kuru.mp4
- Wallpaper: The Herta by meirong
| Component | Software | Configuration |
|---|---|---|
| KuruKuruBar | Quickshell | users/dots/quickshell/kurukurubar |
| Compositor | Hyprland | users/dots/hyprland/ |
| Launcher | Fuzzel | users/dots/fuzzel/fuzzel.ini |
| Colors | Matugen | nixosModules/external/matugen/templates/ |
| Terminal | Foot | users/dots/foot/foot.ini |
| Editor | Neovim | users/dots/nvim/ |
| Wallpapers | booru-flake | nixosModules/programs/booru-flake/preview.md |
| Cursor | Kokomi Cursor | nil / really long random text to make this table very wide yes looks like I |
The entry point for most of the dots are here. For certain programs, the colors are injected either directly from matugen or by nix using the generated matugen
theme.json.
For nix users new to hjem, the entry point for planting my dotfiles in place is here.
Last revision where Zaphkiel was flake based: 0eee46d1e
- npins based non flake nixos configuration
- hjem over home manager
- matugen injecting colors based on wallpaper
- booru flake image collection to neatly access images all over the flake
- exports a flake.nix that relies on npins' nixpkgs source for repo flake support
if you'd prefer it please see these delightful blogs by Jade
Flakes aren't real
Pinning nixos with npins
My pursuit of faster evaluation times and minimal abstractions started with a dive into sioodmy's nixos configuration. It showed a whole new world of not relying on home-manager and wrapping programs.
Guess what happens when you stop relying on home-manager abstractions? Your nix
evals go from over 40 seconds to less than 25. Of course this is gonna vary
based on how spec'ed out your system is but on Aphrodite I simply was unable
to eval my configuration solely because of home-manager, and later despite
home-manager's removal it still took an absurd duration because of nixvim. That
gave me enough reason to ditch them both.
My initial solution was to completely go down the sioodmy route of wrapping everything, aaaand you guessed it, That did not go well. These are the few grievances
- Nushell was bugging the heck out inconsistently for remote sessions (ssh)
- I had to log out and back in to have hyprland reload its config
- matugen, I couldn't think of a wrapped solutions with matugen back then
And oh well what do I do? On one hand the above really sucked especially the thing with hyprland; like I am already waiting 18-25 seconds to rebuild the darn thing and now I gotta logout and login? F### that!!
mkOutOfStoreSymlinkLink Exists for those who are using home-manager and don't want to rebuild whole system. However, that doesn't change the fact that home-manager is slow.
Let me introduce you to hjem a very thin wrapper around systemd-tmpfiles to pretty much just stash your dots in place, and hey, that's exactly what I needed and its beautiful.
Now with all that evals were neatly averaging around 20s, but hey that's quite far away from a dream like <10s eval time. Guess what? Enter lix. Basically nix but faster, simply switching to lix gave me a new average eval time of 15s.
when I am talking about eval times here, its generally the time it takes for a nixos-rebuild test/switch to complete executing after a small change in dots or removal of a package.
And now, very recently (June 2025), I've made the decision to move away from nix flakes. What motivated this is primarily to couple away from the redundant dependencies of poorly composed flakes and further chip away at the stone of my ideal eval time (<10s). With jade's two blogs in hand and the accumulated experience of working with nix for over a year I've pushed onto deflaking with Sayonara flake #46 and #45. Those pr's whould largely highlight the changes I had to make and the challenges that I've had to overcome to ensure that everything works the way it used to before the de-flaking.
And I've come to love this way of managing my configuration, manually importing modules and writing my own overlays to minimize the overhead introduced by bloated flakes of some repos, like seriously some flakes need to embrace KISS. Ultimately at the end of the day flakes is heavily opinionated, and this repository is a testament to how I want to consume nixos flakes.
Lastly, you may want to ask: Rexi, how fast is your eval time?
nixos-rebuild dry-build --option eval-cache falsecompleted in9.5s
The following packages are exported by this flake:
| package | description |
|---|---|
| kurukurubar | adorable bar to spin the kuru kuru |
| kokCursor | A cute kokomi XCursor |
| nixvim | My custom neovim configuration using mnw |
| nixvim-minimal | less bloated version (no lsps) don't confuse this and above with the nixvim project |
| mpv | My mpv configuration with anime4k shaders baked in |
| sddm-silent-custom | slightly customized silentSDDM theme re-export |
| booru-images | exposes an attret of "i" from the imgList |
you may run any of the above with the following command (ofc you can't run a
cursor, nix build it instead) replacing nixvim with your desired package
nix run github:Rexcrazy804/Zaphkiel#nixvimhosts/ # starting point for host specific configuration
- <hostname>/ # divided into three files for seperation
- - extras/ # things I am lazy to seperate into a module just yet
nixosModules/ # common options and defaults shared across all hosts
- external/ # used for hosting modified nixos modules that aren't written by me
- graphics/ # novideo and friends
- nix/ # my beloved
- programs/ # options wraping other nixos options for programs
- - booru-flake/ # fuck around and find out
- server/ # same as above but for services
- - minecraft/ # nix-minecraft entry point
- system/ # largely defaults
- - networking/ # networking setup with dnscrypt-proxy2
npins/ # flakes? what is that?
- default.nix # auto generated file to import npins
- sources.json # where is the flake.lock? here it is
pkgs/ # exported packages are found here
- mpv/ # mpv wrapper with anime4k
- overlays/ # overlays (duh)
- scripts/ # cute scripts to do various things
secrets/ # home to my age encrypted secrets
templates/ # reusable flake and non flake templates for various nix errands
users/ # user specific configuration imported by hosts hosting said user
- dots/ # ricers, this is the .config/ folder you might be looking for
- - <program>/ # doots
- - hyprland/ # might niri, too lazy for now, hyprland
- - nvim/ # nvim configuration
- - quickshell/ # god bless foxxed for creating this lovely thing
- - - kurukurubar/ # adorable bar for kuru kuru maxxing
- - - kurumibar/ # my first now unmainted rectangle bar
- - - shell.nix # devshell for qml development with quickshell
- default.nix # imports and declares zaphkiel.data.users
- rexies.nix # my user, leverages hjem the most
- <others>.nix # other users
README.md # are you reading me yet?
default.nix # entry point for building configurations
flake.nix # sneaky flake.nix that uses npins for inputs
license # MIT License
Firstly, I have to thank sioodmy for being the
inspiration to ditch home manager and writing wrappers myself. I had known of
wrappers before, but if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have heard of
pkgs.symlinkJoin :D
I also extend my gratitude to NotAShelf for being the inspiration for this readme and for developing the hjem nixos module.
I have to thank both the AnAnimeGameLauncher and Hyprland discord communities for all the help I've received and continue to receive.
Lastly, I have to thank the nix community for their efforts in home-manager and nixvim. Both of which have been great resources throughout my early adventures in nix.
- nydragon/nysh
- end-4/dots-hyprland
- pikabar
- soramanew/rainingkurukuru
- outfoxxed/nixnew
- one unmentioned individual that did not return
- and other homies in
#rice-discussionof Hyprland discord
All code in this repository is under the MIT license unless wherever an explicit licensing is included.
