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Setting up Nix

In order to package software or create custom NixOS modules for Thymis, you will often want to run and test Nix locally. Even though Thymis itself runs Nix for you on the Controller, having a Nix environment on your development machine is useful for:

  • Packaging and testing applications before integrating them into Thymis.
  • Learning the Nix language and build process interactively.
  • Updating and debugging your software without pushing to Thymis first.

This guide walks you through installing and configuring Nix on the most common platforms.

1. Installing Nix

Linux & macOS

The recommended way to install Nix is to use the Determinate Systems installer or the official installer. If you are new to Nix, start with Determinate’s installer as it also configures flakes support by default.

Option A — Determinate Installer (recommended):

sh <(curl -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix)

Option B — Official Nix Installer:

sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install)

Choose multi-user installation unless you have specific needs for single-user mode.

Windows

On Windows, Nix must run inside a Linux environment such as WSL2.

  1. Install WSL2 and a Linux distribution (Ubuntu is common).
  2. Open a WSL terminal and follow the Linux installation steps above.

Thymis modules that target Linux devices cannot be built natively on Windows without WSL or a VM.

2. Enabling Flakes and the New CLI

If you have installed Nix using the Determinate Systems installer, flakes and the new nix command are already enabled. You can safely skip this step. If you used the official installer, you need to enable these features manually.

Thymis projects use Nix Flakes for reproducible builds and input management. After installing Nix, ensure that Flakes and the new nix command are enabled.

Create or edit $HOME/.config/nix/nix.conf (Linux/macOS) and add:

experimental-features = nix-command flakes

You can check your configuration:

nix show-config | grep experimental-features

Expected output should contain:

experimental-features = nix-command flakes

3. Testing Your Nix Installation

Verify that Nix works and flakes are enabled:

nix --version
nix flake --help

You can also try building a simple expression:

nix eval nixpkgs#hello

You should see:

«derivation /nix/store/...-hello-2.12.1.drv»

4. Next Steps

With Nix installed, you can:

See also

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