
   mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/mapper/cryptroot

8. Install NixOS, step one:

   mount /dev/disk/by-label/root /mnt
   mkdir /mnt/boot
   mkdir /mnt/data
   mkdir /mnt/nix
   mount /dev/disk/by-partlabel/ESP /mnt/boot
   mount /dev/disk/by-label/data /mnt/data
   mount /dev/disk/by-label/nix /mnt/nix
   
   nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
   cat << EOF >> /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
     // {  boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_latest;
           environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.wpa_supplicant ];
           hardware.enableAllFirmware = true;
           nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
           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

9. Install NixOS, step two:

   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/kamadorueda/machine
   cd machine
   ./build-system
   ./switch-to-configuration
   reboot

10. Enjoy!

Nvidia

1. Look up your graphics card product:

   $ nix shell nixpkgs#pciutils
   
   [nix-shell] $ lspci
   
   # ...
   01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU116 [GeForce GTX 1660] (rev a1)
   # ...

2. See which is the highest driver version that supports your product: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/

3. Map it to a package in nixpkgs:

   You can also explore: nixpkgs.linuxPackages_latest.nvidiaPackages.*.version on a $ nix repl.

4. Add it to your configuration.

   You can see the hardware NixOS module in this repository for an example.

5. Switch and reboot.

6. Should be in use now:

   $ nix run nixpkgs#glxinfo -- -B
   
   # ...
   OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
   # ...

   It should not mention nouveau but Nvidia.

Useful links

• NixOS options
• NixOS options search
• Home Manager options

Future work

All good for now.