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Using Talon with Nix

Talon can be installed using the Nix package manager by using the nix-community/talon-nix flake. It can be installed either as a system package or home manager package.

Because Talon is closed source, your system will need to be configured to accept unfree packages.

warning

This flake is not an official Talon package, but rather community-supported. If it is not working, please file an issue upstream to the flake, not Talon. If you have issues you can ask for help on the #talon-nixos channel on the official Slack server.

There is an FAQ in the talon-nix repo that you may also be interested in reading.

Installation Instructions​

There are a few ways you can install Talon with Nix, depending on your setup. The best approach is to import the talon-nix module and then enable it using the programs.talon option. This will ensure that the necessary udev packages are installed, which will allow you to use a Tobii eye tracker.

Flake-based Installation​

You will need to introduce the flake into your configuration. If you are using a flake-based configuration, you can add an input:

    inputs = {
        talon-nix.url = "github:nix-community/talon-nix";
    };

You can then import the module somewhere in your configuration and enable it:

    imports = [
        inputs.talon-nix.nixosModules.talon
    ];
    programs.talon.enable = true;

If you're using home-manager, you can't use programs.talon.enable, so will have to manually add the package to home.pkgs. This could be done by adding a nixpkgs overlay or just referencing the package directly (though the latter you may run into issues due to unfree).

home.packages = [
    talon-nix.packages.${builtins.currentSystem}.default
];

Non-Flake-Based Installation​

If you are using a non-flake-based configuration, you will need to bring the talon-nix flake into your configuration, which you can do using the builtins.getFlake function. You can then import the module and enable the program:

    imports = [
        (builtins.getFlake "github:nix-community/talon-nix").nixosModules.talon
    ];
    programs.talon.enable = true;

If for whatever reason you don't want to use the programs.talon.enable = true method you could also add the package as a nixpkgs overlay, or access it directly from your environment.systemPackages or home.packages arrays (though this may result in unfree-related issues)

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    (builtins.getFlake "github:nix-community/talon-nix").packages.${builtins.currentSystem}.default
  ];

Nix with the Community VSCode Command Server​

There is a known bug that can happen if you installed VSCode with Nix, which can prevent the command server and command client from seeing each other, which in turn breaks many commands and cursorless. There is a solution to this, which is to apply code from two pull requests, one for the command client in your community repo/fork and one for the command server VSCode extension. Unfortunately, this will mean having to build your own command server extension, but fortunately you can use the nix flake from another command server PR to easily build. You can follow the instructions here and if you run into any issues feel free to ask for help on the talon slack server in #talon-nixos or elsewhere.