How to Install Cockpit on NixOS Latest

In this tutorial, we will be going through the process of installing Cockpit on NixOS Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, you need to make sure that you have the following:

A running instance of NixOS Latest
Our package manager nix installed

Installing Cockpit

To install Cockpit, we will use the Nix package manager. Open your terminal window and type in the following commands:

sudo nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-21.05 nixpkgs
sudo nix-channel --update

sudo nix-env -i cockpit

This will add the NixOS package channels, update the channels, and install Cockpit.

Configuring Cockpit

Once you have installed Cockpit, you need to configure it. To do this, we need to add the cockpit.socket and cockpit.service files.

You can do this by creating a new file /etc/systemd/system/cockpit.socket and adding the following code:

[Unit]
Description=Cockpit Web Socket
[Socket]
ListenStream=127.0.0.1:9090
[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target

Then, create a new file /etc/systemd/system/cockpit.service and add the following code:

[Unit]
Description=Cockpit Web Interface
After=cockpit.socket
PartOf=graphical.target
[Service]
LimitNOFILE=8192
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/cockpit-ws
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Once you have added these files, reload systemd:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Finally, start the Cockpit service:

sudo systemctl start cockpit.socket

Logging in to Cockpit

If everything has been done correctly, you should now be able to access the Cockpit interface in your browser at https://<IP_ADDRESS>:9090.

You will be prompted to enter your username and password. Use your NixOS credentials to log in.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have covered how to install and configure Cockpit on NixOS Latest. With Cockpit, you can monitor and manage your NixOS system remotely with ease.

If you encounter any issues during the installation or configuration process, you can refer to the Cockpit documentation or seek help from the NixOS community.