Docs

TLDR :)

My first annoyance with NixOS

This all started when I tried to make an Android app using the Flutter framework. The first thought on my mind was to simply create a shell.nix or a flake.nix file to download flutter and androidSdk tools. I tried this with flakes as my system packages are NixOS stable packages and I didn’t feel like changing it. I was very displeased to find that when I had created my flake.nix file (with only flutter and androidSdk from NixOS unstable channel, mind you), it started downloading like 40 GiB of data. Feel free to make fun of me, when there is something obvious that I am missing, but PLEASE reach out if you know the solution. 40 GiB might not sound like too much for some of you, but I have an astronomically slow internet connection and I am working on a laptop with about 250 GB of storage so after leaving it downloading overnight, I woke up to a failed build and a completely full disk.

TLDR :)

I like the Nix package manager, because I don’t have to have every tool and compiler installed on my machine polluting my userspace. If you’ve ever heard of Nix, I bet you’ve also heard a sentence like that. There are multiple ways to set up your development environment on Nix (not just NixOS, the Nix package manager is cross platform!), but I currently like nix-shell the best.

Nix shell command

The simplest way to start a new environment is to just run the command

Installation

Cisco has updated their netacad page, but curiously not the instructions to install Packet Tracer. After some fumbling around in the new netacad page, I found the download link in Explore -> Cisco Packet Tracer -> Learn more about Cisco Packet Tracer -> (scroll down) -> View sample lab material -> Cisco packet tracer resources -> Download or you can try the link. Download the version labelled “Ubuntu 64bit”.

This will download you a Packet_Tracer822_amd64_signed.deb file (version number might be different) which I needed to rename to CiscoPacketTracer822_amd64_signed.deb. Next I ran (in the directory with the .deb file)

TLDR

Two ways: importing a module to your flake (if you are using flakes for system configuration) OR just adding the same lines to configuration.nix

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }: {
  virtualisation.virtualbox.host = {
    enable = true;
    enableExtensionPack = true;
    addNetworkInterface = true;
  };
}

Problems…

DO NOT add virtualbox to your environment.systemPackages. I spent about half an hour building my system after changing my config AND making sure I didn’t add virtualbox to my environment.systemPackages only to find it there after checking for every other problem highlighted in the forums. It might feel stupid, but just run