Installation¶
Requirements¶
To use System Manager, you need:
- A Linux machine. We've tested System Manager with Ubuntu both as standalone and under Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
- At least 12GB Disk Space. However, we recommend at least 16GB, as you will be very tight for space with under 16GB. (This is primarily due to Nix; if you're using System Manager to configure, for example, small servers on the Cloud, 8GB simply won't be enough.)
- Nix installed system-wide with flakes enabled. (System Manager doesn't work with a per-user installation of Nix)
Warning
Rollback functionality is not yet fully implemented. While you can list and switch between generations manually, automatic rollback on failure is not available. Always test configuration changes in a VM or non-production environment first.
Installing Nix¶
If you don't have Nix installed yet, use the official multi-user installer:
After installation, open a new terminal or source the profile:
Verify the installation:
Enabling Flakes¶
The official installer does not enable flakes by default. Add this line to /etc/nix/nix.conf:
Alternatively, you can pass the --extra-experimental-features option to each nix command, but this is less convenient.
Tip
For other installation options (platform-specific guides, CI/CD environments), see nix-install.com.
Checking Your Installation¶
To check if Nix is installed system-wide (required for System Manager), run:
If the output shows a path in your home directory (e.g., /home/username/.nix-profile/bin/nix), Nix is installed per-user and won't work with System Manager. A system-wide installation shows /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin/nix.
Running System Manager¶
Because Nix can load code (called "flakes") remotely, you don't need to download or install System Manager. Simply running it the first time will automatically fetch it into the Nix Store (/nix/store).
To get started, run:
This will create initial configuration files in ~/.config/system-manager/. See Getting Started for a complete walkthrough.