Nix on Ubuntu Playground
Experiment with the Nix package manager, a powerful tool for reproducible and isolated software environments, on Ubuntu.
- eth0
- /
- oci://ghcr.io/sagikazarmark/iximiuz-labs/playgrounds/nix-on-ubuntu:live@sha256:ea4a8639aa23106dd924f5ac9dcc43c1d9cc7f79cfd11bf04e24ed75583f19f1
🎯 Getting Started
Quick Check
Verify Nix is installed:
nix --version
Nix Shell
Start experimenting with Nix by creating a temporary shell with packages:
# Start a shell with Python and Git
nix-shell -p python3 git
# Check what's available in the shell
python3 --version
git --version
# Exit the shell
exit
Package Management
Install Packages
# Install packages to user profile
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.hello
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.git
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.nodejs
# List installed packages
nix-env -q
# Search for packages
nix-env -qaP | grep python
Remove Packages
# Uninstall a package
nix-env -e hello
# Remove all packages from profile
nix-env -e '.*'
📚 Learn More
Happy learning! 🚀
A real VM, not a container
Get root on a VM with its own kernel, so Docker, Kubernetes, and systemd just work.
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SSH from browser or CLI
Use the built-in web terminal, or connect with labctl ssh, plain ssh, scp, or rsync.
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Drive it with AI
Let Claude, Codex, or any MCP client start this playground and run commands in it.
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Expose HTTP(S) ports
Give any web app running inside the VM a public URL - for yourself or to share with others.
Read the docs →
Share terminals
Invite others into your terminal session, or open it yourself from another device.
Read the docs →
Customize with init scripts
Add shell scripts that run at boot to install packages, clone repos, or seed test data.
Read the docs →
Private networking
VMs reach the internet via NAT with no public IP; several VMs share bridge networks.
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Ephemeral or persistent
By default, VMs are destroyed when the session ends; enable persistence to keep the disks for next time.
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Built-in container registry
A private registry.iximiuz.com for every playground to share images across services and VMs.
Read the docs →