| 12 Mar 2026 |
 samasaur | I'm wondering whether it's a (fish via nix issue) or a (fish with nix-darwin) issue | 09:26:17 |
 redbunnyninja | not exactly sure what you mean by "activating" here. i'm about 3 hours into nix over a span of 2 days :D | 09:26:24 |
| redbunnyninja | some stuff nix fish picked up actually, like my pixi path. | 09:27:13 |
| samasaur | does it still work after you did sudo darwin-rebuild switch and got fish config files in /etc that point to the nix store | 09:27:18 |
| samasaur | actually sorry I have to go to sleep but can try and debug this with you tomorrow (for me at least) | 09:28:36 |
| redbunnyninja | nodice | 09:31:34 |
| redbunnyninja | ╭─ /run/current-system/sw/bin ··········································································································································································· 10:27:35
╰─❮ ./fish
Welcome to fish, the friendly interactive shell
Type help for instructions on how to use fish
╭─ /run/current-system/sw/bin ··········································································································································································· 10:27:37
╰─❯ cd /etc/nix-darwin
╭─ /etc/nix-darwin ······················································································································································································ 10:28:00
╰─❯ sudo darwin-rebuild switch
building the system configuration...
setting up /Applications/Nix Apps...
setting up pam...
applying patches...
setting up /etc...
user defaults...
setting up launchd services...
configuring networking...
configuring application firewall...
configuring power...
setting up /Library/Fonts/Nix Fonts...
setting nvram variables...
Homebrew bundle...
`brew bundle` complete! 0 Brewfile dependencies now installed.
╭─ /etc/nix-darwin ·············································································································································································· 11s 10:28:15
╰─❯ echo $PATH
/Users/myuser/.pixi/bin /Users/myuser/.toolbox/bin /Users/myuser/go/bin /opt/homebrew/sbin /opt/homebrew/bin /Applications/Ghostty.app/Contents/MacOS /Users/myuser/.nix-profile/bin /run/current-system/sw/bin /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /Users/myuser/.local/bin /Users/myuser/.local/bin
╭─ /etc/nix-darwin ······················································································································································································ 10:28:20
╰─❯ echo "going back to homebrew fish"; exit
going back to homebrew fish
╭─ /run/current-system/sw/bin ································································································································································ 1m 13s 10:28:50
╰─❮ echo $PATH
/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin /Users/myuser/.pixi/bin /Users/myuser/.toolbox/bin /Users/myuser/go/bin /opt/homebrew/sbin /opt/homebrew/bin /Applications/Ghostty.app/Contents/MacOS /Users/myuser/miniconda3/condabin /usr/local/bin /System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/local/bin /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/bin /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/appleinternal/bin /opt/pmk/env/global/bin /Library/Apple/usr/bin /Users/myuser/.local/bin /Users/myuser/.local/bin
| 09:31:42 |
| redbunnyninja | good night and thanks! | 09:31:50 |
| redbunnyninja | * ╭─ /run/current-system/sw/bin ··········································································································································································· 10:27:35
╰─❮ ./fish
Welcome to fish, the friendly interactive shell
Type help for instructions on how to use fish
╭─ /run/current-system/sw/bin ··········································································································································································· 10:27:37
╰─❯ cd /etc/nix-darwin
╭─ /etc/nix-darwin ······················································································································································································ 10:28:00
╰─❯ sudo darwin-rebuild switch
building the system configuration...
setting up /Applications/Nix Apps...
setting up pam...
applying patches...
setting up /etc...
user defaults...
setting up launchd services...
configuring networking...
configuring application firewall...
configuring power...
setting up /Library/Fonts/Nix Fonts...
setting nvram variables...
Homebrew bundle...
`brew bundle` complete! 0 Brewfile dependencies now installed.
╭─ /etc/nix-darwin ·············································································································································································· 11s 10:28:15
╰─❯ echo $PATH
/Users/myuser/.pixi/bin /Users/myuser/.toolbox/bin /Users/myuser/go/bin /opt/homebrew/sbin /opt/homebrew/bin /Applications/Ghostty.app/Contents/MacOS /Users/myuser/.nix-profile/bin /run/current-system/sw/bin /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /Users/myuser/.local/bin /Users/myuser/.local/bin
╭─ /etc/nix-darwin ······················································································································································································ 10:28:20
╰─❯ echo "going back to homebrew fish"; exit
going back to homebrew fish
╭─ /run/current-system/sw/bin ································································································································································ 1m 13s 10:28:50
╰─❮ echo $PATH
/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin /Users/myuser/.pixi/bin /Users/myuser/go/bin /opt/homebrew/sbin /opt/homebrew/bin /Applications/Ghostty.app/Contents/MacOS /Users/myuser/miniconda3/condabin /usr/local/bin /System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/local/bin /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/bin /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/appleinternal/bin /opt/pmk/env/global/bin /Library/Apple/usr/bin /Users/myuser/.local/bin /Users/myuser/.local/bin
| 09:33:22 |
 Randy Eckenrode | Upstream seems to think it’s Apple’s problem to address. | 10:34:49 |
| Randy Eckenrode | I’ve tried. You need to cross-compile Python for some reason, which isn’t supported on Darwin. | 10:35:40 |
| Randy Eckenrode | 26.05 will still be around for those who need Wine. | 10:35:44 |
 ragdoc | Random driveby report: Meddling with nix-darwin on a MacBook Neo for the first time. Nothing cruel and unusual so far. Lix installer worked without a hitch. The little box is generally quite responsive, currently chugging along building nodejs-slim-25.8.0 with six clang++ processes. Full CPU load, but no memory pressure. Not bad for 8 GB RAM and an iPhone processor. I like it. | 14:24:13 |
| redbunnyninja set a profile picture. | 14:29:43 |
| Randy Eckenrode | It’s a shame the RAM isn’t configurable. | 15:06:21 |
| Randy Eckenrode | It’s been tempting to upgrade to the M5 Max, but I’m trying to hold off. | 15:07:41 |
| ragdoc | Rumour has it that the A18 can't handle more than 8 GB, but I am not a hardware guy. Does anybody here know if this technical limitation really exists? | 15:09:51 |
| ragdoc | It's certainly a clear line of demarcation to the Air's 16 GB, that's for sure. | 15:11:14 |
 toonn | Isn't it a technical limitation in the sense of it'd require significant engineering of the entire package because the RAM sits on top of the SOC? | 15:12:12 |
| ragdoc | Ah. That might be the case, toonn. The mainboard is tiny. | 15:13:53 |
| Randy Eckenrode | I don’t know whether it’s a technical limitation. I assumed it was done for segmentation and to keep the cost of production down. 8 GiB just kind of sucks though. | 15:15:07 |
| ragdoc | I watched a teardown video today. I did not expect the very small board. | 15:15:40 |
| ragdoc | I saw a graphic of how CPU and RAM are sandwiched, Randy Eckenrode. Makes sense in the confines of a phone, for sure. | 15:17:50 |
 emily | it's a perf thing, not a size thing (the high-end chips have RAM on the SoC too) | 15:20:16 |
| ragdoc | It's certainly nice to see that nix-darwin seems well within the Neo's comfort zone. | 15:21:29 |
| redbunnyninja | regarding 8 gb of ram: i've been on a mission to de-electronify my life and this has significantly reduced memory usage. on my m1 pro i saved about 10 gb of ram just by not using electron apps where possible. this also might push app devs to write leaner apps that don't require a packaged browser runtime to display some buttons and text | 15:35:21 |
| ragdoc | redbunnyninjaI have been developing software since the 1980s, and I find the waste of RAM and CPU cycles in 2026 nauseating. And that's with the knowledge that CS pioneers did amazing work with far less resources than I had available (and wasted) when I started in this business. | 15:46:48 |
| toonn | emily: The M series chips have the RAM on the package but next to the CPU parts, no? While A18 or whatever it was has it laid on top. I can imagine it'd require significantly more engineering to change that and they simply don't have much incentive to do so. | 16:26:53 |
 nasso | i just received my new macbook and im trying to setup nix-darwin with determinate nix but im not sure how im supposed to generate the configuration...
determinate's docs say nix flake init --template "https://flakehub.com/f/DeterminateSystems/flake-templates/0#nix-darwin" but nix-darwin docs say i should create /etc/nix-darwin, chown it, and then run nix flake init -t nix-darwin/nix-darwin-25.11...
im not sure how to understand any of this because i am still very unfamiliar with nix in general 😰 | 16:31:05 |
| nasso | i just received my new macbook and im trying to setup nix-darwin with determinate nix but im not sure how im supposed to generate the configuration...
determinate's docs say nix flake init --template "https://flakehub.com/f/DeterminateSystems/flake-templates/0#nix-darwin"
but nix-darwin docs say i should create /etc/nix-darwin, chown it, and then run nix flake init -t nix-darwin/nix-darwin-25.11...
im not sure how to understand any of this because i am still very unfamiliar with nix in general 😰 | 16:31:25 |
