Core Modules Structure Overview

The modules/core directory contains the foundational building blocks of this NixOS configuration. Unlike the desktop or program-specific configurations, these modules represent the essential, universally applied settings required to get a functional, secure, and modern NixOS system up and running.

Directory Context

  • Location: modules/core/
  • Entry Point: These modules are imported via the main modules/default.nix file.

Each component is isolated into its own subdirectory (e.g., modules/core/boot/default.nix), keeping the configuration clean and strictly separated by concern.

Key Core Components

The core modules are responsible for establishing the base layer of the operating system. They can be conceptually grouped as follows:

System Initialization & Hardware

  • boot: Configures the bootloader (typically systemd-boot or grub), kernel parameters, and early boot settings.
  • hardware: Sets up core hardware enablement, including Bluetooth, OpenGL, and audio (Pipewire) configurations.
  • network: Configures networking infrastructure, typically enabling NetworkManager, firewalls, and discovery services like Avahi.
  • system: Manages universal system states like locale, timezone, Nix daemon settings (experimental features like flakes), and automatic garbage collection.

User Environment & Shell

  • users: Defines the primary user account, default shell, and necessary group memberships (e.g., wheel, networkmanager, video).
  • bash / fish: System-wide shell configurations and aliases.
  • starship: Cross-shell prompt configuration for a unified terminal experience.
  • fonts: Installs and configures essential system fonts, including Nerd Fonts required for icons in Waybar and the terminal.
  • xdg: Sets up XDG user directories (Documents, Downloads, etc.) and XDG Desktop Portals (crucial for Wayland screen sharing and flatpaks).

Display & Security

  • sddm: Configures the Simple Desktop Display Manager (SDDM) as the login screen, often including custom themes and avatars.
  • security: Implements necessary security policies like Polkit (for GUI privilege escalation) and PAM configurations (e.g., for swaylock).

Utilities & Services

  • packages: A curated list of strictly essential, system-wide packages (like git, wget, curl) that should be available regardless of the desktop environment.
  • services: Enables foundational daemons like udisks2 (for mounting drives), upower (for battery management), dbus, and gvfs.
  • nh: Configures nh (Nix Helper), providing a cleaner, faster alternative to standard nixos-rebuild commands.
  • printing: Enables CUPS for local and network printing support.
  • syncthing: Configures the Syncthing daemon for continuous file synchronization across devices.

Philosophy

The core directory enforces a modular philosophy:

  1. Separation of Concerns: If you want to change how networking is handled, you only need to look in core/network.
  2. Reusability: By decoupling these from the desktop environment (niri), you could theoretically swap out niri for GNOME or KDE while retaining the exact same base system configuration.