Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NixOS on Framework Laptop

kvark.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 250 posts

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#101

Post by Aeolun »

viraptor wrote: post #70
rollcat wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

systemd is so complex, I've come to a conclusion, that it no longer fits my definition of free software. We allow runaway complexity to obscure the inner workings of an important software package, to the point, where having source access no longer makes a practical difference to a "casual" power-user or even a software engineer. I can source-dive runit, s6, OpenBSD's rc, or OpenRC and within a weekend, have a pretty…

Have you actually tried to dive into the part you're interested in? Where did you find the complexity? I've done it a few times for different components and found them pretty well separated and the source pretty straightforward. I have other issues with them, but complexity/obscurity of the is was not one of them.

Looking at using systemd to just run a binary automatically on boot (which some smart person on HN told me was the easiest way). Just looking at the systemd landing page overwhelms me.

Boot Loader Interface, Discoverable Partitions Specification, etc.

I’m sure the implementation details are very interesting.

But where is the “Configure and Start a Service” option? Which is arguably the most important.

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#102

Post by hamburglar »

cephalization wrote: post #55
robertwt7 wrote: post #50

For all framework laptop owners, I'm considering to buy this for myself this christmas. My previous laptop I owned are mostly MBP, laptop from work is mbp, and my own gaming PC. 1 of the reason why I like MBP is the sturdiness and build quality, but i'm ready to go on diy stuff and leave apple for my next laptop. I was watching Dave2D video but when I saw the spring of the hinge when opening the laptop and the flex o…

It definitely does not support 1 hand lid operation. Despite the quality not being as high as a macbook pro (I've owned several for comparison) it absolutely does not feel cheap. In cases where you may damage the device, part of the beauty is that all of the parts are sold by Framework and come with replacement guides and any tools you may need (usually just the included screwdriver).

It’s funny how such a little thing like one-handed lid opening can add up to such a big factor in user experience. I have used MBPs for years and recently switched my personal machine to a yoga c740, which has … ok build quality but not great. One handed opening is hampered in two ways: first, the front of the machine is beveled in a way that makes it impossible to get your finger between the top and the bottom, which is infuriating. The framework has a notch for this, so it doesn’t seem to have this particular problem. The second is the obvious one, which is that the friction from the hinge is large enough to defeat gravity because the base isn’t heavy enough. I’d welcome a heavier base to overcome this, since it will also allow the case to be stiffer.

I feel like a total idiot at least a couple times a week while I’m holding my phone in one hand, saying “hang on, let me check” and doing weird contortions to get my laptop open with one hand using my belly to hold the bottom down.

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#103

Post by md8z »

mindslight wrote: post #59
b9be520d93286 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you do NixOS without systemd? If not, I'd look elsewhere for the distro. Maybe Guix?

NixOS is based on systemd. But it also seems like NixOS would be a great foundation to use something besides systemd. It would take some work of course, but it feels like you'd be mostly working with the OS rather than fighting it. However having used it, NixOS seems like it mitigates the worst aspects of systemd. It gets rid of that that /etc/systemd /lib/systemd symlink "cleverness" for overriding/enabling units. B…

The symlinking is one of the things systemd actually gets right on traditional distros. The files in /usr/lib are immutable data files shipped by the packages that you're not supposed to edit. The symlinks to them in /etc are configuration that you can change.

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#104

Post by Aeolun »

yellow_lead wrote: post #37

> Apparently, KDE Plasma5 does the scaling right. Setting it to 150% gives pleasuring look. Overall, I find KDE’s approach with a taskbar much more reasonable than what Gnome forces on me. It’s the paradigm shift from “tell me what you need” (modern Gnome, also Google) to “show me what you have” (KDE and others application menu, also your file manager). I like this aside and I noticed the same when I tried to use Gno…

Huh. I had the opposite. I never wonder what’s on my PC. If I can’t even remember the program exists I clearly don’t need it.

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#105

Post by kadoban »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #90
jeppesen-io wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly. Security is always a balancing act. My primary concern is laptop being taken when traveling by Air or stolen. Encrypted root covers that, even with boot un-encrypted Unencrypted boot leaves me vulnerable to a malicious actor taking my laptop, modifing grub and/or linux kernel to send and/or store my password to unlock the boot volume and then handing my laptop back and me typing in my un-lock password Poss…

This is the "Evil maid attack" [1] but it is avoidable. If you have Secure Boot enabled and are properly signing your Bootloader + anything it launches then your machine would just refuse to boot if anyone tampered with critical files in /boot. The issue I have seen is that a LOT of BIOS (at least on desktop machines) seem to just let you reset the secure boot enforcement status via the BIOS reset jumper... which def…

Evil maid attack is really difficult anyway, because if nothing else they can just put in a hardware keylogger, or a hidden camera or a microphone if they really want to work for it, or etc.

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#106

Post by k1rcher »

ben0x539 wrote: post #98
claytonjy wrote: post #3

As a framework owner, this is nice to see. I have yet to take the plunge on Nix (been happy with PopOS on mine), and wouldn't without Bluetooth support, but it's good to know it's possible and relatively painless. I'm hoping to start with nix+home-manager at some point, maybe on top of PopOS; anyone have experience with that setup?

Somewhat random question: What kind of run time do you get out of a battery charge with PopOS on the framework laptop? I've seen some comments from people who were unhappy with theirs, but maybe PopOS has some better tuning?

I’ve only had mine for a day, but following the official PopOS guide[0] on the framework forums they advise manually setting mem_sleep_default to DeepSleep to override the default S2Idle, which was “burning through the battery” like crazy.” I’ve seen 5-6 hour runtimes with full brightness using with this option enabled (anecdata from a post on the framework or PopOS subreddit), which appears to be somewhat accurate with my setup (docker, Postgres, vs code, many Firefox tabs, slack, some other miscellaneous services running in the background).

[0] https://community.frame.work/t/framework-and-popos/2898

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#108

Post by panick21 »

nrp wrote: post #62
rnhmjoj wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they're using a proprietary BIOS and firmware for the embedded controller. The hardware is all Intel and of course it has a management engine[1], even all the nasty vPro "features". From the software freedom point of view it's very much a no go, although they are apparently going to release the firmware sources and looking into coreboot[2]. [1]: https://community.frame.work/t/does-intel-chip-have-intels-m... [2]:…

This is a good spot to mention that we’re hiring a Firmware Engineer, and we’d love to bring someone on who has coreboot experience: https://jobs.lever.co/framework/af82bd1b-7ebd-46da-8ae4-7dab...

Maybe work together with system76, they have tons of experience with this and they have lots of software that you might be able to use that is already open source.

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#109

Post by pxc »

_4fwd wrote: post #47
spamizbad wrote: post #42

Currently using my Framework laptop with Arch Linux. Was able to get everything working, including Bluetooth. Even got the battery life tamed. So far, my favorite laptop since the Thinkpad T42 I had back in the day (other laptops I’ve owned: 2013 MB Air, Dell XPS 15 9550, and a 2018 MBP)

What's the secret on battery life?

One thing that helps a lot is mimicking macOS' suspend-then-hibernate behavior

Re: NixOS on Framework Laptop

#110

Post by [deleted] »

md8z wrote: post #97
NewJazz wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been running Upstart (well, a fork I maintain) for over 2 years on my laptops and SBC. I'd like to use that. TBH I think NixOS might make it easier than other distros to run a custom init. I just haven't gotten around to importing my configs into a nix derivation.

If you have a parser for systemd unit files then you might have a chance to get that to work. If the whole reason you're doing it is to migrate back to upstart's syntax then it seems that would be not so useful, you might as well go in the other direction: write an upstart generator for systemd, and then you can just plug that into ordinary NixOS. Edit: Actually I think at some point NixOS did support upstart? Not su…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN