NixOS dotfiles — X11

X11 stack: NixOS + Chadwm + Alacritty on VMware Workstation 17 Pro

Host

Host	Desktop	WM	Status
my-vm-x11	X11	Chadwm (DWM fork)	Primary — lightweight, stable

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X11 — Chadwm (Primary)

Why X11

• VMware Workstation 17 Pro has limited 3D support → Wayland lags
• X11 + Chadwm lightweight (great for 4 CPU / 8 GB VM)
• Chadwm bar with status2d + system info script
• Sxhkd for consistent keybindings

VM Settings

Setting	Value
3D Acceleration	OFF
CPUs	4
RAM	8 GB
Disk	40 GB

Quick Commands

just rebuild-x11        # build + gc + optimise
just rebuild-x11-lite   # build (fast, no cleanup)
just update-x11         # pull + build + cleanup + reboot
just upgrade-x11        # flake update + build + cleanup + reboot
just clean              # delete old gens + gc + optimise

Keybinds (X11 — Chadwm)

Key	Action
Alt+Return	Terminal (alacritty)
Alt+Space	Rofi app launcher
Alt+q	Close window
Alt+f	Fullscreen
Alt+j/k	Focus next/previous
Alt+h/l	Resize master
Alt+1-5	Switch tag
Alt+Shift+1-5	Move window to tag
Alt+Space	Cycle layouts
Alt+Shift+q	Lock screen (slock)
Alt+s	Screenshot full
Alt+Shift+s	Screenshot area
Print	Screenshot
Alt+b	Toggle bar
Alt+Shift+r	Restart dwm
XF86Audio*	Volume, media keys

Theme — Stylix (Catppuccin Mocha)

All components automatically themed:

• Chadwm bar (CPU%, MEM, clock, disk with status2d colors)
• Rofi (style-5, centered, Papirus icons)
• Alacritty
• Starship prompt
• GTK/Qt apps
• Firefox / LibreWolf
• Zellij
• Yazi

Wallpaper

Qiuyuan / Emilia — available in system/wallpapers/.

Software Stack

Category	Choice
Window Manager	Chadwm (DWM fork with gaps, themes, status2d)
Display Manager	LightDM (auto-login enabled)
Terminal	Alacritty → Zellij (JetBrainsMono Nerd Font)
Launcher	Rofi (style-5 centered)
Shell	Zsh + Starship + Atuin
Multiplexer	Zellij (no bars, clean)
Editor	Neovim + AstroNvim / Zed
AI Coding	Pi agent (DeepSeek) + Zed agent
Browser	LibreWolf / Brave
File Manager	Yazi + feh for images
Music	MPD + ncmpcpp
Notifications	Dunst
Compositor	Picom (xrender backend for VMware)
Secrets	SOPS + age

Structure

├── flake.nix              ← Inputs, overlays, sharedModules, hosts
├── Justfile               ← rebuild/update shortcuts
├── system/                ← NixOS-level (shared by all hosts)
│   ├── host-base.nix      ← Boot, network, users, timezone
│   ├── common.nix         ← nix-ld, flakes, GC, optimise
│   ├── disk-config.nix    ← Disko partitioning
│   ├── packages.nix       ← System packages
│   ├── programs/stylix.nix← Catppuccin Mocha theming
│   ├── services/          ← sops, ssh
│   └── wallpapers/        ← default.jpg, emilia-01.webp
├── desktop/
│   ├── x11/               ← X11 desktop (Chadwm)
│   │   ├── chadwm.nix     ← WM + bar script + autostart
│   │   ├── system.nix     ← X session config
│   │   ├── packages.nix   ← X11 utilities
│   │   ├── picom.nix      ← Compositor
│   │   ├── dunst.nix      ← Notifications
│   │   ├── sxhkd.nix      ← Hotkey daemon
│   │   └── home.nix       ← Module imports
│   └── wayland/           ← Wayland (Niri + Noctalia) — archived
├── hosts/
│   ├── my-vm-x11/         ← Primary X11 host
│   └── my-vm/             ← Wayland host — archived
└── home/                  ← User-level (home-manager)
    ├── packages.nix       ← User packages
    └── programs/          ← One file per program

Secrets

Managed with sops-nix. First-time setup:

age-keygen -o ~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt
sops secrets/secrets.yaml