Athena Nix Configuration

Tree Structure

The macrostructure of Athena Nix configuration elements is the following:

[ 198]  /etc/nixos/
├── [  92]  home-manager/
│   ├── [  40]  browsers/
│   ├── [  94]  desktops/
│   ├── [  34]  home/
│   ├── [  88]  shells/
│   ├── [  28]  terminals/
├── [  50]  hosts/
│   ├── [  22]  locale/
│   ├── [  52]  software/
├── [  88]  modules/
│   ├── [  22]  boot/
│   │   ├── [  22]  grub/
│   │   └── [  22]  systemd/
│   ├── [  74]  dev/
│   ├── [  20]  dms/
│   │   ├── [  22]  gdm/
│   │   └── [  22]  lightdm/
│   ├── [ 104]  hardware/
│   │   ├── [  22]  bluetooth/
│   │   ├── [  22]  kernel/
│   │   ├── [  22]  network/
│   │   ├── [  22]  sound/
│   │   ├── [  56]  virtualization/
│   ├── [  50]  misc/
│   ├── [ 138]  roles/
│   ├── [ 106]  themes/
├── [ 176]  pkgs/
│   ├── [ 222]  themes/
├── [  22]  users/
├── [2.1K]  configuration.nix
├── [ 236]  default.nix
└── [1.5K]  hardware-configuration.nix

The main file that centrally manages the entire configuration is /etc/nixos/configuration.nix.

configuration.nix

Athena Nix can be tailored to your needs. By /etc/nixos/configuration.nix, you can configure your entire system according to your need.

It looks like:

# Edit this configuration file to define what should be installed on
# your system.  Help is available in the configuration.nix(5) man page
# and in the NixOS manual (accessible by running 'nixos-help').

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
let
  # These variable names are used by Aegis backend
  version = "unstable"; #or 24.05
  username = "athena";
  hashed = "$6$zjvJDfGSC93t8SIW$AHhNB.vDDPMoiZEG3Mv6UYvgUY6eya2UY5E2XA1lF7mOg6nHXUaaBmJYAMMQhvQcA54HJSLdkJ/zdy8UKX3xL1";
  hashedRoot = "$6$zjvJDfGSC93t8SIW$AHhNB.vDDPMoiZEG3Mv6UYvgUY6eya2UY5E2XA1lF7mOg6nHXUaaBmJYAMMQhvQcA54HJSLdkJ/zdy8UKX3xL1";
  hostname = "athenaos";
  theme = "temple";
  desktop = "gnome";
  dmanager = "gdm";
  shell = "fish";
  terminal = "kitty";
  browser = "firefox";
  bootloader = "systemd";
  hm-version = if version == "unstable" then "master" else "release-"version; # "master" or "release-24.05"; # Correspond to home-manager GitHub branches
  home-manager = builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/${hm-version}.tar.gz";
in
{
  imports =
    [ # Include the results of the hardware scan.
      {
        _module.args.version = version;
        _module.args.username = username;
        _module.args.hashed = hashed;
        _module.args.hashedRoot = hashedRoot;
        _module.args.hostname = hostname;
        _module.args.theme = theme;
        _module.args.desktop = desktop;
        _module.args.dmanager = dmanager;
        _module.args.shell = shell;
        _module.args.terminal = terminal;
        _module.args.browser = browser;
        _module.args.bootloader = bootloader;
      }
      (import "${home-manager}/nixos")
      /etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix
      ./modules/boot/${bootloader}
      ./modules/dms/${dmanager}
      ./modules/themes/${theme}
      ./home-manager/desktops/${desktop}
      ./home-manager/terminals/${terminal}
      ./home-manager/browsers/${browser}
      ./home-manager/shells/${shell}
      ./hosts/software
      ./.

    ];
  networking.enableIPv6 = false;
  services.flatpak.enable = true;
  networking.extraHosts =
  ''
  '';
}

It is important to understand how it can be manipulated. Let’s break it.

Version

version = "unstable"; #or 24.05

You can change the Nixpkgs repository to use, for example unstable or 24.05. Look that if you use a repository different from unstable, new or updated applications could not be available.

If you wish to switch to another version, for example 24.05, edit the configuration file as:

version = "24.05";

Username

username = "athena";

You can change the username of your account as you prefer by editing the username value.

Password

  hashed = "$6$zjvJDfGSC93t8SIW$AHhNB.vDDPMoiZEG3Mv6UYvgUY6eya2UY5E2XA1lF7mOg6nHXUaaBmJYAMMQhvQcA54HJSLdkJ/zdy8UKX3xL1";
  hashedRoot = "$6$zjvJDfGSC93t8SIW$AHhNB.vDDPMoiZEG3Mv6UYvgUY6eya2UY5E2XA1lF7mOg6nHXUaaBmJYAMMQhvQcA54HJSLdkJ/zdy8UKX3xL1";

hashed and hashedRoot are respectively the SHA-512 hash of your user account and the root one.

Caution

Be careful when you play with these values. You could make your system inaccessible if storing a wrong hash value that does not correspond to your desired password.

Hostname

hostname = "athenaos";

You can change the hostname of your system as you prefer by editing the hostname value.

Theme

theme = "temple";

This variable is used to set the Athena theme on your environment. Athena offers several themes you can choose:

akame
anunna
cyborg
graphite
hackthebox
samurai
sweet
temple

Change the theme variable value and discover all of them!

Desktop

desktop = "gnome";

This variable is used to set your desktop environment. Athena Nix the current available environments are:

gnome
cinnamon
mate

Change the desktop variable value and set your favourite desktop environment!

Display Manager

dmanager = "gdm";

This variable is used to set your display manager. Athena Nix the current available display managers are:

gdm
lightdm neon

Change the dmanager variable value and set your favourite display manager!

Shell

shell = "fish";

This variable is used to set the shell to be used. You can choose among:

bash
fish
zsh

Change the shell variable value and set your favourite shell!

Terminal

terminal = "kitty";

This variable is used to set your favourite terminal. You can choose among:

alacritty
kitty

Change the terminal variable value and the terminal you wish!

Browser

browser = "firefox";

This variable is used to set the browser application. Currently, only Firefox is supported in Athena Nix.

System values

The other variable values should not be edited because they are set at installation time according to your hardware.

Advanced Configuration

You can still deeply configure your Athena environment by acting on elements of its Nix macrostructure by adding or editing the related default.nix file.

For example, if you wish to edit the Athena Firefox configuration, just access to /etc/nixos/home-manager/browsers/firefox/default.nix.

If you need to integrate additional software in your system, add them in /etc/nixos/hosts/software/default.nix.

If you are in a virtualized environment, tweak the related settings in /etc/nixos/modules/hardware/virtualization/guest.nix

All the files in /etc/nixos/home-manager are related to the configuration impacting the home directory or the user profile.

They are just few examples. Familiarize with the Athena Nix configuration macrostructure to unlock the full potential of your environment!

Error Handling

In case you get errors during the nixos-rebuild switch process:

• if it is caused by a tool in a specific cyber role you are setting to, you can access to /etc/nixos/modules/roles/<your-role>/default.nix and comment the line related to the tool that is broken;
• if it is caused by a generic software in Athena, you can access to /etc/nixos/hosts/software/default.nix and comment the line related to the tool that is broken;

Finally, save the file and run again nixos-rebuild switch.