Here's everything I did to install NixOS on my Macbook Pro without ruining my existing macOS Ventura setup.
- Created bootable media
- Downloaded Balena Etcher
- Downloaded NixOS ISO (GNOME, 64-bit Intel/AMD)
- Plugged in 16gb USB drive
- Ran Etcher to flash the NixOS ISO onto the USB drive (easy as 1-2-3)
- Prepared a partition on my hard drive
- Couldn't use disk utility because it would only let me create APFS volumes
- Opened terminal
- Ran
diskutil list
- Ran
diskutil info /dev/disk0
- Ran
diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk0s2 300g ExFAT "NixOS" 200gb
This took a little while.
- Disabled the boot restriction security
- Shut down the mac
- Booted up, holding
CMD+R
to enter recovery mode - At the top bar, chose Utilities>Startup Security Utility
- Chose
No security
for the first option - Chose
Allow booting from external media
for the second option - Closed the window
- Shut down
- Got my peripherals ready
- Plugged in power cable
- Plugged in external mouse and keyboard
- Plugged in network cable via ethernet-usbc adapter
- Ran the installer
- Booted up, holding
Option
key - Chose EFI boot (my usb device)
- Ignored the menu that came up and disappeared in 10 seconds. If you press a key, the 10 second timer will be aborted and you'll have to manually select an option. Choose the first and hit enter
- Clicked next a few times and added my username, password, timezone, etc.
- I chose the Plasma desktop environment after comparing the visual preview to GNOME's in the setup wizard. I think people fight about this kind of stuff online, but I'm led to believe by one of the Reddit posts I saw that we can easily switch risk-free later on thanks to the power of Nix.
- Let it run and went upstairs for a few hours
- Came back to my laptop and booted up NixOS
- Wondered how to get Wi-Fi working
- Wondered how to get Macbook keyboard, touch bar, and trackpad working
- Wondered how the heck I do anything on this weird OS
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