Nixos on Nekomangini blog

Fixing Hyprland Black Screen on NixOS With an NVIDIA GPU

Tue, 10 Nov 2026 13:27:11 +0800

I wanted to move my NixOS desktop to Hyprland with a Lua config and the Noctalia shell. Logging in gave me a black screen and nothing else. This post is the path I took to fix it, including the dead ends, because the dead ends are where most of the learning happened.

Setup: NixOS 26.05, Hyprland 0.55.2, Home Manager as a NixOS module, GTX 1050 Ti, three monitors, and a flake-based dotfiles repo.

Setting Up KDE Connect on NixOS

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 17:55:03 +0800

No matter what desktop environment or window manager I use, KDE Connect is an absolute necessity. Clipboard sharing, receiving phone notifications on my desktop, and using my phone as an emergency trackpad are features I simply cannot live without.

But as with most things, setting up network-dependent services on NixOS requires a bit of planning. You can’t just install the package and expect device discovery to work out of the box—our system firewall has other plans.

Managing Secrets on NixOS: My Journey with Agenix

Fri, 08 May 2026 12:07:22 +0800

As my NixOS configuration grows, so does the need to handle sensitive data securely. I’ve recently started using Agenix to manage secrets, specifically to hide project folder paths.

The transition hasn’t been without its hurdles, particularly setting up Agenix as a noob.

The Challenge: Installing Agenix

As I continue to “rice” my system and automate my workflows, I’ve hit a common roadblock: how to handle sensitive data without leaking it to my public GitHub repository. My latest challenge involves using Agenix to hide project folder paths for testing purposes.

Setting Up Helix for Vue.js Development on NixOS

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:44:29 +0800

Following my move to NixOS and my shift toward Helix as my primary editor, I recently tackled the challenge of setting up a robust Vue.js development environment. While the Helix Wiki provides a great starting point, NixOS adds a unique layer of complexity when it comes to locating plugins in the /nix/store.

Here is how I got it working.

The Toolchain

First, we need to ensure the necessary language servers and formatters are available in the environment. I use Home Manager to manage these packages:

My Descent Into the NixOS Rabbithole: A Retrospective

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 23:14:26 +0800

I’ve been using NixOS since October 2025. I’ll be honest: I’m still very much a beginner, so if you see me doing something “the wrong way,” I am more than happy to be corrected! To keep my head above water, I’ve been living by the NixOS & Flakes Book.

The Config Migration

At first, I kept my NixOS config in the standard /etc/nixos/ directory. But as a developer, I wanted to keep it in a GitHub repository, and managing a Git repo inside /etc is… a bit of a headache.

From openSUSE to NixOS: A Migration Story

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 01:42:10 +0800

The last time I updated this blog was back in September 2024. If you’ve been wondering where I disappeared to, the answer is simple: I fell deep down the Neovim and Emacs rabbit holes. What started as “just a few tweaks” to my dotfiles turned into a month-long obsession with perfecting my development environment. Since then, my setup has evolved even further—I’ve actually switched from Neovim to Helix for my main editing, while still keeping Emacs around specifically for the power of Org-mode.