Last time I didn’t upgrade for a long while some drivers broke, maybe I’ll just switch to NixOS this time since it seems interesting. Does anyone here use NixOS? What do you think about it?

  • Fryboyter@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    I have several virtual machines here with Arch that I often don’t use for months. And when I do use them, I proceed as I do with every update. So before an update, I check if something has been published at https://archlinux.org/news/ that affects the installation in question. This is done automatically with the help of the tool informant. If something has been published that affects my installations, I take that into account. Otherwise I run pacman -Syu as usual. And that’s it.

  • SolemnAttic@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    I am using NixOS and have used Arch before. Its great. No dependency hell, superb config management (with home manager) and builtin rollbacks. But the nix language is somewhat arcane. Error messages are only somewhat helpful and docs are really lacking. NixOS also uses quite the amount of disk space in its store. Would only recommend NixOS if youre a resourceful programmer (or not)

    PS. Ive never had arch break any drivers on me, or any upgrade failing (unless a package itself is borked, but they usually put out posts for this). But my systems all amd, ymmv

    • ouigol@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Oh yeah I use nvidia so it’s pretty unsurprising. How much coding is required? I know how to code so it’s not a very big deal but I’d like to have an idea.

      • corefoundation@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I wouldn’t call it coding. It’s more about writing configurations. You have to provide a list of packages you need and some configuration for them like configuring default desktop environment. I recommend searching for dotfiles repos with configuration.nix on github to get an idea.

  • jaybob@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’ve had no problems, as long as I’ve updated the keyring first sudo pacman-key —refresh-keys. I’ve probably gone a few times not upgrading my system for a while and I had minimal problems.

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
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    1 year ago

    Most likely, nothing will happen. Arch breaking if you don’t updating 5x a day is more of a meme than a reality.

    I’ve updated a client’s Arch server that hadn’t been touched for years, and it went just fine.

    You’re the user, you’re in control, you’re empowered to make sure it won’t break after the update, you’re empowered to fix it if it does.

    • llii@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I update my arch computer maybe once a month for years and it works fine.

  • Ge6xd@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    After a long time I usually upgrade the keyring first with pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring For upgrading I like to use Topgrade which also upgrades other stuff (snaps, flatpacks, pip, …)

  • Eufalconimorph@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    NixOS + Home Manager user here.

    I run in an opt-in state config. / is tmpfs. /home is tmpfs. /boot and /nix are real filesystems. At boot, the EFI loader reads the configuration from /nix/persist/etc/nixos/flake.nix, symlinks all the programs and configs into / and /home, and startup proceeds as normal.

    That means nothing persists across boots unless I add it to my config. Cruft doesn’t accumulate in hidden areas, it’s all in my config. That keeps things fast, makes management easier, and makes troubleshooting easier.

    • cybersandwich@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The more I see about NixOS, the less I understand it.

      Is it a pain in the ass to use on a daily basis? It just seems like one of those things where the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

      • Eufalconimorph@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        Daily use isn’t difficult IME. NixOS is just so nice once it’s working. It’s ridiculously easy to understand your system & how it’s set up (it’s all in your config). Nothing changes between updates that you don’t know about. You never have to merge configurations from upstream. It’s trivial to try something new without changing your system overall. Rollbacks are amazing. It’s easy to configure a new machine, to keep multiple machines synchronized (same packages & versions & even users & dotfiles). I have automatic updates enabled so I get a new system when I reboot, and if I don’t like an update I can just revert seamlessly. It basically works like an appliance: I don’t have to think about the way it’s set up unless I disagree with the defaults, and in that case I can change them. You can always override things, even down to applying patches to source code (though obviously that then requires re-compiling). It’s like if you took the stability of Debian, the up-to-date nature and huge repo of Arch & the AUR, and the configurability of Gentoo and mashed them all together.

        The hard bits are packaging new programs and making “modules”. You can pretty much always configure a program by just writing the config file options in a Nix string block, e.g. I’ve got the following in my home-manager config for my ~/.xkbrc:

          home.file.".config/kxkbrc" = {
            text = ''
              [$Version]
              update_info=kxkb_variants.upd:split-variants
        
              [Layout]
              DisplayNames=
              LayoutList=us
              LayoutLoopCount=-1
              Model=pc86
              Options=terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp,compose:rctrl
              ResetOldOptions=true
              SwitchMode=Global
              Use=true
              VariantList=colemak
            '';
          };
        

        Modules would let that be a Nix expression, e.g. looking like

        programs.xkeyboard = {
          layout = "us";
          variant = "colemak";
          model = "pc86";
          options = {
            terminate = "ctrl_alt_bksp";
            compose = "rctrl";
          };
          resetOldOptions = true;
        };
        

        but that requires writing an expression in Nix that converts the Nix syntax into whatever syntax the config file needs to be. That means learning a lot more Nix. Packaging programs also requires learning more Nix, and particularly how Nixpkgs builders work.

        That said, the documentation is shitty, the error messages are shitty, Flakes are massively easier to work with but still “experimental” and lots of the docs & examples online are for pre-flakes, while nixpkgs is enormous it doesn’t have everything, and IDE support for Nix shell environments is lacking (have to use VS Code or a terminal-based editor like nvim).

        Nix is sort of like democracy. Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. Nix is the worst way to manage an OS, except for all the others. It’s shitty, but it’s shitty in different ways and those mostly end up making day-to-day operations easier.

  • mrh@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I’ve never used Arch or Nix, but I switched from Void -> Guix and have been very happy with it. It’s such a huge peace of mind to be able to have your whole system declaratively configured, package changes being atomic and generational (rollbacks so no worries about breakage), Guix shell for messing about, and being able to make your system do anything you can write in Scheme.

    That’s my daily driver. On servers so far I’ve gone with Debian Stable + Guix.

    Also Void is still a fantastic distro, and is what I would use if not for Guix/Nix.

        • Meow.tar.gz@lemmy.goblackcat.com
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          1 year ago

          Interesting! Thank you for that. The only init systems I am really familiar with are the old system V, rc.d, OpenRC, and systemd. I actually don’t mind systemd all that much now that I’ve gotten used to it. I still don’t like the way Poettering basically forced it on us but it’s tolerable.

      • mrh@mander.xyz
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        1 year ago

        guix pull && guix upgrade is still a bit slow, but I never thought excessively slow (definitely slower than xbps, pacman, and probably apt too).

        I guess I never thought much about it because of rollbacks, so it’s safe enough to just cron.

  • [TK] Trainzkid@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’ve got an Arch server that I update monthly (and have been for 2+ years now), and a desktop that I update maybe 2-3 times a week. I’ve not had any issues, so long as I update the keyring first. Good luck!!

  • steadfast@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I know it’s not the same (some would argue worse), but I ran manjaro for a long time and just didn’t have these sorts of issues. Maybe I didn’t update enough, or I updated too frequently, or ?

  • runawaycorvid@rammy.site
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    1 year ago

    (Disclaimer that I’m still new-ish to Linux)

    I just went about a year between EndeavorOS updates on a laptop and uhh… it wasn’t happy. I just installed Kubuntu which hopefully will be more forgiving haha.

    • happyhippo@feddit.it
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      1 year ago

      I don’t get why so many folks try niche stuff when the tried and proven solution is out there.

      Tumbleweed, excellent support for KDE, rolling, great defaults, snapshots out of the box, lots of support/documentation, OBS…

  • I use NixOS. Was a kinda rough start since it was annoying to install apps through a config, but after getting my config fully fledged out I love it. A declarative system is a dream for a dev, I can just copy my config to a new system, run one command, and I have my entire system back! Very stable as well