d01b9493c9
The tag wasn't properly closed which caused the manual build to fail. Tested with: nix-build nixos/release.nix -A manual.x86_64-linux Signed-off-by: aszlig <aszlig@redmoonstudios.org>
282 lines
9.8 KiB
XML
282 lines
9.8 KiB
XML
<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
|
||
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
|
||
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
|
||
version="5.0"
|
||
xml:id="sec-installation">
|
||
|
||
<title>Installing NixOS</title>
|
||
|
||
<orderedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Boot from the CD.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The CD contains a basic NixOS installation. (It
|
||
also contains Memtest86+, useful if you want to test new hardware).
|
||
When it’s finished booting, it should have detected most of your
|
||
hardware.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The NixOS manual is available on virtual console 8
|
||
(press Alt+F8 to access).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>You get logged in as <literal>root</literal>
|
||
(with empty password).</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>If you downloaded the graphical ISO image, you can
|
||
run <command>systemctl start display-manager</command> to start KDE. If you
|
||
want to continue on the terminal, you can use
|
||
<command>loadkeys</command> to switch to your preferred keyboard layout.
|
||
(We even provide neo2 via <command>loadkeys de neo</command>!)</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The boot process should have brought up networking (check
|
||
<command>ip a</command>). Networking is necessary for the
|
||
installer, since it will download lots of stuff (such as source
|
||
tarballs or Nixpkgs channel binaries). It’s best if you have a DHCP
|
||
server on your network. Otherwise configure networking manually
|
||
using <command>ifconfig</command>.</para>
|
||
<para>To manually configure the network on the graphical installer,
|
||
first disable network-manager with
|
||
<command>systemctl stop network-manager</command>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>If you would like to continue the installation from a different
|
||
machine you need to activate the SSH daemon via <literal>systemctl start sshd</literal>.
|
||
In order to be able to login you also need to set a password for
|
||
<literal>root</literal> using <literal>passwd</literal>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>The NixOS installer doesn’t do any partitioning or
|
||
formatting yet, so you need to do that yourself. Use the following
|
||
commands:
|
||
|
||
<itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>For partitioning:
|
||
<command>fdisk</command>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>For initialising Ext4 partitions:
|
||
<command>mkfs.ext4</command>. It is recommended that you assign a
|
||
unique symbolic label to the file system using the option
|
||
<option>-L <replaceable>label</replaceable></option>, since this
|
||
makes the file system configuration independent from device
|
||
changes. For example:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
# mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>For creating swap partitions:
|
||
<command>mkswap</command>. Again it’s recommended to assign a
|
||
label to the swap partition: <option>-L
|
||
<replaceable>label</replaceable></option>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>For creating LVM volumes, the LVM commands, e.g.,
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
# pvcreate /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
|
||
# vgcreate MyVolGroup /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
|
||
# lvcreate --size 2G --name bigdisk MyVolGroup
|
||
# lvcreate --size 1G --name smalldisk MyVolGroup</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>For creating software RAID devices, use
|
||
<command>mdadm</command>.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
</itemizedlist>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Mount the target file system on which NixOS should
|
||
be installed on <filename>/mnt</filename>, e.g.
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
# mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
|
||
</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>If your machine has a limited amount of memory, you
|
||
may want to activate swap devices now (<command>swapon
|
||
<replaceable>device</replaceable></command>). The installer (or
|
||
rather, the build actions that it may spawn) may need quite a bit of
|
||
RAM, depending on your configuration.</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem>
|
||
|
||
<para>You now need to create a file
|
||
<filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> that
|
||
specifies the intended configuration of the system. This is
|
||
because NixOS has a <emphasis>declarative</emphasis> configuration
|
||
model: you create or edit a description of the desired
|
||
configuration of your system, and then NixOS takes care of making
|
||
it happen. The syntax of the NixOS configuration file is
|
||
described in <xref linkend="sec-configuration-syntax"/>, while a
|
||
list of available configuration options appears in <xref
|
||
linkend="ch-options"/>. A minimal example is shown in <xref
|
||
linkend="ex-config"/>.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>The command <command>nixos-generate-config</command> can
|
||
generate an initial configuration file for you:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
# nixos-generate-config --root /mnt</screen>
|
||
|
||
You should then edit
|
||
<filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> to suit your
|
||
needs:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
# nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
|
||
</screen>
|
||
|
||
If you’re using the graphical ISO image, other editors may be
|
||
available (such as <command>vim</command>). If you have network
|
||
access, you can also install other editors — for instance, you can
|
||
install Emacs by running <literal>nix-env -i
|
||
emacs</literal>.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>You <emphasis>must</emphasis> set the option
|
||
<option>boot.loader.grub.device</option> to specify on which disk
|
||
the GRUB boot loader is to be installed. Without it, NixOS cannot
|
||
boot.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>Another critical option is <option>fileSystems</option>,
|
||
specifying the file systems that need to be mounted by NixOS.
|
||
However, you typically don’t need to set it yourself, because
|
||
<command>nixos-generate-config</command> sets it automatically in
|
||
<filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix</filename>
|
||
from your currently mounted file systems. (The configuration file
|
||
<filename>hardware-configuration.nix</filename> is included from
|
||
<filename>configuration.nix</filename> and will be overwritten by
|
||
future invocations of <command>nixos-generate-config</command>;
|
||
thus, you generally should not modify it.)</para>
|
||
|
||
<note><para>Depending on your hardware configuration or type of
|
||
file system, you may need to set the option
|
||
<option>boot.initrd.kernelModules</option> to include the kernel
|
||
modules that are necessary for mounting the root file system,
|
||
otherwise the installed system will not be able to boot. (If this
|
||
happens, boot from the CD again, mount the target file system on
|
||
<filename>/mnt</filename>, fix
|
||
<filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> and rerun
|
||
<filename>nixos-install</filename>.) In most cases,
|
||
<command>nixos-generate-config</command> will figure out the
|
||
required modules.</para></note>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>Do the installation:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
# nixos-install</screen>
|
||
|
||
Cross fingers. If this fails due to a temporary problem (such as
|
||
a network issue while downloading binaries from the NixOS binary
|
||
cache), you can just re-run <command>nixos-install</command>.
|
||
Otherwise, fix your <filename>configuration.nix</filename> and
|
||
then re-run <command>nixos-install</command>.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>As the last step, <command>nixos-install</command> will ask
|
||
you to set the password for the <literal>root</literal> user, e.g.
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
setting root password...
|
||
Enter new UNIX password: ***
|
||
Retype new UNIX password: ***
|
||
</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem><para>If everything went well:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
# reboot</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para></listitem>
|
||
|
||
<listitem>
|
||
|
||
<para>You should now be able to boot into the installed NixOS. The
|
||
GRUB boot menu shows a list of <emphasis>available
|
||
configurations</emphasis> (initially just one). Every time you
|
||
change the NixOS configuration (see <link
|
||
linkend="sec-changing-config">Changing Configuration</link> ), a
|
||
new item is added to the menu. This allows you to easily roll back
|
||
to a previous configuration if something goes wrong.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>You should log in and change the <literal>root</literal>
|
||
password with <command>passwd</command>.</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>You’ll probably want to create some user accounts as well,
|
||
which can be done with <command>useradd</command>:
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ useradd -c 'Eelco Dolstra' -m eelco
|
||
$ passwd eelco</screen>
|
||
|
||
</para>
|
||
|
||
<para>You may also want to install some software. For instance,
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-env -qa \*</screen>
|
||
|
||
shows what packages are available, and
|
||
|
||
<screen>
|
||
$ nix-env -i w3m</screen>
|
||
|
||
install the <literal>w3m</literal> browser.</para>
|
||
|
||
</listitem>
|
||
|
||
</orderedlist>
|
||
|
||
<para>To summarise, <xref linkend="ex-install-sequence" /> shows a
|
||
typical sequence of commands for installing NixOS on an empty hard
|
||
drive (here <filename>/dev/sda</filename>). <xref linkend="ex-config"
|
||
/> shows a corresponding configuration Nix expression.</para>
|
||
|
||
<example xml:id='ex-install-sequence'><title>Commands for Installing NixOS on <filename>/dev/sda</filename></title>
|
||
<screen>
|
||
# fdisk /dev/sda # <lineannotation>(or whatever device you want to install on)</lineannotation>
|
||
# mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1
|
||
# mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2
|
||
# swapon /dev/sda2
|
||
# mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
|
||
# nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
|
||
# nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
|
||
# nixos-install
|
||
# reboot</screen>
|
||
</example>
|
||
|
||
<example xml:id='ex-config'><title>NixOS Configuration</title>
|
||
<screen>
|
||
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
|
||
|
||
{
|
||
imports =
|
||
[ # Include the results of the hardware scan.
|
||
./hardware-configuration.nix
|
||
];
|
||
|
||
boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda";
|
||
|
||
# Note: setting fileSystems is generally not
|
||
# necessary, since nixos-generate-config figures them out
|
||
# automatically in hardware-configuration.nix.
|
||
#fileSystems."/".device = "/dev/disk/by-label/nixos";
|
||
|
||
# Enable the OpenSSH server.
|
||
services.sshd.enable = true;
|
||
}</screen>
|
||
</example>
|
||
|
||
<xi:include href="installing-uefi.xml" />
|
||
<xi:include href="installing-usb.xml" />
|
||
<xi:include href="installing-pxe.xml" />
|
||
<xi:include href="installing-virtualbox-guest.xml" />
|
||
|
||
</chapter>
|