{"slug": "modern-and-minimal-linux-nixos-and-noctalia-and-labwc-flake", "title": "Modern and Minimal Linux: NixOS and Noctalia and Labwc Flake", "summary": "A NixOS 26.11 flake integrates the Noctalia V5 AI desktop shell with the Labwc Wayland compositor, Voxtype voice-to-text via Whisper.cpp, and AMD hardware optimizations, offering a declarative, minimal Linux desktop configuration. The setup includes AI-powered features such as an OSD recommender, color sync for WCAG-contrast window decorations, and offline voice typing triggered by Right Alt, alongside PipeWire audio, screen capture tools, and automatic Nix garbage collection.", "body_md": "Declarative NixOS 26.11 flake for a modern Wayland desktop — **labwc** compositor + **Noctalia V5** AI desktop shell + **Voxtype** voice-to-text.\n\nDesigned for AMD hardware (GPU + CPU microcode) with pure Wayland (no XWayland). Drop your `hardware-configuration.nix`\n\nalongside the flake and rebuild.\n\n**Labwc**— lightweight Wayland compositor, 4 virtual desktops, multi-monitor (DP-2 + eDP-1)** Noctalia V5**— AI-powered shell (panel, launcher, session, OSD recommender)** Voxtype**— offline voice-to-text via Whisper.cpp (ggml-base multilingual, ~142 MB), triggered by Right Alt** Color sync**—`noctalia-labwc-theme-sync`\n\nreads Noctalia's palette → WCAG-contrast window decorations →`labwc --reconfigure`\n\n**greetd + tuigreet**— auto-login TUI greeter with NixOS Blue theme** PipeWire**— audio with ALSA + PulseAudio compat, WirePlumber session manager** Screen capture**— Print screen →`grim`\n\n+`slurp`\n\nregion select →`satty`\n\nannotation editor**Night light**—`W-n`\n\ntoggles`wlsunset`\n\n(2500K),`W-S-n`\n\nkills it**OBS-cmd**— scene switching (`Alt-1..5`\n\n,`Alt-e`\n\n) and recording toggle (`Alt-r`\n\n)**Bluetooth**— enabled (no power-on-boot)** ZRAM**— 50% of RAM, zstd compression** AMD fine-tuning**—`amdgpu.runpm=0`\n\n(fixes PSP LOAD_TA), microcode updates,`spectre_v2=on`\n\n**GNOME Keyring**+** polkit-gnome**— credential storage and privilege escalation** Nix GC**— automatic weekly, deletes generations older than 7 days** GDK/icon fixes**— Adwaita icon theme linked, Trash icon visible in Nautilus** Compose key**— Caps Lock as compose key (Wayland-native)** XKB: Caps Lock**as compose key** SSH**— OpenSSH server enabled\n\n```\nsudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake /etc/nixos#nixos --accept-flake-config\ncd /etc/nixos\nnix flake update             # update flake.lock to latest inputs\nsudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#nixos --accept-flake-config\n```\n\nThe current user is `g`\n\n. To rename it, edit `configuration.nix`\n\n:\n\n- Change\n`users.users.g`\n\nto`users.users.<newname>`\n\n(line ~300). - Update the\n`initial_session.user`\n\nin`services.greetd.settings`\n\n(line ~186) from`\"g\"`\n\nto`\"<newname>\"`\n\n. - Rebuild with\n`sudo nixos-rebuild switch`\n\nand reboot. - The old home directory\n`/home/g`\n\nwill remain — either symlink it or move contents.\n\n`--accept-flake-config`\n\nis required to trust the`noctalia.cachix.org`\n\nbinary cache.- Noctalia is pinned via the\n`cachix`\n\nbranch (always points to the latest cached commit). - Bootloader:\n**Limine**(not systemd-boot). `hardware-configuration.nix`\n\nis**not** in the repo — generate it with`nixos-generate-config`\n\non your machine.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/modern-and-minimal-linux-nixos-and-noctalia-and-labwc-flake", "canonical_source": "https://github.com/grigio/nixos-noctalia-labwc-flake", "published_at": "2026-07-26 12:52:55+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-26 13:22:29.352684+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["NixOS", "Noctalia V5", "Labwc", "Voxtype", "Whisper.cpp", "AMD", "PipeWire", "GNOME Keyring"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/modern-and-minimal-linux-nixos-and-noctalia-and-labwc-flake", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/modern-and-minimal-linux-nixos-and-noctalia-and-labwc-flake.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/modern-and-minimal-linux-nixos-and-noctalia-and-labwc-flake.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/modern-and-minimal-linux-nixos-and-noctalia-and-labwc-flake.jsonld"}}