I made a dual-bootable NixBSD (NixOS and FreeBSD) image
I've been working on getting NixBSD (Nix package manager + FreeBSD) to boot alongside NixOS on a shared ZFS pool. The result is a <2GB disk image you can try in QEMU or virt-manager. What works: - GRUB chainloads FreeBSD's bootloader - Both systems share a ZFS pool - Everything is defined in a single Nix flake - Fully reproducible builds (some dependencies are now cached on Cachix) Planned: - Support native compilation of NixBSD (currently cross-compiled on Linux) - Many shortcuts were taken to get this working, needs lots of cleanup - Add a semi-automated installer like nixos-wizard Try it:…
What it does
In the maker’s words, at launch
I've been working on getting NixBSD (Nix package manager + FreeBSD) to boot alongside NixOS on a shared ZFS pool. The result is a <2GB disk image you can try in QEMU or virt-manager. What works: - GRUB chainloads FreeBSD's bootloader - Both systems share a ZFS pool - Everything is defined in a single Nix flake - Fully reproducible builds (some dependencies are now cached on Cachix) Planned: - Support native compilation of NixBSD (currently cross-compiled on Linux) - Many shortcuts were taken to get this working, needs lots of cleanup - Add a semi-automated installer like nixos-wizard Try it: qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 2048 \ -bios /usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd \ -drive file=nixos.root.img,format=raw Login: nixos/nixos or root/toor The hardest parts were getting mounts working at boot, making the bootloader setup idempotent, and debugging early init. This disk image could potentially work on a USB stick with a bit more work. This is very much experimental. My goal is to eventually produce a proper NixBSD installation ISO and consolidate all configuration into one repository while still consuming upstream NixBSD as a flake. Download: https://github.com/jonhermansen/nixbsd-demo/releases/tag/bui... Feel free to leave feedback here or on GitHub! Thanks!
Does the same job
all alternatives →- MCMyNixOS – Create and share Nix and NixOS configurations2022 · mynixos.com · ▲200
Hello HN! I want to show you MyNixOS.com - a website I've been working on this year to make it easy to create and share Nix and NixOS configurations. Nix is a powerful tool to deploy software in a reproducible way, and with NixOS you can control your whole operating system through a declarative configuration. Starting out with Nix was exciting, but it definitely had a challenging learning curve. This made me start building a website focused on making it easier to create and share Nix flakes, which are the core unit of software deployment in Nix. Using the website, you can create flakes…
- NSNix Snapshotter – Native understanding of Nix packages for containerd2023 · github.com · ▲145
Hello! This is Edgar and Robbie and we built nix-snapshotter. nix-snapshotter brings native understanding of Nix packages to containerd. We built this because Nix is a great fit for making efficient containers. They don't need an OS because Nix captures all dependencies exactly. However, the current process of creating Nix images is subpar because one needs to transform Nix packages into a format that container runtimes understand. Using nix-snapshotter, instead of downloading image layers, packages come directly from the Nix store. Packages can be fetched from a binary cache or built on the…
- NDNixOS-DGX-Spark – Nix and NixOS on the DGX SparkAug 2026 · github.com · ▲132
Try DGX Spark playbooks using Nix on DGX OS, or install NixOS on your DGX Spark for the full Nix experience. The repository provides USB images and a NixOS module with settings for DGX Spark systems. This works on the NVIDIA DGX Spark itself and also on the Asus Ascent GX10. See my 5 minute lightning talk from Planet Nix for an intro: https://youtu.be/AvK_gi_snJE?si=MPKv3iiuS9B5elIE
- ZZZectl – ZFS Boot Environment Manager for Linux2020 · ramsdenj.com · ▲119
- WXWarpBuild – x86-64 and arm GitHub Action runners for 30% faster builds2023 · warpbuild.com · ▲154
Hey HN, I’m Surya and I’m excited to show you WarpBuild! WarpBuild provides fast, secure `x86-64` and `arm64` Github actions runners. This speeds up your workloads by 30%, at half the cost, and takes ~2mins to get started. We’ve been seeing pretty good results since we opened up signups a week ago and I’ve shared some numbers publicly here [1]. Currently, we support linux runners for Github organizations (not personal accounts) and MacOS support is coming soon (~Jan). The way the runners work is deceptively simple: Runners are assigned to hardware that is ideal for build workloads with fast…
- GNgo-nbd – A Pure Go NBD Server and Client2023 · github.com · ▲113
Hey HN! I just released go-nbd, a lightweight Go library for effortlessly creating NBD servers and clients. Its a neat tool for creating custom Linux block devices with arbitrary backends, such as a file, byte slice or what I'm planning to use it for, a tape drive. While there are a few partially abandoned projects like this out there already, this library tries to be as maintainable as possible by only implementing the most recent handshake revision and baseline functionality for both the client and the server, while still having enough support to be useful. I'd love to get your feedback :)
More life & fun this month
the category →- TL
Life & fun · 10d ago · louisabraham.github.io
Photosynthesis fires two of your iPhone
Life & fun · 29d ago · photosynthesis.camera
- CCCreatium Coach▲320
Your multimedia mentor that takes you from mid to great
Life & fun · 11d ago · producthunt.creatium.info
SoloUno▲310Take control of hair pulling, nail biting & skin picking
Life & fun · 28d ago · solouno.io
Launched alongside, January 2026
the whole month →- IN
Hey HN! I wanted to share something I built over the last few weeks: isometric.nyc is a massive isometric pixel art map of NYC, built with nano banana and coding agents. I didn't write a single line of code. Of course no-code doesn't mean no-engineering. This project took a lot more manual labor than I'd hoped! I wrote a deep dive on the workflow and some thoughts about the future of AI coding and creativity: http://cannoneyed.com/projects/isometric-nyc
AI · Jan 2026 · cannoneyed.com
Automatic AI-powered code reviews the moment you open a PR
Dev tools · Jan 2026 · kilo.ai
