Kirill Elagin wrote: > On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 1:01 AM, Ben Franksen > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> (2) It seems impossible to install NixOS w/o installing the boot loader. > > Hm, > > boot.loader.grub.enable = false;
Nope, that's what I tried first, of course, nixos-install complains that you must enable it. >> (3) I love the declarative approach to system configuration. However, for >> a newcomer it is hard to find out how to configure his favorite packages. >> What >> options are there and how can I set them? Is looking at the 'sources' >> (for the package's nix expressions) the only way? > > Yes, I guess, looking at the expressions is the only option right now. > You set them in `~/.nixpkgs/config.nix`. That's the file where your > configuration options for > packages and all your package overrides go. OK, I'll bite this bullet then. >> Related question: I tried to >> put pkgs.kdepim into environment.systemPackages, which failed for no >> apparent reason. Then I stumbled (really, by accident) over a nix snippet >> where it said pkgs.kde4.<some-kde-subpackage> and indeed adding the .kde4 >> worked. How can I find out how packages are organised in the pkgs nix >> expression? > > You'll have to look it up in `pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix`. > Either clone the nixpkgs repository or you can find a copy at > `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs`. Ok, thanks. >> (4) How do I fix something if it is broken? Note I don't want to upgrade >> my whole NixOS configuration to the unstable branch (as all the >> documentation suggests), just make one or two fixes in certain packages >> (e.g. the nedit package is currently broken, when starting the binary it >> crashes with some X11 bad opcode error). I expected the nixpkgs >> repository to have a 'stable' branch so I could check that out and work >> from there but such a branch seems >> not to exist. How else can I replace/fix/change the nix expression for a >> single package, leaving the rest of the system as is? >> > > Actually, right now, using stable instead of unstable doesn't make any > sense. Why? I gave NixOS a try in the past, and that (i.e. when I upgraded the nixpkgs to the current head of the repository) was always the point at which everything broke. > That's how I modify packages: > I have a clone of the nixpkgs repository and I modify expressions there. Ok. But I /can/ use the stable branch, and make my changes there, right? I guess it makes sense to have the master branch lying around somewhere, too, for reference at least, so I can check if some fix has already been made there. > Then I > do `nix-env -i` (or whatever I need) with `-f > <path_to_my_copy_of_nixpkgs>`. That tells Nix to use _my_ expressions. In > case of `nixos-rebuild` there is `-I` flag. As I said, I really like the declarative system configuration and therefore want to avoid ad-hoc installation using nix-env if possible. However, I guess I can adapt that approach to changing my configuration.nix and then doing a nixos-rebuild. Cheers (& many thanks for answering my questions) Ben -- "Make it so they have to reboot after every typo." -- Scott Adams _______________________________________________ nix-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev
