WSL + Linux Dotfiles with Nix Home Manager

In this note, we will discuss how to quickly spin up Linux VMs or WSL distros and install/set up essential tools from scratch using dotfiles (powered by Nix + Home Manager).

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, make sure you have:

1. A freshly installed Linux distro (either inside a VM or WSL)
   • You can read how to Run Linux VM on macOS
2. Nix installed
   • You can read how to set up Nix on WSL
   • OR how to set up Nix on Linux (if you’re running Linux as your OS or in a VM)
3. Home Manager installed
   • Since our focus is on non-NixOS distros, follow this guide to install Home Manager as a standalone tool using Nix Flakes.

For this note, I will be using Ubuntu 26.04 in a VM via UTM on a MacBook.

Setting Up

1. Clone the nix-dotfiles repo into your home directory (~):

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/ishahroz/nix-dotfiles

2. Make sure the dotfiles are located at ~/nix-dotfiles.
3. Apply the configuration from inside the nix-dotfiles repo:

home-manager switch --flake ~/nix-dotfiles

4. The following becomes your default workflow:

cd ~/nix-dotfiles
home-manager switch --flake .