NixOS Configuration

This repository contains the personal NixOS and Home Manager configuration for Sean Kovacs (sckova). It utilizes Nix Flakes to manage reproducible system states across disparate hardware architectures, specifically targeting high-performance x86_64 gaming desktops and Apple Silicon laptops.

🖥️ Hosts

The configuration defines three distinct system profiles via flake.nix:

👽 alien (x86_64-linux)

The primary high-performance desktop and gaming workstation.

• Kernel: Uses the CachyOS kernel (linux-cachyos-lts) via nix-cachyos-kernel overlay for scheduler and performance optimizations.
• Graphics: Nvidia proprietary drivers (Stable) with Open kernel modules disabled.

Gaming Stack:

• Steam: Enabled with Gamescope session and Proton-GE.

• Optimization: ananicy-cpp enabled with specific rules for Gamescope (nice -20).

• Streaming: Sunshine game streaming service enabled and auto-started.

• RGB: OpenRGB and ddcutil for hardware lighting and display control.

• Virtualization: Podman (Docker compatible) and Hyper-V guest support enabled.

• Hardware: Specific monitor configuration defined in Niri settings (Dual 4K @ 144Hz + Portrait 1440p).

🍑 peach (aarch64-linux)

A configuration tailored for Apple Silicon hardware using Asahi Linux.

System-specific setup:

• GPU-accelerated desktop via Apple Silicon drivers.

• Touchpad configuration with natural scrolling.

• Specific notch handling and boot logo customization with plymouth & m1n1.

• Configures docker in a rootless setup.

• Kernel: Patched linuxPackages_asahi with Apple Mailbox and RTKit support.

💻 vm-generic

A generic template for virtual machines, supported on both x86_64-linux and aarch64-linux.

🎨 Desktop Environment

The system uses a highly customized Wayland environment centered around Niri.

Window Manager: Niri

• Type: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor.

• Style:

• Tightly separated windows with 2px borders and 4px gaps.

• Animations and window rounding (8px radius).

• Input: Focus follows mouse, adaptive acceleration, and natural scrolling enabled.

• Keybinds: Super+Shift+? preserved for showing the custom keybinds.

Shell & Widgets: Noctalia

• Bar: Custom top bar with workspaces, system monitor, media controls, and tray.
• Notifications: Integrated notification daemon with "Do Not Disturb" capabilities.
• Control Center: Quick access to network, bluetooth, and power profiles.
• Launcher: Fuzzel app launcher with clipboard history support.

Theming: Base16/24

A centralized theme configuration module propagates and builds colors across the system's applications and toolkits.

• Scheme: Can use any scheme declared in the tinted-gallery.
• Accent: Orange for peach, blue for alien, green for the VM.
• Cursor: Catppuccin Mocha Peach (Size 24).
• Fonts:
• Sans: Noto Sans.
• Serif: Noto Serif.
• Mono: FiraMono Nerd Font.

📦 Software Stack

Terminal & Editors

Terminal: Kitty

• Fish shell integration
• Scrollback buffering
• Custom theme
• Wayland-specific integrations

Shell: Fish

• Customized prompt
• Modern alternatives to ls eza, cat bat, and gzip pigz.
• btop is used as a system monitor.

Editor: Neovim (via nixvim) configured with:

• LSP support (nixd, qmlls).
• conform-nvim for formatting (Prettier, Stylua, Black).
• cmp for autocompletion.
• fzf-lua for fuzzy finding.

Applications

Browser: Firefox with extensive hardening

• Telemetry, Pocket, and AI features disabled.
• Custom userChrome theme.
• Vertical tabs enabled.
• Extensions managed via Nix (uBlock Origin, SponsorBlock, Bitwarden, etc.).
• PWA support via firefoxpwa.
• SearXNG metasearch engine set up and enabled as the default search engine and homepage.

Social

• Vesktop: Discord client.
• Dynamically generated base16 theme.
• Numerous plugins (MessageLogger, FakeNitro, etc.) enabled.
• Fractal: Matrix client.
• Tuba: Mastodon client.

Media

• MPV with uosc UI and mpris support.
• Spotify: Custom riff package (Rust-based client) and spotify-webapp.
• Spicetify: CLI Spotify client theming.
• Strawberry: Music client.
• Audacity, Musescore: Musical workstations.

Services

• Wallpaper: Automated daily Bing Wallpaper downloader service.
• Storage: Synology NAS mounting via Rclone systemd service.
• Network: Tailscale mesh networking.

🛠️ Usage

Rebuilding the System

To apply the configuration for a specific host:

# Rebuild NixOS configuration and switch
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#systemName

# Rebuild NixOS configuration for next boot
sudo nixos-rebuild boot --flake .#systemName --install-bootloader

VM Testing

To build and run the generic VM:

nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake .#vm-generic
./result/bin/run-vm-generic-vm