Hey everyone, I’m a huge fan of Guix. It just blows everything away. I love guile and the improvements over NixOS features.

My question is what does Guix look like for people that know they will use and have to use a lot of Non-free software? I know about the non-guix channels, flatpak, and that you can build things from GitHub but I guess I’m just wondering if it’s somewhere I should end up if I know I’m gonna use a lot of non-free stuff. Is development pretty active for Non-free software/packages on Guix? I just love the system so much I’d like to get more educated to make it work.

Thanks

I've been using Guix for like 6 months now but i haven't found anything similar in the documentation, so i figured i'd ask to make sure i haven't overlooked it. For those who haven't used NixOS before, running `nixos rebuild boot` builds the system configuration and adds a boot entry to grub, but it doesn't switch over to the new generation. I've always found it convenient when i'm making bigger changes to my configuration or maybe testing a configuration meant for a different machine. I recently decided to test the config i was working on for my server by just running reconfigure on my desktop, but it ripped me out of my graphical session lol. With something like `nixos rebuild boot`, my current system would stay intact and i could boot into it later when i'm ready.

As title mentions. What is the naming convention around local defined stuff? I have seen people use both `my-` and `%`. But I am not sure what to use.

I've been trying to change the application used by xdg-open for pdfs with both xdg-mime and mimeopen. But none of them work

I wanted a declarative distro, that didn't bind me to SystemD. So I decided to try Guix System.

my goal is to have a system that uses xmonad, and any display manager with tab navigation that isn't GDM (I don't know how to configure GDM and I find it has broken on me after updates in the past).

I have tried installing Guix following tony btw's video. His video steps do not seem to result in a working system.

so instead I use the graphical installer. I install Sway just to start. I get to a working desktop. However, it uses GDM , and I can't seem to remove it because I need %desktop-services to help me get a working desktop.

But worse than that, after my first guix pull, and guix system reconfigure, my system will no longer reach the login screen (instead reaching the terminal login screen before freezing).

I re-install Guix System, this time using the graphical installer but not selecting any desktops.

Using this tty-only graphical installed system: I can successfully update my system with guix pull, and guix system reconfigure. But when I try to add lightdm-service-type, the reconfigure command gives me the compile error "lightdm-service-type: unbound variable".

When I search Guix search lightdm, it says its under packages and display-managers. So I add display-managers to my use-package-modules. And to be safe, add lightdm to my packages list. This does not affect the error sadly.

an additional issue I am having. When I run guix system reconfigure, without sudo, I get an error regarding not having symlink permission.

What's really pissing my off if I'm trying to follow the Guix documentation and it's just sending me around in circles without answering my immediate questions. I'll read a page, get to a section that says "read X for more information about display-managers". And then end up on a page that lists display managers, but doesnt tell me how to include them in my config.scm file.

It feels like the documentation does not apply to Guix System, only to Guix, and when I follow the steps it gives me I am missing pieces.

TLDR;

I can only install a desktop using %desktop-services but then any guix pull and reconfigure will brick that setup, so I can't update.

And trying to configure my own desktop seems to lack the necessary imports.

Any help is appreciated but frankly Im just really pissed off and wanted to vent

I've had a problem for a while now. For some reason, sometimes `sudo` or `guix` (`guix install`, `guix reconfigure`) freeze on my PC. I don't understand why. Everything works again once I restart my PC. I've tried some kernel configurations, but nothing has worked. Does anyone know why this is happening? For what it's worth, my PC is a Vaio XVPC EJ with 4GB of RAM.

Hi, I've been trying out Guix on my old PC and I love it. I wanted to try it on my modern PC, but it won't let me because of internet issues. I love Guix, but I want to have it on my modern PC, and I don't know how to switch to NonGuix. I mean, I don't know how to add the necessary channel. Could someone help me? I would really appreciate it.

i just finished my first GUIX install. used i3 because I like tiling WM and x11.

I was previously using nixOS, but started to go down the rabbit hole of "i wonder how much i actually relly on proprietary software".

notes so far :

my wifi card doesnt work with linux libre. but i dont really mind because i spend most my day near my router and have an ethernet cable. i also dont need constant internet connection.

the only peice of software i really had to switch out was firefox, because it doesnt follow all of GNUs stuff with it advertising proprietary plugins. i find that reason annoying but, have been meaning to try ungoogled-chromium recently. also tried icecat because the concept sounded novel.

it was really easy to install for something that gives benifits simmilar to nixOS. hardest part was getting used to GUIXs partioning tool, because im used to fdisk. but it wasnt too bad

the whole having unpriviliged package management based on the user thing is a really intresting concept, im the only one using this computer though.

i can still do everything i use this computer for (which is. work on my hobby of making FOSS games with godot, web-browsing, gimp (which is for making the art for the games) and general, computer things, like checking my email. being on reddit, ect.

i learned i rely on, suprisngly little proprietary software, and learned this distro isnt just. nixOS with opinions.

Hi everyone,

I've managed to install Guix System and have been using it for a few days now and I'm gradually moving all my personal packages from my previous CachyOS setup to a fully declarative setup (`home.scm` + `system.scm`). One thing I keep running into is the workflow for packages that track upstream git repositories from AUR or from projects I contribute.

Right now, every time I want to update one of these packages, I have to manually:

1. Bump the `commit` or `revision` field

2. Recompute the `base32` hash with `guix hash`

3. Edit the package definition

4. Reconfigure

What I'm wondering is there an idiomatic way in Guix to automate this?

Where the hash is computed automatically at build time, or at least where I can run a single command to regenerate the hash and update the definition. I know about `--with-latest`and `--source`, but I want an automated declarative approach in scheme language level.

I have an old MacBook Air that I’d like to move from macOS to Guix System for daily use, which mostly involves Emacs, the terminal, and a web browser.

Does anyone have experience starting with the core Asahi bits and bootstrapping Guix on top of them (presumably with some non-free firmware/drivers where necessary)? Could you point me towards a tutorial or documentation for getting the AArch64 version of Guix System working on this potentially problematic hardware?

Hey everyone. I've been promoting Guix on TikTok, Reddit, and other platforms. I make memes, stickers, and videos I'm going to donate to Nonguix. I'm just one person, but I want to help Guix grow.

I think we need more promotion. Not because the code is bad — but because people don't know about it. They think Guix is "just NixOS but worse". They don't know about rollbacks, profiles, guix shell, or the philosophy.

If you have time — make a post, record a video, share a meme. Every little bit helps. Let's grow this community together.

What do you think? Is promotion important, or should we just focus on code?

I'm trying to switch to Guix - I'm building a reproducible build of the system and home environment. Could you tell me what the best way to handle various kinds of secrets is? SSH keys, files with secret tokens, etc. So far I've settled on this option - I keep a separate repo in which files encrypted with "age" are stored. That is, I do a git clone, copy the secret to the machine, and guix home reconfigure decrypts the files and puts them in the right places. And how do you solve this problem?

I'm from Russia. I use Guix. It's hard. You have to write Scheme, fight with parentheses, and sometimes compile for hours. But it gives me full control.

Rollbacks. Profiles. guix shell. Everything is code. Everything is reproducible. This is not just a distro — it's a philosophy.

I donate to Guix and Nonguix. I promote it. I write code. I'm part of the community.

NixOS sucks btw. Enjoy the meme.

P.S. The Tux has red eyes because I haven't slept in 3 days. Guix does that to you.

I am using Fedora Workstation now, and I really like it.

But having a reproducible environment looks like a really good thing and I want to test it.

Where should I start? I am thinking of installing it on Fedora and making a home configuration, and after finishing it I would create a system configuration on a VM.

The main programs that I use are Firefox, IntelliJ IDEA, Emacs and Sioyek.

My hardware:

Ryzen 7 9800X3D

B850M Force V2 WIFI6E

32GB RAM

RX 6600

I'm not much of a distro hopper, but I like to try out different distros every once in a while to see what they have to offer. I like to use what works for me. I've been using nix on a arch system for the past 3 years, and it worked excellently for me. But I never managed to stick with nixos. There never seemed to be one way of doing things, the language had less than ideal support but the most important part was that the documentation is mediocre at best and awful at worst. Like I'm supposed to install home manager separately to manage dotfiles, the first thing to do upon installation is to enable a "experimental" feature, etc

After learning that Guix was forked from nix, I became a little curious about it. The installation process was less than ideal, but everything worked after setting up NonGuix and fixing a gdm bug that prevented me from logging in. Most of the packages I required were there in the repositories and for the few that weren't I made do with flatpaks. The first thing I noticed that reconfiguring the system is much more intuitive, like passing the file as a parameter, optionally not using the binary version of packages, Guix home is built in and much more. The tooling around scheme is awesome as well, making writing config files much more enjoyable. But the best thing about it is undoubtedly the excellent documentation provided by gnu. Guix search and Guix locate are extremely handy commands to look up things, Guix edit help's you edit the source files directly, etc. I didn't have to find any of these commands, they were in the first few pages of the manual. Every service in well documented with bunch of examples. This makes exploring Guix truly enjoyable. I feel I now know more about guix in the week I've used it than the months I spent exploring NixOS.

I never thought that I'd be complaining about the documentation of NixOS, as I assumed I was simply too dumb to use it. But after using Guix I can't look at nix and not lament about it's lack of the same.

PS: Sorry for bad english

Basically the title. I'm using NixOS at the moment, and for the most part I've been pretty happy with it. But Guix has me intrigued for some reason. I've done some research. I know it uses guile scheme instead of nix. I've heard the documentation is way better. It uses shepherd instead of systemd. So ya. I guess I'd like to know why you like Guix over NixOS? Besides the philosophical arguments, what makes it a good daily driver for you? I'm not a programmer but I've been trying to learn recently, which is another reason I find it interesting. Have you had any issues with shepherd for whatever reason? Anyone do any gaming on it? I've heard that flatpak steam is a better option on Guix. Anyway ya. I appreciate your guys' thoughts.

Were there just more people proselytizing about nix?

I'm looking to install guix and give it another try. my main question is can i use cosmic or hyprland on guix? I haven't seen more examples of this so Im asking. Also I have very modern hardware, last time i install guix not nonguix none of my drivers worked. I had to add non guix channel.scm to get my system looking normal. Anyone had a similar issue. My specs if curious is:

CPU: AMD 9950x

GPU: AMD 9070xt

RAM: 32gig DDR5 6400

STORAGE: 2tb Samsung PCI 5 NVME

Anyways, should i use the guix install or I round pantherx guix installer that has nonguix built in the installer.