Bernardo Magri
a09399702d
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Acer M5-481T fails Ghostty because Ivy Bridge HD 4000 tops out at OpenGL 4.2 in Mesa; Ghostty needs 4.3 — a generation ceiling, not a missing driver. Document that plus UEFI/x86_64, RAM, and storage floors (Nix store generations + BTRFS snapper + hibernate swap≈RAM). Linked from README, docs map, HARDWARE.md; #95 points here.
163 lines
6.8 KiB
Markdown
163 lines
6.8 KiB
Markdown
# Minimum system requirements
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What Nomarchy expects of a machine. This is a **living floor**, not a
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marketing sheet — numbers come from measured installs and known software
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floors (Ghostty, NixOS, the ISO). When a real machine pushes a bound, update
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this file in the same change.
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Related: [HARDWARE.md](HARDWARE.md) (profiles/drivers),
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[TESTING.md](TESTING.md) (ISO/VM), [README](../README.md) § install.
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---
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## Supported platform (hard)
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| Requirement | Floor | Why |
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|-------------|-------|-----|
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| Architecture | **x86_64** | Only target the flake builds today |
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| Firmware | **UEFI** | Installer uses systemd-boot; BIOS/legacy is LATER |
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| Install path | Whole disk (disko) | No dual-boot / partial-disk path yet |
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---
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## Graphics (default desktop)
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The default terminal is **Ghostty**, which requires **OpenGL 4.3** (desktop
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profile). That is a **GPU generation** limit, not a “driver not installed”
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problem:
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| Generation (examples) | Typical max OpenGL (Mesa) | Default Ghostty |
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|-----------------------|---------------------------|-----------------|
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| Ivy Bridge / HD 4000 (e.g. **Acer Aspire M5-481T**, ~2012) | **4.2** | **Does not start** (`OpenGLOutdated`) |
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| Haswell and newer Intel iGPU, most AMD GCN+, discrete GPUs of the last decade | ≥ 4.3 | OK |
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| Dell XPS 9350 (Skylake) | ≥ 4.3 | OK (verified 2026-07) |
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**Why 4.2 and not 4.3 on HD 4000?** The silicon and Mesa’s feature set for
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that generation top out at OpenGL 4.2. No package upgrade on the distro can
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turn Ivy Bridge into a 4.3 device. Ghostty is choosing a modern GL baseline
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on purpose.
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**Until a fallback ships** (BACKLOG **#95** — alternate terminal or probe when
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GL < 4.3): machines below OpenGL 4.3 can still **install and run the
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desktop**, but SUPER+Return / the default terminal entry will fail until the
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user installs another terminal (e.g. kitty) or we ship an automatic fallback.
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Other Wayland clients vary; Hyprland itself is usually fine on these GPUs.
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The Ghostty floor is the one that bit real hardware first.
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---
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## CPU and memory
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| Resource | Practical minimum | Comfortable |
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|----------|-------------------|-------------|
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| CPU | 64-bit x86_64, dual-core | Quad-core or better (rebuilds) |
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| RAM | **8 GiB** | **16 GiB+** |
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NixOS + Home Manager rebuilds and browser/Electron apps are memory-hungry.
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Hibernation (default installer path) sizes a **swapfile ≈ RAM**, so low RAM
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also means less disk eaten by swap — but also less headroom when building.
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---
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## Storage (the important one)
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Nomarchy is a full NixOS desktop with:
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1. **The Nix store** — every generation keeps package closures; updates add
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new paths until you GC. Many packages appear once per generation when
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inputs move.
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2. **Home Manager generations** — desktop switches and `nomarchy-home` leave
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profiles behind until cleaned.
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3. **BTRFS + snapper** — `@snapshots` timeline (hourly/daily) and
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pre-rebuild snaps. Excellent for recovery; **they retain data** and grow
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with how full the live filesystem is.
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4. **Optional hibernation swapfile** — default size = **RAM** (e.g. 16 GiB
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RAM → 16 GiB swapfile on disk).
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Closure size is **not** the same as disk use after hardlink optimisation
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and is **not** the ISO size (see ROADMAP § chromium / #121 measurements).
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Still, plan for **growth**, not for a single install footprint.
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### Measured / known artifacts (order of magnitude)
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| Artifact | Size (approx.) | Source |
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|----------|----------------|--------|
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| Offline live ISO | **~8.1 GiB** | Built image, 2026-07 (#103 era) |
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| Template HM closure (nominal) | **~9.4 GiB** | `nix path-info` style figures in ROADMAP |
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| Desktop store weight (uncompressed, pre-dedupe order) | **tens of GiB** | ISO pin / offline pin analysis (#120) |
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A **fresh** install on empty disk is smaller than a machine that has been
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updated and snapshotted for months.
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### Recommended free disk (whole-disk install)
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These are **planning floors** for the target SSD/HDD the installer will wipe
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and use entirely — not “free space beside Windows.”
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| Use | Capacity | Notes |
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|-----|----------|--------|
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| Absolute minimum to finish install + first boot | **≥ 40 GiB** | Tight; little room for GC delay or snapshots |
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| Realistic daily driver | **≥ 64 GiB** | Short GC/snap retention still required |
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| Comfortable (updates + snapper + apps) | **≥ 128 GiB** | Default recommendation |
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| Power user / many generations / big apps | **256 GiB+** | Dev toolchains, Steam, local datasets |
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**Plus swap:** if you keep hibernation (default), add **~RAM** on top of the
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table (installer creates `/swap/swapfile` sized to RAM unless you set 0).
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Example: 16 GiB RAM laptop → plan **≥ 128 GiB disk**, of which ~16 GiB is
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swapfile, leaving room for store + snapshots.
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### Why Nix “duplicates everything”
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- Each **system** and **home** generation points at a closure of store
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paths. Unchanged paths are shared (same `/nix/store/…` hash); changed
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inputs pull **new** paths. After several updates you hold old + new until
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`nix-collect-garbage` / generation deletion.
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- **Snapper** snapshots the BTRFS subvolumes. A snapshot is cheap until you
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rewrite a lot of data; then it retains the old blocks. Timeline + rebuild
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snaps mean “I deleted that 2 GB download” may not free space until snaps
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expire.
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- The live **ISO** is large because it pins an offline install closure; that
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is a download/USB cost, not permanent free space on the installed machine
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after install (the installed system has its own store).
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**Hygiene (user-facing, later doc links):** delete old generations, run GC,
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tune snapper retention — see [RECOVERY.md](RECOVERY.md) and the System ›
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Recovery menu. This requirements page only states why the disk fills up.
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---
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## What we explicitly do **not** require
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| Non-requirement | Note |
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|-----------------|------|
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| NVIDIA as first-class | Deferred past v1 (PROPOSED); community/docs only |
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| Secure Boot enrolled out of the box | Not the current install path |
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| Touch / tablet as primary input | Untested as a bar |
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| < 8 GiB RAM as a supported target | May boot; rebuilds and browsers will thrash |
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---
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## Machines that defined these bounds
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| Machine | Role |
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|---------|------|
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| **Acer Aspire M5-481T** (~2012, Intel HD 4000, OpenGL 4.2) | Ghostty floor (#95); install bake / old-HW QA |
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| **Dell XPS 9350** (Skylake) | Install bake (#123); Ghostty OK |
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| AMD dev box / Latitude / T14s | Ongoing V3 (HARDWARE-QUEUE) |
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When you install on something older or smaller than the table, file what
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broke in `agent/BACKLOG.md` and tighten this page.
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---
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## Related work
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| Item | Topic |
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|------|--------|
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| BACKLOG **#95** | Ghostty fallback when OpenGL < 4.3 |
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| BACKLOG **#120** | Lighter netinstall ISO (download size ≠ installed size) |
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| BACKLOG **#123** | Installer HM pre-activate (first-boot polish) |
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| BACKLOG **#124** | Flake pin vs main/v1 lag after install |
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