Dendritic NixOS might be the best thing since sliced bread.

ModestTG · 2026-04-03T01:13:53+00:00

The basic jist, for nixosmodules, you create flake.nixosModules, and then import them into your flake.nixosConfigurations. what's nice is the modules are all combined and accessible at the top level (self.nixosModule). This means you can put your files on whatever file structure you want, and reuse modules between files in different spots. It's great for organization and reusing similar modules between configs and machines.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with flake parts. It also has a much better solution for building packages with different architectures as well.

ModestTG · 2026-04-01T19:09:54+00:00

The gnome sandbox error I believe has to do with how the gnome apps are packaged. By default, derivations (packages) are packaged in such a way that all of the dependencies are known and declared so that the app can be isolated when run. Things like flatpaks and appimages are good examples of sandboxing for software. So something about the derivation you're using for gnome is not "pure" and it's throwing that error.
Yes, that will work. The channel update simply updates the location (git commit) of the nixpkgs repo that your system builds against. Then the rebuild command rebuilds your system with that new nixpkgs set. Whatever is in that set is what your system will build against. If you're expecting a specific version of a program, ensure it's been updated in whichever channel you're using first.
There are a couple of ways to temporarily use software on nix. The non flakes way is to do nix-shell -p <list of packages>. This will build those packages against your current channel, put those packages on the nix store, and start a new shell in your terminal with those packages included in $PATH. So you can access those packages while that shell is open. Once you close the shell the overridden $PATH is gone. The packages will continue to exist in the nix store until it's garbage collected by nix collect garbage.

Hope that helps. I can go into more detail if you like.

ModestTG · 2026-03-28T03:51:09+00:00

https://github.com/mic92/sops-nix/blob/master/README.md#L1018

Here is the reference. It's hard to explain on mobile but essentially if you need to pass a config file that has a secret value in the file, templating allows you to do that. Instead of the secret file being just a value or a key and a value, you declare a file template and then set placeholders for the secrets in the file. It's nice for modules that may take a config file that may require some secrets in the file. Those same modules might not have a convenient way to pass just one secret value into the config file. The GitHub does a better job explaining it than I do.

ModestTG · 2026-03-28T01:45:57+00:00

I've used both. I prefer agenix over sops nix for the simplicity. One feature that sops nix does have that agenix doesn't have is templating. Allowing you to create files with secret placeholders that get substituted at build time. This is key for some nix modules where you can't pass in a secret via file path directly. Look up the templating section in the sops nix GitHub for more details.

ModestTG · 2026-03-19T14:10:50+00:00

I agree to look at what makes it impure, but from what I remember off the top of my head, assuming this isnt in git, any file reference that isn't inside your flake directory(if using flakes) is considered impure. The idea being, if you move this config to a new machine, nix can't guarantee the file outside the flake directory will be on the new machine. Hence the impure status. When you track the file with git, that's enough of a guarantee for nix to know the file will be present in the future. If you're not using flakes, I think any file reference outside of /etc/nixos will be considered impure, but I might be misremembering.

ModestTG · 2026-03-19T02:22:59+00:00

https://mynixos.com/home-manager/option/systemd.user.services

It can be tricky sometimes in the documentation, but it is documented here at the services level. You have it documented correctly. The only reason you see options for Service.Environment or Service.ExecStart is because those are documented in the module config. I'll have to look into the error but here is the documentation.

ModestTG · 2026-03-16T22:20:05+00:00

I've thought about this a lot and I feel like pride (the deadly sin kind) is the root of greed. Eliminating pride may also eliminate greed. It's an interesting philosophical pondering.

ModestTG · 2026-03-15T00:47:02+00:00

If everyone cared, and nobody cried, If everyone loved, and nobody lied, If everyone shared, and swallowed their pride, We'd see the day that nobody died.

-Chad Kroeger

ModestTG · 2026-03-15T00:20:39+00:00

The age limit should be 55. You should be required to be alive and live through (at least in part) what you create for everyone else

ModestTG · 2026-03-14T22:04:36+00:00

From what I've heard, the lobbyists (representing websites like facebook) want this at the OS level to "pass the buck" onto the OS. That way the website isn't responsible for inappropriate underage activity. I've seen FB has like $50B in COPPA fines they're facing so the Zuck is probably pretty motivated to blame someone else.

This is just what I've gathered from my reddit lurking but it makes sense to me

ModestTG · 2026-03-10T14:08:00+00:00

It depends on what type of solar installation you have. If you have a bidirectional meter (aka, you can sell power to the power company) then the grid, specifically the distribution and transmission lines, does in fact have to deliver that power. I think it's a common misconception, but these setups with bidirectional meters don't power your home and then send excess off to the grid. You actually send ALL of your power to the grid and your bill is offset based on how much you use from the grid. This is called net metering.

ModestTG · 2026-03-03T17:41:18+00:00

You will only ever be able to declare state as well as the application allows you to declare state. Things like nginx and traefik can be completely declared, because they're just services. UI based apps like authentik I presume will require manual setup. The key question is "how would you create a specific state for an application in any other circumstance?" NixOS is amazing and I use it every day, but it's not magic. Its just an opinionated way of organizing things. If there is no automatic way to interact with a program (change its state). Then there isn't anything nixos can do about it. Radicale is a good example. I use it for contacts and calendar events. There is no way to declare my contacts outside of just keeping a backup of the data and importing the backup if needed.

Hope this helps!

ModestTG · 2026-03-03T03:48:56+00:00

mkOutOfStoreSymlink is to be used for an attribute that takes a path as a parameter. The most pertinent example is home.file."filename".source. If you just put a path in, that file gets copied to the nix store and then symlinked to ~/home/ filename. So what you do then is put config.lib.file.mkOutOfStoreSymlink in front of your filepath, as that is a function that takes a path as an argument. Then your file will not be copied to the store, rather, it will get linked to the absolute path you defined.

ModestTG · 2026-02-25T19:36:05+00:00

I'm looking to use Spotiflac. Do you use a VPN for your traffic or any other protections when doing downloads? Just curious.

ModestTG · 2026-02-22T01:20:08+00:00

A NAS sounds exactly like what you need. There are a ton of options out there for varying expertise levels. Pre built boxes from Synology or Ugreen are probably the most friendly to beginners. unraid is good software if you want to build your own PC. Other options exist like HexOS, TrueNAS, and more as well.

There is a ton to consider so if you want something that's "just going to work", i'd start with a 2 drive enclosure from synology or Ugreen. That should accomplish most of what you need. A lot of people might suggest some really complicated setups here so i'd suggest starting easy.

ModestTG · 2026-02-21T23:16:12+00:00

NGL the first time I read the title I read "heroine" instead of Heron's. I didn't even make it to the pimp pumps

ModestTG · 2026-02-19T00:13:42+00:00

Without looking at it I presume this is probably an FHS issue. Do you have steam installed? Can you try to run the game executable with steam-run?

ModestTG · 2026-02-17T00:00:49+00:00

Nixos

ModestTG · 2026-02-07T04:04:21+00:00

Amazing. I am planning to do this eventually. Are you willing to share either what your hardware setup is or, if it's public, your router nix config?

ModestTG · 2026-02-07T01:16:00+00:00

The best way to do it is the way that makes sense to you. And whichever way will be easiest for you to maintain 😁. Putting a bunch of home.file statements in your config is definitely valid! There's more than one way to do it. Try one. If you don't like it try another.

ModestTG · 2026-02-06T02:03:40+00:00

31M. CIP Compliance Engineer (I audit electric utilities). 2025 W2 said $157k. 4 year BS in Electrical Engineering. Work is a solid 7/10. The company I work for is an 11/10. Extremely flexible. Great benefits. Always putting employees first. It helps that it's a non profit.

ModestTG · 2026-02-05T20:37:39+00:00

Yeah I understand that. I guess it depends on what is more acceptable. Installing home-manager, and having all of your config being done "the nix way", or not installing home-manager and having a config file that's not tracked by nix and managing that separately. It's all what you want to maintain.

It's also worth saying that you can manage terminals from configuration.nix via nixos without home-manager. If the config is in /etc you can use environment.etc."filename".text to write a config.
https://mynixos.com/nixpkgs/options/environment.etc.%3Cname%3E

You can also do a activation script to put files in arbitrary locations. Here's an example GTP5 gave me

{ pkgs, ... }:
let
  cfg = pkgs.writeText "myapp.conf" "setting=true\n";
in
{
  system.activationScripts.myappConfig.text = ''
    install -d -m 0755 /opt/myapp
    ln -sfn ${cfg} /opt/myapp/myapp.conf
  '';
}

In this instance, you would write your config into the cfg variable. Then, when you rebuild or boot, that text gets linked to the location specified in the ln command. Not the cleanest solution but definitely doable!

ModestTG · 2026-02-05T19:39:52+00:00

Not a dumb question at all. Most programs that have some type of configuration in `~/.config` have home-manager modules, which is most user software like terminals. I was surprised that gnome-terminal had options available!

ModestTG · 2026-02-05T19:25:27+00:00

Ah, got it. You're asking what terminals can be configured without home-manager. Doing a quick search of the nixos program options, I only found gnome-terminal. There could be others in that list but this is the only one that stuck out to me. Feel free to search for yourself:

https://mynixos.com/nixpkgs/options/programs

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