Linux on Pink Noise

Nix Setup on macOS: An Overview

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of resources for setting up Nix on macOS with nix-darwin and home-manager.

The nix-darwin-kickstarter repository is a good starting point for macOS.

Run programs without installing them with nix-shell -p cowsay.

Remote Deployment: nixos-rebuild announcement

Example configurations:

jdheyburn/nixos-configs
Great examples for:

Caddy web server
FreshRSS
deploy-rs
Tailscale integration
wimpysworld/nix-config - Production-ready configuration

Remote installation with nixos-anywhere: nixos-anywhere uses kexec. If kexec doesn’t work, boot with NixOS ISO instead.

Wireless in initrd: Unlocking encrypted drives over WiFi

Incorporating EDID into initrd Image on Linux

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Some monitors don’t properly report their capabilities (EDID - Extended Display Identification Data) to Linux systems during early boot, causing incorrect resolutions or no video output. You can fix this by incorporating custom EDID data into the initrd image.

First, extract the EDID from a working system. Install the required tools:

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sudo apt install read-edid edid-decode

Extract and verify the EDID:

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sudo get-edid > desktop_edid.bin
edid-decode desktop_edid.bin

Transfer the file to your target system and copy it to the firmware directory:

Mounting an Encrypted Btrfs System in Arch Linux

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

To access an encrypted Btrfs Arch Linux system from a live USB, you need to unlock the LUKS partition and mount each Btrfs subvolume before chrooting:

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# Unlock the encrypted partition
cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1 cryptlvm

# Mount the root subvolume
mount -o subvol=@ /dev/mapper/cryptlvm /mnt

# Mount the home subvolume
mount -o subvol=@home /dev/mapper/cryptlvm /mnt/home

# Mount the log subvolume with nodatacow option
mount -o nodatacow,subvol=@var_log /dev/mapper/cryptlvm /mnt/var/log

# Chroot into the system
sudo arch-chroot /mnt

The cryptsetup open command unlocks the encrypted partition and maps it to /dev/mapper/cryptlvm. Each Btrfs subvolume needs to be mounted separately. The nodatacow option on /var/log prevents copy-on-write for log files. The arch-chroot command automatically handles mounting /proc, /sys, and /dev.