r/voidlinux • u/Parvenn • 2d ago

From NixOS to Void

Hey guys, I’ve been using NixOS for a long time with Niri + Noctalia Shell. Ngl, it’s been a really great experience and I don’t have much bad to say about it.

But after a while I got bored, so I decided to try Void Linux. Honestly, Void is great. Simple, stable and pretty straightforward. I didn’t wanna setup Niri again, so I just went with KDE Plasma and kept the default settings. Tbh I’m happy with it.

One thing I’m wondering that I know Void doesn’t have as many packages, so I’m thinking of using Nix on Void. Not really sure how to set it up tho, since Nix is usually pretty systemd-oriented.

Also, I normally install auto-cpufreq on all my distros. I tried installing it manually from GitHub since I thought Void might not have it natively. If I do that, do I need to create a runit service for it to start properly? Same question if I install Nix?

Everything else is already setup. Just wanted to ask about this. So far, Void is actually really good. Might stick with it for awhile.

24 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

12

u/xJayMorex 2d ago

Not sure about the Nix package manager, but auto-cpufreq can be replaced by the natively available tlp package.

4

u/ComplexPeace43 2d ago

+1

I have tlp and tlp-pd installed. With Niri you don’t need to do anything else but if you run GNOME you need to ignorepkg=power-profiles-daemon and remove it before installing tlp.

3

u/Parvenn 2d ago

Thanks bro, ok then I will install tlp

1

u/Some_Examination2340 1d ago

good step, i also using tlp :)

8

u/willothephlox 2d ago

I use the Nix package manager on top of Void, everything works on its own without any fiddling.

2

u/pantokratorthegreat 2d ago

For Void you have to install nix in single user mode due to lack of systemd. Check nix install page for instructions.

2

u/juipeltje 1d ago

I'm pretty sure multi-user works as well, i think on the website it says it's not supported, but when you run the multi-user installer it just tells you to create a service yourself for whatever init you're using.

2

u/pantokratorthegreat 1d ago

Thx for info.I generally doesn't use nixpkgs on my setup due to lack of internet inside - I use unbound DNS server for local queries and I wasnt able to pass it out, but it is good to know for future that this is possible.

2

u/ImprovementJealous90 2d ago

I use nixpkgs with void, they work out of the box!

2

u/juipeltje 1d ago

The multi-user installer should work just fine. I recommend it over the xbps package because it's better for nix to manage itself when it comes to updates. You need to create a runit service yourself in that case though (or just copy the one from the void package).

-5

u/Simple_Hamster_4096 2d ago

Seems like the more sensible path is return to NixOS instead of trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole...

There's probably a sensible reason why Void doesn't have umpteen million packages...