Setup

This dotfiles is intended to be used with NixOS 24.05 Please install a clean version of NixOS GNOME and then follow the steps below.

Installation

0. Install NixOS

Download the latest NixOS ISO from the NixOS website and write it to a USB stick. I'd recommend getting the GNOME version as it's easier to setup and you can select minimal from the installer anyway if you want to just setup a headless server.

Note: If you intend on using a desktop environment you should select the GNOME version as this dotfiles repository expects the GNOME desktop environment for various configurations

1. Clone dotfiles to home directory

Open a nix-shell with git and begin the setup process. This setup will prompt you various questions such as your desired hostname and if the system you are installing is supposed to be a server or workstation.

Feel free to use an exisiting hostname to restore an old system or chose a new name.

If you are running this in a VM be sure to answer yes if it prompts you. This will ensure it generates the correct boot loader configuration.

nix-shell -p git
curl -L https://df.mvl.sh | bash

2. Reboot

It's probably a good idea that you either reboot or log out and log back in to make sure all the changes are applied.

# sudo reboot

3. Run dotf update

Run the dotf update command, although the setup script did most of the work some symlinks still need to be set which at the moment is done using shell scripts.

dotf update

4. Setup 1Password (Optional)

1Password is installed but you need to login and enable the SSH agent and CLI components under the settings before continuing.

5. Decrypt secrets

Either using 1Password or by manualling providing the decryption key you should decrypt the secrets. Various configurations depend on the secrets to be decrypted such as the SSH keys, yubikey pam configuration and more.

dotf secrets decrypt

6. Profit

You should now have a fully setup system with all the configurations applied.

Adding a new system

Paths in the repository

Here are some paths that contain files named after the hostname of the system. If you add a new system you should add the relevant files to these paths.

• nconfig/nixos/hardware/: Contains the hardware configurations for the different systems.
• config/ssh/authorized_keys: Contains the public keys per hostname that will be symlinked to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.
• config/nixos/flake.nix: Contains an array nixosConfigurations where you should be adding the new system hostname and relevant configuration.
• config/home-manager/flake.nix: Contains an array homeConfigurations where you should be adding the new system hostname and relevant configuration.

Adding a new system

To add a new system you should follow these steps:

1. Add the relevant files shown in the section above.
2. Ensure you've either updated or added the $HOME/.hostname file with the hostname of the system.
3. Run dotf update to ensure the symlinks are properly updated/created.