Update instructions

Author: boredsquirrel

Guides/NixOS/Install.md

@@ -116,9 +116,7 @@ chmod -R 700 /mnt/boot
 ### BTRFS Subvolumes
 
 ```
-btrfs subvolume create /mnt/root
-
-btrfs subvolume create /mnt/usr
+btrfs subvolume create /mnt/nix
 
 btrfs subvolume create /mnt/etc
 
@@ -151,11 +149,159 @@ Generate a default config
 nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
 ```
 
-Edit the config and add the parts from "kde.nix".
+### 2.1 Main configuration.nix
+Edit the main config file
+
+```
+cd /mnt/etc/nixos
+mkdir configuration
+nano configuration.nix
+```
+
+Replace the part at the top, loading the hardware configuration, with this:
+
+```
+{
+  imports =
+    [
+      ./hardware-configuration.nix
+      ./configuration/packages.nix
+      ./configuration/kde-plasma.nix
+      # ./configuration/unstable-packages.nix
+    ];
+...
+```
+
+Apart from that, change as little as possible in that file.
+
+### 2.2 Specific config files
+
+Separate out other config snippets to keep it clean.
+
+In this example, additional packages and KDE Plasma are separated out.
 
+#### 2.2.1 KDE Plasma Config File
+
+```
+nano configuration/kde-plasma.nix
 ```
-nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
+
+Add something like this here
+
+```
+{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
+
+{
+
+    # KDE Plasma 6 and SDDM
+    services.displayManager.sddm.enable = true ;
+    services.desktopManager.plasma6.enable = true ;
+
+    # KDE Plasma in Wayland
+    services.displayManager.defaultSession = "plasma" ;
+
+    # SDDM in Wayland
+    services.displayManager.sddm.wayland.enable = true ;
+
+    # KDE Plasma
+    environment.plasma6.excludePackages = with pkgs.kdePackages; [
+    oxygen
+    elisa
+    xwaylandvideobridge
+    ];
+
+    # KDE Partitionmanager
+    programs.partition-manager.enable = true;
+
+    # programs.kdeconnect.package = true;
+    programs.kdeconnect.enable = true;
+}
+```
+
+#### 2.2.2 Packages
+
+```
+nano configuration/packgages.nix
+```
+
+example:
+
 ```
+{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
+
+{
+    programs.firefox.enable = true;
+
+    # syncthing
+    services.syncthing.enable = true;
+
+    # localsend
+    programs.localsend.enable = true;
+
+    # List packages installed in system profile. To search, run:
+    # $ nix search wget
+    environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
+        wget
+        aria2
+        curl
+        git
+        nano
+        htop
+        btop
+        powertop
+        cosmic-term
+        kate
+        haruna
+    ];
+}
+```
+
+#### 2.2.3 Unstable Packages
+This does not work yet, unsure if you can add the unstable branch at installation.
+
+NixOS is stable by default, with updates every 6 months. Meanwhile, the packages are actually updated very frequently, and the `unstable` branch allows to use these. Switching to it entirely is often recommended, but can introduce instability, the packages are about as new as on Arch Linux.
+
+So an alternative is to mix stable and unstable. Note that a ton of dependencies will be duplicated, which slows down updates and increases storage size.
+
+Example:
+
+```
+{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
+
+let
+    unst = import <nixos-unstable> {};
+in
+{
+    # Mullvad
+    services.mullvad-vpn.package = unst.mullvad-vpn;
+    services.mullvad-vpn.enable = true ;
+    
+    # Fish Shell
+    programs.fish.package = unst.fish;
+    programs.fish.enable = true;
+    programs.fish.vendor.functions.enable = true;
+    programs.fish.vendor.completions.enable = true;
+    programs.fish.vendor.config.enable = true;
+    
+    # Flatpak
+    services.flatpak.package = unst.flatpak;
+    services.flatpak.enable = true;
+}
+```
+
+To enable this (after installation), add the unstable channel and update the channels.
+
+```
+sudo nix-channel --add https://channels.nixos.org/nixos-unstable nixos-unstable
+sudo nix-channel --update
+
+# then remove the comment in the main configuration.nix
+# now rebuild the system
+
+sudo nixos-rebuild switch
+```
+
+### 2.3 Hardware Config
 
 enable bluetooth
 
@@ -184,4 +330,24 @@ passwd user
 
 ## 5. Test the system
 
-See what packages are missing, add them to the packages section
+See what packages are missing, add them to the config files.
+
+## 6. Stable vs. Unstable
+
+If you want to replace the stable channel with the unstable one, override the default `nixos` channel.
+
+```
+sudo nix-channel --add https://channels.nixos.org/nixos-unstable nixos
+sudo nix-channel --update
+sudo nixos-rebuild switch
+```
+
+This will rebuild the OS and swap out the packages with the unstable ones.
+
+To revert, you need to add a point release channel, currently 24.11
+
+```
+sudo nix-channel --add https://channels.nixos.org/nixos-24.11 nixos
+sudo nix-channel --update
+sudo nixos-rebuild switch
+```