How can I enter virtual console and sway?

Help
1

I just installed the minimal version of NixOS.

  1. It starts into tty1. When I try other virtual consoles by ctrl+alt+F1/…/F7 as I normally do in Ubuntu, only ctrl+alt+F4 changes me to a different tty, tty4, and the other key bindings don’t seem to make any change. I then can’t switch back to tty1. Is this normal? Why? Note that there are tty1,…tty63 in /dev/

  2. After I enable sway, by programs.sway.enable = true, when I start NixOS, it still starts into tty1 first. Is it not necessary to boot NixOS into GUI directly? How can I make nixos boot into sway directly?

  3. When I enter sway, I can’t switch to any text console by ctrl+alt+F1/…/F6.

Can it be because when I installed Ubuntu on this Dell inspiron-7559, I added nouveau.modeset=0 to GRUB’s linux line, following nvidia - dell inspiron 7559 hangs on live boot HELP! - Ask Ubuntu? I haven’t installed any Nvidia driver yet.

Before I installed NixOS to overwrite Ubuntu, I remember virtual console key bindings ctrl+alt+F1/…/F6 didn’t work too.

Thanks.

2

When I try other virtual consoles by ctrl+alt+F1/…/F7 as I normally do in Ubuntu, only ctrl+alt+F4 changes me to a different tty, tty4, and the others don’t seem to make any change. I then can’t switch back to tty1. Is this normal? Why?

No, something is not right, that’s for sure. I can’t say why, though.

After I enable sway, by programs.sway.enable = true , when I start NixOS, it still starts into tty1 first. Do NixOS users usually not boot NixOS into GUI directly? How can I make nixos boot into sway directly?

I’m not a sway user, but I believe the standard way is to log in and run exec sway. If you want to use a login manager there’s a bit of work to to, see Wayland sessions