nix-config/WORKAROUNDS.md

Workarounds, Overrides & Temporary Fixes

This document tracks all known workarounds, patches, and temporary overrides in this flake. Each entry includes the file location, reason, and whether it is still required.

Status legend:

• ACTIVE — still required, upstream fix not available
• REDUNDANT — upstream has fixed the issue; this override can be removed
• UPSTREAM PENDING — waiting on an upstream PR/issue
• INTENTIONAL — permanent design decision, not a workaround

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Overlays (upstream package overrides)

overlays/cosmic-settings-daemon/default.nix

Status: ACTIVE — UPSTREAM PENDING

cosmic-settings-daemon 1.0.8 has a buggy Cargo.lock that references https://github.com/pop-os/dbus-settings-bindings at two different commits (3b86984 for cosmic-dbus-a11y/locale1/upower_dbus, and 0fa672f8 for the cosmic-settings-daemon subcrate). cargoSetupHook (used by fetchCargoVendor/cargoHash) rejects this: "Sources are not allowed to be defined multiple times."

The fix overrides cargoDeps with rustPlatform.importCargoLock, which uses a different vendoring strategy that handles multiple commits from the same repo.

Removal condition: When nixpkgs updates cosmic-settings-daemon past 1.0.8 with a fixed Cargo.lock, or applies cargoLock in its own package definition.

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overlays/cosmic-applets/default.nix

Status: ACTIVE — UPSTREAM PENDING

cosmic-applets 1.0.8 has the same class of bug: its Cargo.lock references https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-settings at two different commits (b46a55d for cosmic-pipewire and cosmic-settings-sound-subscription, and 55b502d for cosmic-settings-a11y-manager-subscription and several other crates). cargoSetupHook rejects this with the same "Sources are not allowed to be defined multiple times" error.

Same fix as cosmic-settings-daemon: overrides cargoDeps with rustPlatform.importCargoLock.

Removal condition: When nixpkgs updates cosmic-applets past 1.0.8 with a fixed Cargo.lock, or applies cargoLock in its own package definition.

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overlays/waybar/default.nix — REMOVED

Status: REMOVED

Previously added -Dexperimental=true to waybar's meson flags. nixpkgs now includes -Dexperimental=true in its waybar definition, making the overlay redundant. Removed.

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overlays/radios/default.nix

Status: ACTIVE (protective — needed after next flake update)

radios requires pycountry>=24.0.0,<25.0.0 (PEP 440: ^24.0.0). The current locked nixpkgs has pycountry 24.6.1 (in range), but nixpkgs HEAD has already bumped pycountry to 26.2.16, which will break radios after the next flake update. The overlay applies pythonRelaxDepsHook to loosen the upper bound.

Removal condition: When the upstream radios package (frenck/python-radios) or nixpkgs relaxes the pycountry version constraint.

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overlays/redis/default.nix

Status: INTENTIONAL

Replaces redis with valkey (the Redis community fork) globally. This is a deliberate preference for the open-source fork over the Redis 7.x+ license change.

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overlays/stable/default.nix

Status: INTENTIONAL

Injects pkgs.stable as an attribute pointing to the stable nixpkgs channel, so modules can selectively pull in stable packages. Not a workaround.

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Flake Inputs (forks and custom branches)

nixpkgs-otbr — github:mrene/nixpkgs/openthread-border-router

File: flake.nix:8 Status: ACTIVE — UPSTREAM PENDING

openthread-border-router is not yet packaged in nixpkgs-unstable. A community member's nixpkgs fork provides the package, used by modules/nixos/homeassistant/services/thread/default.nix.

The fork is ~52,000 commits behind nixos-unstable, so it is pulled only via pkgs.callPackage from the fork's path, not as a full channel overlay.

Removal condition: When openthread-border-router is merged into nixpkgs. Check: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pulls?q=openthread-border-router

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snowfall-lib — github:mjallen18/snowfall-lib

File: flake.nix:26 Status: INTENTIONAL

Personal fork of snowfallorg/lib with 46 commits ahead of upstream, including:

• fix: pass namespace argument to overlays
• fix: pass namespace argument to home-manager modules
• feat: support same username across multiple targets
• feat: enable per-channel configuration and fix pkgs selection
• Performance improvements and additional features

These are custom changes required by this flake's structure that have not been upstreamed.

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steam-rom-manager — github:mjallen18/nix-steam-rom-manager

File: flake.nix:41 Status: INTENTIONAL

Personal fork/packaging of nix-steam-rom-manager. The upstream (nix-community/nix-steam-rom-manager) may or may not exist; this is a maintained fork.

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Commented-out: nvmd/disko fork

File: flake.nix:59-61 Status: REDUNDANT (already disabled)

# the fork is needed for partition attributes support
# url = "github:nvmd/disko/gpt-attrs";

A community fork of disko with GPT partition attribute support was previously used but has since been switched back to upstream nix-community/disko. The comment can be cleaned up if the feature is no longer needed.

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Build Fixes & postPatch

packages/edk2-basetools/default.nix — OpenSSL vendoring FIXME

File: packages/edk2-basetools/default.nix:50-52 Status: UPSTREAM PENDING (verify PR reference)

# FIXME: unvendor OpenSSL again once upstream updates
# to a compatible version.
# Upstream PR: https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/pull/10946

The comment references tianocore/edk2 PR #10946, but that PR's title is "update to openssl 3.5.1" (now merged), not an unvendoring PR. The FIXME comment may be referencing the wrong PR number or the issue may have evolved. The edk2 build still vendor-patches OpenSSL compatibility; this should be re-evaluated against the current edk2 upstream.

Action: Verify whether the OpenSSL vendoring is still needed with current edk2, and update or remove the FIXME comment.

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packages/bcachefs/default.nix — Tests disabled

File: packages/bcachefs/default.nix:100 Status: ACTIVE

# FIXME: Try enabling this once the default linux kernel is at least 6.7
doCheck = false; # needs bcachefs module loaded on builder

Tests require a live bcachefs kernel module in the build sandbox, which is not available. The comment mentions kernel ≥ 6.7, which is now the case (nixpkgs is on 6.12+), but the underlying sandbox limitation still applies — the build sandbox cannot load kernel modules regardless of kernel version.

Action: The 6.7 condition is now met but irrelevant; update the comment to reflect that the real blocker is sandbox access to kernel modules.

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packages/raspberrypi/linux-rpi/default.nix — Failed kernel attempts

File: packages/raspberrypi/linux-rpi/default.nix:25-43 Status: ACTIVE (informational)

Four newer RPi kernel versions (6.15.11 through 6.19.0-rc5) are commented out because they "fail for various reasons." The active version is pinned to an older working commit.

Action: Periodically attempt to enable a newer kernel tag. The comments serve as a history of failed attempts.

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packages/raspberrypi/linux-rpi/default.nix — DTB aliasing hack

File: packages/raspberrypi/linux-rpi/default.nix:110-148 Status: ACTIVE

# Make copies of the DTBs named after the upstream names so that U-Boot finds them.
# This is ugly as heck, but I don't know a better solution so far.

RPi's kernel ships DTBs with non-standard names (e.g. bcm2708-rpi-zero-w.dtb); U-Boot expects canonical upstream names (e.g. bcm2835-rpi-zero.dtb). DTBs are duplicated in postFixup.

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packages/homeassistant/ha-mail-and-packages/default.nix — Hardcoded paths

File: packages/homeassistant/ha-mail-and-packages/default.nix:25-37 Status: ACTIVE

The upstream HA integration hard-codes paths relative to its source directory, which breaks in the Nix store. postPatch rewrites them to /var/lib/homeassistant/images/.

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packages/homeassistant/ha-wyzeapi/default.nix — Version pin relaxation

File: packages/homeassistant/ha-wyzeapi/default.nix:24-27 Status: ACTIVE

Relaxes the minimum wyzeapy version pin from 0.5.28 to 0.5.27 to match the version packaged in this flake.

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Raspberry Pi — Structural Overrides

modules/nixos/hardware/raspberry-pi/default.nix — jemalloc 16K pages

File: modules/nixos/hardware/raspberry-pi/default.nix:458-470 Status: ACTIVE (structural)

# https://github.com/nvmd/nixos-raspberrypi/issues/64
jemalloc = prev.jemalloc.overrideAttrs (old: {
  configureFlags = ... ++ [ "${pageSizeFlag}=14" ];
});

RPi5 uses 16K memory pages (2^14). jemalloc must be compiled with --with-lg-page=14, otherwise it will use incorrect page size assumptions and likely crash or corrupt memory.

References: https://github.com/nvmd/nixos-raspberrypi/issues/64

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systems/aarch64-linux/pi5/boot.nix — 16K page kernel

File: systems/aarch64-linux/pi5/boot.nix:22-35 Status: ACTIVE (structural)

Forces CONFIG_ARM64_16K_PAGES=y in the kernel config via linux_6_19.override. ignoreConfigErrors = true is required because some kernel config options are unavailable and would otherwise fail validation.

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packages/raspberrypi/ffmpeg-rpi/default.nix — RPi hardware codec ffmpeg

File: packages/raspberrypi/ffmpeg-rpi/default.nix Status: ACTIVE (structural)

Custom ffmpeg build from jc-kynesim/rpi-ffmpeg fork with RPi hardware codec support (--enable-v4l2-request, --enable-sand, etc.). Tests disabled (doCheck = false) because the imgutils test fails on this build.

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systemd Service Overrides

systems/x86_64-linux/matt-nixos/default.nix — networkd-wait-online

File: systems/x86_64-linux/matt-nixos/default.nix:78 Status: INTENTIONAL

systemd.services.systemd-networkd-wait-online.enable = lib.mkForce false;

The systemd-networkd-wait-online service times out on this desktop, blocking boot. Standard workaround for desktop systems that don't require all interfaces to be up before proceeding.

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systems/x86_64-linux/allyx/default.nix — Jovian NixOS conflicts

File: systems/x86_64-linux/allyx/default.nix:121-123 Status: ACTIVE

systemd-networkd-wait-online.enable = lib.mkForce false;
power-profiles-daemon.enable = lib.mkForce false;
inputplumber.enable = lib.mkForce false;

On the ASUS ROG Ally X with Jovian NixOS and handheld-daemon:

• power-profiles-daemon conflicts with handheld-daemon's power management
• inputplumber conflicts with handheld-daemon's input handling
• systemd-networkd-wait-online times out as on matt-nixos

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modules/nixos/services/crowdsec/default.nix — DynamicUser conflict

File: modules/nixos/services/crowdsec/default.nix:133-143 Status: ACTIVE — UPSTREAM PENDING

systemd.services.crowdsec.serviceConfig.DynamicUser = lib.mkForce false;
systemd.services.crowdsec-firewall-bouncer.serviceConfig.DynamicUser = lib.mkForce false;
systemd.services.crowdsec-firewall-bouncer-register.serviceConfig.DynamicUser = lib.mkForce false;

The upstream NixOS crowdsec module uses ReadWritePaths (not StateDirectory) on the main crowdsec.service, expecting /var/lib/crowdsec to be a real directory. However, crowdsec-firewall-bouncer-register declares StateDirectory=crowdsec with DynamicUser=true, which conflicts — it tries to create /var/lib/private/crowdsec and symlink /var/lib/crowdsec to it, but the directory already exists as a real path. Disabling DynamicUser on all three services resolves the conflict by using the real crowdsec user.

Additionally, crowdsec-firewall-bouncer-register calls cscli without -c, expecting /etc/crowdsec/config.yaml to exist, but the upstream NixOS module uses a Nix store path via -c and never creates that file. The module works around this by extracting the store path at eval time.

Removal condition: When the NixOS crowdsec module is fixed upstream to handle state directory ownership consistently.

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Incomplete / TODO Items

These are not workarounds but known incomplete configurations:

File	Line	Description
systems/x86_64-linux/jallen-nas/sops.nix	89, 113	Collabora and MariaDB secrets not configured
systems/x86_64-linux/jallen-nas/apps.nix	47	Authentik environment secrets file not wired up
modules/nixos/services/sparky-fitness/default.nix	36, 72	DB passwords not yet moved to SOPS
modules/nixos/services/your-spotify/default.nix	36	Spotify API keys not yet moved to SOPS
modules/nixos/services/booklore/default.nix	25	Database password not yet a SOPS secret
packages/raspberrypi/udev-rules/default.nix	33	15-i2c-modprobe.rules disabled; i2cprobe script not ported
modules/nixos/homeassistant/services/homeassistant/default.nix	214	roborock integration marked broken

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Kernel Boot Parameters

systems/x86_64-linux/matt-nixos/boot.nix — NVMe power saving

File: systems/x86_64-linux/matt-nixos/boot.nix:46-48 Status: ACTIVE

"nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=0"
"pcie_aspm=off"

NVMe SSD power-saving states cause latency/stability issues on this machine. Disabling ASPM and NVMe power states is a standard workaround for affected hardware.

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systems/aarch64-linux/macbook-pro-nixos/boot.nix — Fan control

File: systems/aarch64-linux/macbook-pro-nixos/boot.nix:28 Status: ACTIVE

"melt_my_mac=1"

Undocumented Asahi Linux kernel parameter that enables fan control on Apple Silicon Macs. The name is intentional (set by the Asahi kernel developers).