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.

Much great additional tooling exists in the Nix ecosystem such as:

Home-manager to manage user profile & home directory contents
Nix Flakes instead of nix-channel

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