Hello everyone, I’m a new nix user I’m using the Linux surface kernel for my surface laptop 3 and I’m having an issue so the kernel no matter what I do it’s stuck on 6.12.19 (the LTS version) I really want to get 6.18.2 and I am just wondering how I should go about doing this and if anyone else has had the same problem currently I am importing the kernel through flakes using the line
Input:
nixos-hardware.url = “github:8bitbuddhist/nixos-hardware?ref=surface-rust-target-spec-fix”;
Output:
nixos-hardware.nixosModules.microsoft-surface-common
Majiir
January 2, 2026, 6:01am
2
hardware.microsoft-surface.kernelVersion = “stable” will get you 6.15.
The default is ”longterm”.
Ah alright thank you so much, is there no way to get 6.18 on nixos? I have it on arch and it says it’s 6.18 how come it’s different on Nixos?
Majiir
January 2, 2026, 11:14pm
4
NixOS does have 6.18. But you are using nixos-hardware, which in turn uses the linux-surface kernel. linux-surface only updated to 6.18 two days ago, and nixos-hardware has not yet been updated. You can track that update here: microsoft/surface: kernel 6.18 by 8bitbuddhist · Pull Request #1696 · NixOS/nixos-hardware · GitHub
Hey! That URL you’re using (github:8bitbuddhist/nixos-hardware?ref=surface-rust-target-spec-fix) is my personal branch. You can keep using it if you really want to, but keep in mind it’s not officially maintained or supported (yet).
Like Majiir mentioned, you can follow these PRs for updates:
master ← 8bitbuddhist:surface-kernel-6.18
opened 06:26PM - 06 Dec 25 UTC
###### Description of changes
Updates the stable linux-surface kernel to 6.18… . There aren't any official 6.18 patches from linux-surface, so this uses the 6.17 patch set with some slight modifications to account for differences in the kernel source.
~~Will keep this as WIP until 6.18 hits NixOS' stable channel and other kernel modules get updated.~~
###### Things done
- [X] Tested the changes in your own NixOS Configuration
- [X] Tested the changes end-to-end by using your fork of `nixos-hardware` and
importing it via `<nixos-hardware>` or Flake input
master ← 8bitbuddhist:surface-rust-target-spec-fix
opened 06:12PM - 29 Nov 25 UTC
###### Description of changes
Adds a patch for older kernel versions so they … can build using Rust 1.91, which is used in NixOS 25.11. This fixes a build error and #1685.
Update: Due to a cryptic build error, Rust is disabled for the 6.12 (`longterm`) kernel. It can be re-enabled for the next LTS kernel (6.18).
###### Things done
- [X] Tested the changes in your own NixOS Configuration
- [X] Tested the changes end-to-end by using your fork of `nixos-hardware` and
importing it via `<nixos-hardware>` or Flake input
Yeah I’ve been using it because my build kept crashing due to the rust problem, thanks to much for fixing it!
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