How to use third-party packages in Nixos

2024.08.26

If you are using nixos you can get a problem, while there is no package you need in package store

AppImage

just add appimage-run package

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
appimage-run
...

and add this configuration for running *.appimage automatically

  # Turn on appimage support
  boot.binfmt.registrations.appimage = {
    wrapInterpreterInShell = false;
    interpreter = "${pkgs.appimage-run}/bin/appimage-run";
    recognitionType = "magic";
    offset = 0;
    mask = ''\xff\xff\xff\xff\x00\x00\x00\x00\xff\xff\xff'';
    magicOrExtension = ''\x7fELF....AI\x02'';
  };

(Source)

Flatpak

Enable Flatpak support

services.flatpak.enable = true;

and install this packages for user

  users.users."user" = {
    packages = with pkgs; [
      flatpak
      gnome.gnome-software # optionally
    ];
  };

or globally

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
      flatpak
      gnome.gnome-software # optionally
      ...
  ]

(Source)

Standalone binaries

you need nix-ld to create separate environment for standalone binaries

Enable nix-ld support:

# Nix-ld
programs.nix-ld = {
enable = true;
};

Add basic list of dependencies from here

Ensure LD_LIBRARY_PATH is set

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$NIX_LD_LIBRARY_PATH

sudpo nixos-rebuild switch

Try to run your binary:

# ./obinskit
./obinskit: error while loading shared libraries: libgobject-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

If it needs more dependencies, like in example, search this lib from index (install nix-index at first)

nix-locate --top-level libgobject-2.0.so.0 | awk '{print$1}' | sort | uniq | sort

add this package to programs.nix-ld.libraries and run

sudpo nixos-rebuild switch

(Source)