NixOS 

Introduction 

NixOS is a declarative Linux distribution. It is recommended for advanced Linux users.

Features [1][2]:

Declarative configuration for files, packages, and services
Builds are reproducible and easily shareable
Install two or more versions of the same program
Automatic operating system backups called “generations”
Optional rolling release updates

Every 6 months, a new NixOS major update is released and promoted to the “stable” branch. This happens in May (YY.05) and November (YY.11). They are tagged with the year and month. Each major release gets bug and security updates for 7 months. There is also an “unstable” rolling release branch of NixOS with the latest packages. [3]

Global Configuration 

Introduction 

The NixOS configuration is defined in /etc/nixos/configuration.nix. After editing this file, run the command sudo nixos-rebuild switch.

Configure a unique hostname (the default is nixos).

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
  networking.hostName = "<HOSTNAME>";
}

Configure the time zone (for example, America/New_York).

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
  time.timeZone = "<COUNTRY>/<CITY>";
}

Configure the locale (for example, en_US.UTF-8).

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
  i18n.defaultLocale = "<LOCALE>";
  i18n.extraLocaleSettings = {
    LC_ADDRESS = "<LOCALE>";
    LC_IDENTIFICATION = "<LOCALE>";
    LC_MEASUREMENT = "<LOCALE>";
    LC_MONETARY = "<LOCALE>";
    LC_NAME = "<LOCALE>";
    LC_NUMERIC = "<LOCALE>";
    LC_PAPER = "<LOCALE>";
    LC_TELEPHONE = "<LOCALE>";
    LC_TIME = "<LOCALE>";
  };
}

Allow proprietary software.

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
}

Install NVIDIA proprietary grahpics driver. It is important to note that NixOS uses services.xserver to configure graphical settings regardless of if Xorg X11 or Wayland is used. [5]

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
    # Latest driver.
    services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "nvidia" ];
    # Or use a legacy driver.
    #hardware.nvidia.package = config.boot.kernelPackages.nvidiaPackages.legacy_470;
    #hardware.nvidia.package = config.boot.kernelPackages.nvidiaPackages.legacy_390;
    #hardware.nvidia.package = config.boot.kernelPackages.nvidiaPackages.legacy_340;
}

Enable 32-bit graphics drivers.

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    hardware.graphics.enable32Bit = true;
}

Enable SSH access. Optionally configure a list of authorized public SSH keys and disable root access entirely.

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    services.openssh.enable = true;
    #users.users.<USER>.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [ "<SSH_KEY_PUBLIC>" ];
    #services.openssh.settings.PermitRootLogin = "no";
}

Install a specific version of the Linux kernel. Otherwise, the latest long-term support (LTS) kernel is installed by default. [6]
```
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxKernel.packages.linux_6_13;
}
```

[4]

Experimental Nix Features 

There are a lot of experimental features for Nixpkg. The two most commonly used are flakes and nix-command. View the full list here.

Enable the most common experimental features using /etc/nixos/configuration.nix.

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    nix.settings = {
      experimental-features = [
        "flakes"
        "nix-command"
      ];
    };
}

Packages 

Search for packages with either nix search nixpkgs (where nixpkgs is the repository) or use the official NixOS package search website. The website also shows useful configuration options.

View all available packages and what repository they come from.
```
$ nix-env -qaP '*' --description
```

Define packages to install globally.

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
      <PACKAGE_1>
      <PACKAGE_2>
    ];
}

Some packages are installed automatically if they support an enable configuration option. This is most useful for systemd services which will be installed and then enabled automatically.

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
      firefox
    ];
}

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
    programs.firefox.enable = true;
}

Install packages based on the CPU architecture.

{ config, pkgs, ... }
{
  environment.systemPacks = with pkgs; [
    firefox
  ] ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isx86_64 [
    thermald
  ] ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isAarch64 [
    box64
  ];
}

{ config, pkgs, ... }
{
    programs.firefox.enable = true;
    services.thermald.enable = pkgs.stdenv.isx86_64;
}

Enable AppImage support.

{ config, pkgs, ... }
{
    programs.appimage.enable = true;
    programs.appimage.binfmt = true;
}

Enable Flatpak support.

{ config, pkgs, ... }
{
    services.flatpak.enable = true;
    xdg.portal.extraPortals = [ pkgs.xdg-desktop-portal-gtk ];
    xdg.portal.config.common.default = "gtk";
}

$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
$ flatpak update

[4]

Enable support for non-NixOS Linux binaries. The list of packages to get libraries from needs to be defined and is separate from the system packages. It is recommended to start with steam-run which includes many common libraries.

{ config, pkgs, ... }
{
    services.envfs.enable = true;
    programs.nix-ld = {
      enable = true;
      libraries = pkgs.steam-run.args.multiPkgs pkgs;
    };
}

If a library is still missing, search to see if a NixOS package provides it. For example, search for the libzstd.so.1 Zstandard library file. [7]

$ nix run github:nix-community/nix-index-database lib/<LIBRARY_NAME>

$ nix run github:nix-community/nix-index-database lib/libzstd.so.1
zstd.out                                              0 s /nix/store/9nizcmvz2699nkrbzxx8xsp5d8jp686w-zstd-1.5.7/lib/libzstd.so.1
zstd.out                                        905,672 x /nix/store/9nizcmvz2699nkrbzxx8xsp5d8jp686w-zstd-1.5.7/lib/libzstd.so.1.5.7

History 

Latest

Bibliography 

“Declarative builds & deployments.” Nix & NixOS. Accessed July 29, 2026. https://nixos.org/
“Introduction to NixOS.” Medium - Omkar Chandorkar. May 27, 2020. Accessed July 29, 2026. https://medium.com/the-script-group/introduction-to-nixos-a9dac91399a7
“NixOS.” endoflife.date. May 28, 2026. Accessed July 29, 2026. https://endoflife.date/nixos
“Version 26.05.” NixOS Manual. Accessed August 7, 2026. https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/
“services.xserver naming is confusing #94799.” GitHub NixOS/nixpkgs. June 23, 2026. Accessed August 7, 2026. https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/94799
“Linux kernel.” NixOS Wiki. Accessed August 7, 2026. https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Linux_kernel
“Nix-ld.” Official NixOS Wiki. June 16, 2026. Accessed August 12, 2026. https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Nix-ld