NixOS: Opt In State - Immutable Linux Installation
NixOS with ZFS NixOS with btrfs
Devices
GPD MicroPC
In order to make the keyboard available during Stage 1 boot, where the LUKS passphrase is entered, the battery kernel module must be available. Add it by appending "battery" to boot.initrd.availableKernelModules in the nix configuration.
Enable thermald and TLP.
services.thermald.enable = true;
services.tlp.enable = true;
Installation
Stage I
2: EFI 1: LUKS; BTRFS (swap as a file ArchWiki)
sudo su
WHOLEDISK=...............
DISK=....................
parted "$WHOLEDISK" -- mklabel gpt
parted "$WHOLEDISK" -- mkpart primary 512MiB 100%
parted "$WHOLEDISK" -- mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 512MiB
parted "$WHOLEDISK" -- set 2 esp on
mkfs.vfat -n boot "$DISK"2
cryptsetup -v luksFormat "$DISK"1
cryptsetup open "$DISK"1 RootFS
mkfs.btrfs /dev/mapper/RootFS
mount -t btrfs /dev/mapper/RootFS /mnt
for x in root home nix persist log swap; do
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/$x
done
btrfs subvolume snapshot -r /mnt/root /mnt/root-blank
umount /mnt
mount -o subvol=root,noatime,nodiratime /dev/mapper/RootFS /mnt
for x in home nix persist swap; do
mkdir /mnt/$x
mount -o subvol=$x,noatime,nodiratime /dev/mapper/RootFS /mnt/$x
done
mkdir -p /mnt/var/log
mount -o subvol=log,noatime,nodiratime /dev/mapper/RootFS /mnt/var/log
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount "$DISK"2 /mnt/boot
cd /mnt/swap
truncate -s 0 ./swapfile
chattr +C ./swapfile
btrfs property set ./swapfile compression none
dd if=/dev/zero of=./swapfile bs=1M count=4096 status=progress
chmod 600 ./swapfile
mkswap ./swapfile
swapon ./swapfile
cd
nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
nano /mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix # add `neededForBoot = true;` in /var/log
nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
nixos-install
Reboot and configure desktop environment
Stage II
Security Through Isolation
A: nixos-container
Consider adding -U option. Declarative NixOS containers
GUI Apps - attempt A: xpra only
inspired by subuser
Failed attempt
networking.nat.enable = true;
networking.nat.internalInterfaces = [ "ve-+" ];
networking.nat.externalInterface = "eth0";
networking.networkmanager.unmanaged = [ "interface-name:ve-*" ];
containers.xpraServer = {
ephemeral = true;
autoStart = true;
};
containers.xpraServer.config = {config, pkgs, ...}: {
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ xpra ];
users.users.user = {
isNormalUser = true;
};
systemd.services.xpraServer = {
wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
after = [ "network.target" ];
serviceConfig = {
Type = "simple";
User = "user";
ExecStart = ''${pkgs.xpra}/bin/xpra --no-daemon start :7'';
};
};
networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 6007 ];
};
systemd.user.services.xpraClient = {
wantedBy = [ "default.target" ];
serviceConfig = {
Type = "simple";
ExecStart = ''${pkgs.xpra}/bin/xpra attach tcp:localhost:7'';
};
};
containers.firefox.config = {config, pkgs, ...}: {
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ firefox gnome3.gedit wget file xfce.terminal gnome3.nautilus xpra ];
users.users.user = {
isNormalUser = true;
};
};
GUI Apps - attempt B: ssh with Xpra
let
createContainer = containerConfig: {
autoStart = false;
privateNetwork = true;
hostAddress = "192.168.7." + toString containerConfig.id;
localAddress = "192.168.7." + toString (containerConfig.id + 1);
config = { config, pkgs, ... }: let raw = containerConfig.config { config = config; pkgs = pkgs; }; in raw // {
environment = ({ systemPackages = {}; } // raw).environment // { systemPackages = [ pkgs.xpra ] ++ raw.environment.systemPackages; };
users.users.user = {
isNormalUser = true;
openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [ SSH-KEYS-GO-HERE ];
extraGroups = ["audio" "video"];
};
services = ({ services = {}; } // raw).services // { openssh = {
enable = true;
forwardX11 = true;
}; };
};
};
in { config, pkgs, ... }:
{
networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 4713 6000 ];
hardware.pulseaudio = {
enable = true;
systemWide = true;
support32Bit = true;
tcp = { enable = true; anonymousClients = { allowedIpRanges = ["127.0.0.1" "192.168.7.0/24"]; }; };
};
networking.nat.enable = true;
networking.nat.internalInterfaces = [ "ve-+" ];
networking.nat.externalInterface = "eth0";
networking.networkmanager.unmanaged = [ "interface-name:ve-*" ];
........... (please install xpra)
script
#!/bin/sh
CONTAINER=...
APP=...
sudo nixos-container stop "$CONTAINER"
sudo nixos-container start "$CONTAINER"
exec xpra --opengl=yes --bandwidth-limit=0 --pulseaudio=yes --compression_level=0 --encoding=rgb --terminate-children=yes start ssh://user@"$(nixos-container show-ip $CONTAINER)"/ --border=red --start-child="$APP"
Final Configuration File
configuration.nix
(please replace ________________________________________________________________________________________________)
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
imports =
[ # Include the results of the hardware scan.
./hardware-configuration.nix
];
# Use the systemd-boot EFI boot loader.
boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_latest;
boot.supportedFilesystems = [ "btrfs" ];
hardware.enableAllFirmware = true;
nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
swapDevices = [ { device = "/swap/swapfile"; size = 4096; } ];
networking.hostName = "________________________________________________________________________________________________"; # Define your hostname.
networking.networkmanager.enable = true;
# networking.wireless.enable = true; # Enables wireless support via wpa_supplicant.
# Set your time zone.
time.timeZone = "________________________________________________________________________________________________";
# The global useDHCP flag is deprecated, therefore explicitly set to false here.
# Per-interface useDHCP will be mandatory in the future, so this generated config
# replicates the default behaviour.
networking.useDHCP = false;
networking.interfaces.eno1.useDHCP = true;
networking.interfaces.wlp1s0.useDHCP = true;
# Configure network proxy if necessary
# networking.proxy.default = "http://user:password@proxy:port/";
# networking.proxy.noProxy = "127.0.0.1,localhost,internal.domain";
# Select internationalisation properties.
i18n.defaultLocale = "en_US.UTF-8";
# console = {
# font = "Lat2-Terminus16";
# keyMap = "us";
# };
# Enable the X11 windowing system.
services.xserver.enable = true;
# Enable the Plasma 5 Desktop Environment.
services.xserver.displayManager.sddm.enable = true;
services.xserver.displayManager.autoLogin.enable = true;
services.xserver.displayManager.autoLogin.user = "user";
services.xserver.desktopManager.plasma5.enable = true;
nixpkgs.config.firefox.enablePlasmaBrowserIntegration = true;
powerManagement.enable = true;
# Configure keymap in X11
services.xserver.layout = "us";
# services.xserver.xkbOptions = "eurosign:e";
# Enable CUPS to print documents.
# services.printing.enable = true;
# Enable sound.
sound.enable = true;
hardware.pulseaudio.enable = true;
hardware.cpu.intel.updateMicrocode = true;
hardware.opengl.enable = true;
services.thermald.enable = true;
services.tlp.enable = true;
services.chrony.enable = true;
# Enable touchpad support (enabled default in most desktopManager).
services.xserver.libinput.enable = true;
# Define a user account. Don't forget to set a password with ‘passwd’.
users.users.user = {
isNormalUser = true;
extraGroups = [ "wheel" ]; # Enable ‘sudo’ for the user.
};
# List packages installed in system profile. To search, run:
# $ nix search wget
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
brise # rime
wget file
];
i18n.inputMethod = {
enabled = "fcitx";
fcitx.engines = with pkgs.fcitx-engines; [ rime libpinyin ];
};
# Some programs need SUID wrappers, can be configured further or are
# started in user sessions.
# programs.mtr.enable = true;
# programs.gnupg.agent = {
# enable = true;
# enableSSHSupport = true;
# };
# List services that you want to enable:
# Enable the OpenSSH daemon.
# services.openssh.enable = true;
# Open ports in the firewall.
# networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ ... ];
# networking.firewall.allowedUDPPorts = [ ... ];
# Or disable the firewall altogether.
# networking.firewall.enable = false;
# This value determines the NixOS release from which the default
# settings for stateful data, like file locations and database versions
# on your system were taken. It‘s perfectly fine and recommended to leave
# this value at the release version of the first install of this system.
# Before changing this value read the documentation for this option
# (e.g. man configuration.nix or on https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html).
system.stateVersion = "20.09"; # Did you read the comment?
}