Hello, I am fairly new to Qubes OS and would like to know if there’s any list of packages needed for Qubes templates to run.
I am coming from NixOS and am an active maintainer there. I would like to start working on a NixOS template for Qubes. As far as I know, the last person who tried didn’t finish porting the packages to NixOS. Therefore, I’d like to give it a try 
Thanks in advance!
I think it’s a good idea to start from debian template builder GitHub - QubesOS/qubes-builder-debian: Qubes component: builder-debian. From what I understand, qubes-builder-debian/template_debian/packages_minimal.list at main · QubesOS/qubes-builder-debian · GitHub creates an availble minimal linux, and qubes-builder-debian/template_debian/packages_qubes_minimal.list at main · QubesOS/qubes-builder-debian · GitHub pulls all ‘necessary’ packages through one meta package.
Alright, I’ll check and start from there then.
Thanks!
A little update on this, just as an information in case someone is interested into knowing the state of the nixos template.
I’m currently busy with other stuff, and I’m still a QubesOS newbie, but I’m going to start packaging stuff as soon as I’m less occupied with work and other stuff.
signed up to the forum specifically to say that I’m really looking forward to this! I use nix package manager quite a lot on the Debian template.
my face when new qube flavor
I just found out about the latest NixOS that released a year or two ago, and it sounds nice to have as a VM inside of QubesOS
I am interested in this; I have bookmarked this thread 
Hello everyone,
Sorry to deceive you, but I decided to switch back to solely using NixOS.
There are a few things which made up that decision, as much as I like this distribution, it didn’t really fit to my workflow.
However, if anyone else decides to make a nixos template, I’m willing to help packaging.
Sorry to hear that! @shard7 if you don’t mind sharing, what were the factors which lead you to go back to NixOS only?
Hey,
There are a few factors influencing my decision here. Note that my choice isn’t a reflection on QubesOS itself, but rather stems from my own preferences.
Initially, I opted for QubesOS not only for its security features but also for its practicality. The ability to effortlessly create templates, VMs, and manage them efficiently was a major draw for me.
However, I’ve decided to switch back to NixOS for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s lighter in terms of system resources. Additionally, the features offered by Nix/NixOS align more closely with my work preferences and habits (declarative configuration, immutability, atomic updates, and so on…)
I would like to eventually install NixOS as a HVM on my QubesOS, not right now as I am just finally getting my bearings sorted. Maybe in the summer sometime I will be ready to tackle this and thereby restart working on some of my paused projects.
Why did you not opt to use NixOS within Qubes? As that is what I want to eventually do
Hey, being able to only have it as an HVM isn’t really what I would like. In my honest opinion, NixOS makes more sense if you run it bare metal because you’ll be able to fully profit from its advantages. What I’d like to see is a template for it, but until then, I won’t switch to Qubes and will stay on NixOS. As I said before, I’ll be really happy to help out with this, but I find NixOS better for myself currently, the fact that dom0 is based on Fedora also adds to this decision.
(again, this is mostly based on personal preferences)
@shard7 Could you expand on what steps you took on this project ? I’m trying to create a NixOS template and I’m wondering what you find out when you tried to achieve it. Any blockers, relevant info ? Thanks !
Hey, the only thing I saw is that someone already tried once, and one package is already in nixpkgs (nixpkgs/pkgs/applications/qubes at master · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub), although I’m not sure if it’s up-to-date.
Otherwise it didn’t seem like there would be any blockers, but I didn’t start packaging anything.
PS: Feel free to ask for help if you need some for packaging stuff I’ll be happy to contribute!