The first hour

1. Log in. If you picked the small install, run ephemeral-setup first and choose the full system. ephemeral-setup is also how you change the options you picked later.

2. Run ephemeral-doctor to see that everything is as it should be. It says how to fix anything that isn’t.

3. Run ephemeral-apps and tick the apps you want, if you didn’t pick them during the install.

4. Allow what you use. OpenSnitch, if you kept it on, asks the first time a program connects out. If something can’t connect later, check its rules.

5. Using the Proton Pass SSH agent? Run pass-cli login, then log out and back in.

6. Back up the LUKS header to a USB stick, once. Without it, a damaged header loses the whole disk.

   shell

   luks-header-backup /run/media/$USER/<stick>/luks-header.img
   

7. Keep the config in git:

   shell

   cd /persist/etc/nixos && git init && git add -A && git commit -m "my machine"
   

   Push it to a private repo. settings.json stays out of git on its own.

Good to know

• / is wiped on every boot. Your home folder is kept; ephemeral-doctor kept lists the rest, and Persistence says how to add to it.
• Rebuild after any change with ephemeral-update.
• passwd doesn’t stick. Change your password with ephemeral-passwd.
• A rebuild broke something? ephemeral-update --previous goes back. See When something breaks.
• Check a change builds with ephemeral-update --check before switching to it, or try it in a VM first with nix run path:/persist/etc/nixos#vm.
• ephemeral-help lists every command.