NixOS Wiki

Getting started

This is the official NixOS Wiki. It includes topics not covered in the NixOS Manual: NixOS user guides, configuration examples, and troubleshooting tips.

NixOS is a Linux operating system based on the Nix package manager and the Nixpkgs package repository.

Newcomers to NixOS are encouraged to read the Nix Core Ecosystem overview article to get a comprehensive orientation. For more specific introductions, see:

If you want to try Nix standalone in another Linux distribution or on a Mac, take your first steps on nix.dev.

Many great additional tools exist in the Nix ecosystem, such as:

Home Manager, a system for managing user profile & home directory contents
Nix Flakes, an experimental feature for managing dependencies of Nix projects

These add complexity and may be confusing at first, and you may even decide that you don't need them. Start with plain Nix/NixOS, and only integrate Home Manager and/or Flakes into your setup once you're confident with Nix/NixOS and comprehend their significance.

Setting up NixOS

On desktop, with NixOS as a desktop
On ARM, with NixOS on ARM
In the cloud, with NixOS friendly hosters

Documentation topics

First stop should be Resources, which serves as a gateway to the most important documentation. Some highlights below.

Primary reference material:

Major page categories:

Software
Hardware
Desktop - how to setup PCs
Server - how to setup servers
Community - people, communication, work on NixOS