NixOS and Sway

Currently, I am experimenting with NixOS and Sway. NixOS is a Linux operating system that allows you to build and manage your system using a single configuration file. Sway is a tiling window manager designed for Wayland, offering a dynamic and efficient workspace.

This article is a work in progress. I plan to share my setup and configuration details, but for now, this article serves as a draft to document my journey.

I am aware of tools like flakes and Home Manager, but my current goal is to explore and understand NixOS without using these mechanisms.

Sway

Config displays

Use wdisplays. This is a nice graphical tool for wayland to configure and outline your displays

Use swaymsg -t get_outputs to get all the display settings

Example config for 3 displays

# Config eDP-1
output eDP-1 {
    mode [email protected]
    pos 5247 0
    scale 1.375
    scale_filter linear
    transform normal
    max_render_time off
    adaptive_sync disabled
}

# Config DP-3
output DP-3 {
    mode [email protected]
    pos 8808 0
    scale 1.0
    scale_filter nearest
    transform normal
    max_render_time off
    adaptive_sync disabled
}

# Config DP-4
output DP-4 {
    mode [email protected]
    pos 6888 0
    scale 1.0
    scale_filter nearest
    transform normal
    max_render_time off
    adaptive_sync disabled
}

# Workspace assign
workspace 1 output eDP-1
workspace 2 output DP-4
workspace 3 output DP-3

Terminal (foot)

Configure the font

$ touch ~/.config/foot/foot.ini
$ nano ~/.config/foot/foot.ini

[main]
font = monospace:size=14

Sway shortcuts (cheatsheet)

• Mod + w = Tabbed view
• Mod + e = Normal view
• Mod + w = Tabbed view
• Mod + d = Application menu
• Mod+Shift+e = Restart Sway

NixOS

Packages

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
vim
wget
firefox-wayland
spotify
steam
todoist-electron
gimp
pinta
gedit
keepassxc
synology-drive-client
vscode
dolphin
libsForQt5.kdeconnect-kde
killall
networkmanager
git
kitty
powershell
networkmanagerapplet
gnome.gnome-keyring
blueman
gnome.gnome-bluetooth
bluez
bluez-tools
pkgs.libsForQt5.bismuth # KDE Tiling
upower # nodig voor power management (firefox)
];