What user software are folks using to monitor and log PSU sensor data?

Would be nice to correlate power usage and efficiency with system load percentage over time and type (CPU vs GPU).

I’ll preface that NixOS may not be for everyone, as deviating from a conventional hierarchical file system is a radical departure from conventional distributions; but for those that want precise control over their system environment, it has a good deal of appeal.

For example, I appreciate being able to use the latest bleeding release of a number of tools while sticking with older trusted versions of other utilities, but if both relied upon different versions of similar dependencies, such package conflicts can be troublesome to resolve, as few Linux package managers gracefully deal with multi version installs.

For NixOS using the nix store, installing leaf packages that traditionally conflict is trivial, and as a user, I can spend less time managing every transitive dependency in order to use the software I want. Not having to wait for a disjointed ecosystem of packages to synchronize around dependencies, or resorting to compromise in package version selection is very liberating.

• https://nixos.org/guides/how-nix-works/

The functional language and documentation for nix itself is a bit quirky, as I wish it was stronger typed, but being able to declaratively express and version control my setup across workstations has been a time saver; installing/configuring something once and then have-done with it.

I think it stands for Managed Service Providers.

Nix-ld is only used by unpatched executables that use the link loader at /lib or /lib64. If you use for example python from nixpkgs than it will not pick up NIX_LD_LIBRARY_PATH and NIX_LD since these types of binaries are configured to use a glibc from the nix store.

• https://github.com/nix-community/nix-ld/blob/bc1a7a1b88589bfd26846fc5341fe44fc73b3fbd/README.md?plain=1#L164

Ah, I guess that’s why I’ve seen folks recommend just having uv install the python interpreter as well, so everything python uses the same link loder from nix-ld.

I would have liked the PyCon25 talk directly, but I don’t think the recordings have been published yet:

https://slides.com/bittner/pycon25-nixos-for-python-developers#/2/4

Hopefully the presenter discusses more on their later slides in using python on NixOS and working around python packaging’s use of dynamic linking.

I’m still using an old UC Gateway, doubt my homelab will outgrow it.

I’d love to find an example NixOS config to simply reproduce and import Clear Linux’s kernel config. There are a few already for replicating CachyOS’s kernel variants:

• https://github.com/chaotic-cx/nyx/tree/main/pkgs/linux-cachyos/config-nix

Although I’m not sure that those approachs still use clang instead of gcc?

I hope this rust library can make its way back into Moonlight and Sunshine projects.

One thing I appreciate about NixOS is the ability to use overlays and override package sources. For example, overlays can be used to selectively install unstable and stable packages alongside each other:

• https://discourse.nixos.org/t/mixing-stable-and-unstable-packages-on-flake-based-nixos-system/50351

While there may be caveats, this approach has been working for me just fine, as I can install VSCode from unstable to get the most recent monthly releases as they roll out, but then pin the rest of my desktop environment to stable to limit anything else shifting underneath me unexpectedly.

Another related video from a nice channel I posted here previously:

• How Phone Chargers Copied Car Chargers - USB PD PPS
  • https://youtube.com/watch?v=4ljVd0EkekU

Another video on PPS from a charging device perspective:

• USB-C Just got Even Better! (PPS)
  • https://youtube.com/watch?v=kcmpGbR6xZc

I’ll say the newer up and coming standard AVS (Adjusted Voltage Supply) for support with Extended Power Range looks promising, if not a little concerning in regards to cable quality hazards.

• https://www.graniteriverlabs.com/en-us/technical-blog/usb-power-delivery-specification-3-1

Perhaps one could use something like this using Android’s Virtualization Framework in the meantime:

• Run Full Linux with GUI on Android 16 – Native Support!
  • https://youtube.com/watch?v=4hqsKyfwG6U

Looks like they introduce the use Traefik with NixOS here:

• https://youtube.com/watch?v=_e6K0dTTjwI

How does Traefik compare to a reverse proxy like Caddy?

If there was a simple Debian based distro that I could declaratively manage via a single config file, I think I’d try it. I.e. not using Puppet or Chef that can only bootstrap a system state, but something to truly manage a system’s entire life cycle, including removing packages and anything littering the system file tree. But since there isn’t, I’m using NixOS instead.

Having a DSL to declare my entire system install, that I can revision control like any other software project, has been convenient for self documenting my setup and changes/fixes over time. Modularizing that config has been great for managing multiple host machines synchronously, so both my laptop and desktop feel the same without extra admin work.

Nixpkgs also bolsters a lot of bleeding edge releases for the majority of FOSS packages I use, which I’m still getting used to. And because of how the packaging works, it’s also trivial to config the packages to build from customer sources or with custom features. E.g. enabling load monitoring for Nvidia GPUs from btop that many distros don’t ship by default.

Yeah, the centralization of public Internet infrastructure around Cloud flare has been concerning, not only as a single point of failure but also in terms of consolidation of trust.

As a prior student workout a public IP deep behind several NATs, with little funds for self hosting hobbies, these kinds of tunnel services were a handy gateway in getting started.

Although, I hope ISP adoption of IPv6 or cheaper bandwidth quotas for VPS providers help compete on this front for self hosting networking.

Too bad you have to rely on cloudflare to then manage your domain to utilize this feature, like if it’s just a demo for a one off project.

I’m waiting on support for inserting PDF figures, the most common format my tools export.

• https://github.com/typst/typst/issues/145

TDIL about nix-ld , this is so cool! Think I’ll try this out soon:

• https://github.com/nix-community/nix-ld

I’ve been straddling between NixOS and a Debian derivative for a while recently. Using nix, I really enjoy managing my system using declarative code, like I would for any other software infrastructure.

Although, for work, I still resort back to Debian or Ubuntu when it comes to collaborating with existing FOSS communities around robotic software or medical imaging, as those respective domains are heavily ingrained/invested into the Debian release and package distribution.

So it’s been a challenge to migrate anything other than my personal computing to NixOS. However I do appreciate the easy access to latest version releases of packages, kernels, and drivers. Being able to patch and document the idiosyncrasies of my hardware using declarative configs and revision control has been so helpful and solving a bug once and never forgetting how to reproduce the fix later on.

Another benefit is being able to explore public repositories for examples of how other users may be installing the same types of modules or software features I’m looking to setup, or solve a similar issue. It’s one thing to read the stack overflow answer about how to edit an arcane etc config for an anonymous package version, but it’s another to be able to read the commit history of hundreds of other nix users and PRs from nixpkgs maintainers.

My flake config is still rather simplistic, and synchronizing two hosts between two branches. I did appreciate the reference repo linked by the author as an example for modular host and user config.

https://github.com/jnsgruk/nixos-config

Any suggested resources or templates on that front? I.e. structuring and modularizing NicOS flake configs for multiple hosts for overlapping and non overlapping use cases? For example, I’ve just gotten into how to overlay nixpkgs PRs and explore dev shells.

For the faint of heart, such vicarious pain may require theatrical intermission(s).