ath11k-firmware VS nix

Format the USB and clone ath11k-firmware (this commit worked for me) onto it

Background- I recently bought a Honor magicbook 14 laptop. I installed Manjaro/XFCE on it as I have been using Manjaro for around a year and like it. Everything seems fine apart from the wi-fi network adapter (Qualcomm QCNFA765 Wireless Network Adapter) which uses the ATHK11 driver which for whatever reason was lacking a "board file" that would allow Manjaro to recognize my wireless network adapter. Other people have had this problem (https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=215625) and an amended driver was posted on git. (https://github.com/kvalo/ath11k-firmware).

Wifi and Bluetooth weren't working on the default Manjaro installation. I tried multiple kernel versions and Qualcomm's drivers from https://github.com/kvalo/ath11k-firmware/blob/master/WCN6855/hw2.0/board-2.bin. In some versions, either Bluetooth or Wifi was working, not both. Finally, I settled on experimental kernel 6.0.0rc7-1, where Bluetooth turns on and HW is detected, but still, I'm having issues with Bluetooth headphone connectivity. Please let me know if someone has a solution to this.

doesn't seem to be supported yet: https://github.com/kvalo/ath11k-firmware

I have a 9310 32gb model with the ax500. With a 5.17 kernel and the WLAN.HST.1.0.1-05266-QCAHSTSWPLZ_V2_TO_X86-1 ath11k firmware, the machine has been flawless. Well maybe not the fingerprint reader.. i installed some updates and that broke but I never really used it so I haven't bothered trying to fix it.

https://github.com/kvalo/ath11k-firmware/tree/master/QCA6390

You need to compile a kernel with some patches, or use kernel >= 5.13. And source firmware for it from here: https://github.com/kvalo/ath11k-firmware/tree/master/QCN9074/hw1.0/testing

> https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/9911#issuecomment-19252073...

As we covered in my last post, NixOS is a amazing Linux distribution for creating stable and declared environments. Now while this is amazing for a desktop setup, it is also perfect for a home-server or home-lab.

(Nix itself is slowly chugging along with Windows via MinGW - https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nix-on-windows/1113/108 and https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/1320 , for example.)

Nix is a cross-platform package manager. It uses the nix programming language. Nix and NixOs are often used in the same context, but while the first is a package manager, the latter is a linux distribution based on nix.

Today I want to talk to you about Nixos. What is it? Nixos is a declarative and reproducible OS, partly taking the words used on their own page. What does that mean?

Software developers often want to customize:

1. their home environments: for packages (some reach for brew on MacOS) and configurations (dotfiles, and some reach for stow).

2. their development shells: for build dependencies (compilers, SDKs, libraries), tools (LSP, linters, formatters, debuggers), and services (runtime, database). Some reach for devcontainers here.

3. or even their operating systems: for development, for CI, for deployment, or for personal use.

Nix provision all of the above in the same language, with Nixpkgs, NixOS, home-manager, and devShells such as https://devenv.sh/. What's more, Nix is (https://nixos.org/):

- reproducible: what works on your dev machine also works in CI in prod,

- declarative: you version control and review your configurations and infrastructure as code, at a reasonable level of abstraction,

- reliable: all changes are atomic with easy roll back.

Hopping from one distro to another with a different package manager might require some time to adapt. Using a package manager that can be installed on most distro is one way to help you get to work faster. Flatpak is one of them; other alternative are Snap, Nix or Homebrew. Flatpak is a good starter, and if you have a bunch of free time, I suggest trying Nix.

- it reduces bloat, because you can generate an environment or OS image with only the software needed to run a specific program or service

My guess is that a big efficiency gain would come from the second point, because you don't waste CPU on code that you don't use.

Does this make sense? Has anyone explored this?

[0]: https://nixos.org

1) Setting up the development environment - I currently use devcontainers for most things, but may also dig into nix -> isolated, portable, repeatable development environment 2) Exploring Echo - understand routing, requests, response, etc. 3) Incorporate Templ - integration with Echo, template composition, etc. 4) Integrating TailwindCSS - config for use with Echo/Templ, development cycle, deployment, etc. 5) Add in HTMX - endpoints, template structure, concepts, etc. 6) hyperscript for interactivity - client side interactivity