Gnoblin

Appearance

NixOS ​

The flake provides a Gnoblin session for x86_64 Linux. Use Nixpkgs unstable for the current GNOME dependency stack.

Stable channels ​

Gnoblin does not currently provide installable packages for NixOS 25.05, 25.11, or 26.05. GNOME 51 requires newer integration libraries than those channels provide. In particular, 25.05 lacks libglycin; 25.11 has Wayland 1.24; and 26.05 has Wayland 1.25, while Gnoblin requires Wayland 1.26.

The flake exposes the exact pinned-channel assessment for integrators:

sh
nix eval --json github:kierandrewett/gnoblin#lib.nixChannelEvaluations.x86_64-linux

lib.nixChannelPackages names each channel explicitly. For example, the following reports why 25.11 cannot be installed:

sh
nix build github:kierandrewett/gnoblin#lib.nixChannelPackages.x86_64-linux.nixos_25_11

Each stable entry stops before installation and prints its recorded blockers. It does not fall back to the unstable package or replace your system libraries.

1. Add the flake input ​

In your existing flake.nix:

nix
inputs.gnoblin.url = "github:kierandrewett/gnoblin";

This keeps Gnoblin's own pinned Nixpkgs input. If your system already uses a compatible unstable revision, you can add inputs.gnoblin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";.

2. Enable the module ​

Add these entries to your host's nixosSystem definition, where inputs is the set of flake inputs:

nix
modules = [
  inputs.gnoblin.nixosModules.default
  ./configuration.nix
  { programs.gnoblin.enable = true; }
];

Keep your existing display manager. If you have none, enable GDM in configuration.nix:

nix
services.displayManager.gdm.enable = true;

3. Rebuild and log in ​

From your system configuration directory, run your usual rebuild command:

sh
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .

Install a shell, then log out and select Gnoblin. Continue with configuration.

Update or remove ​

Update the flake input and rebuild to update Gnoblin. Log out and in afterward.

To remove it, remove the Gnoblin module and enable option, then rebuild. Gnoblin's private runtime does not replace the GNOME packages in your system.