[Nix-dev] A few beginner issues

[Nick Sabalausky]

On 07/29/2016 06:50 PM, Bjørn Forsman wrote:
>>    stage-1-init: modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxsf': No such device
>
> I guess that means the virtualbox driver doesn't work with vmware.
> (Two competing VM technologies, no surprise really.)
>
> I've never used vmware on Linux. I use VirtualBox. NixOS distributes
> OVA files that you can import straight into VirtualBox. I think that's
> a very easy way to get started.
>

/facepalm

Clearly I can't read ;)

>> 2. When I'm in KDE4 on NixOS, I can change the display resolution, but the
>> change doesn't persist across a reboot. Why is this? What is the correct way
>> to make it persist? Haven't had this happen in other distros.
>
> Are you sure you're booting from your installation on disk and not the
> Live CD? I don't use KDE, but at least in GNOME the screen resolution
> is persisted (no need for NixOS option for that). I'd be surprised if
> it didn't work like that on KDE too.
>

Yes, I'm certain. The GRUB boot menu is different from when I was 
booting the live disc, and the boot menu accumulates my new 
configurations when I do I configuration rebuild. Changes to my 
/etc/nixos/configuration.nix file persist. And I've made certain to 
disconnect the ISO from the virtual machine BEFORE booting and checked 
it's still disconnected after booting (and went back and double-checked 
that again just now).


>> 3. I added "firefox" (minus quotes) to the environment.systemPackages list
>> in configuration.nix, did rebuild/switch, and it's now installed and works,
>> BUT it installed Firefox Nightly instead of a firefox release. How would I
>> go about installing a release instead of nightly?
>
> I think NixOS only ships "nightly" due to licensing or branding rights
> or something. Others may fill inn here.
>
>> 4. When looking up the firefox packages, I noticed a "firefox-unwrapped".
>> What is that and how does it differ from the package "firefox"?
>
> The -unwrapped version doesn't know about plugins. I guess most people
> will want the normal "firefox" package.
>

Interesting, thanks.