jackos1998
05918ec2ce
The ISO target had drifted from nixpkgs and no longer evaluated: `iso-image.nix` now defines `image.baseName` itself, which conflicts with ours, so force it. Drop the `boot.initrd.systemd.enable = false` override from the `asISO` build target. The missing `/dev/root` it worked around is no longer an issue, and scripted initrd is deprecated for removal in 26.11. Replace the wpa_supplicant stanza, which upstream's `installation-device.nix` no longer carries, with NetworkManager. Keep it out of `multi-user.target` so nothing network-related starts until asked; NetworkManager enables wpa_supplicant as its backend, which is D-Bus activated on demand. Pick up three more bits from that profile: the installer `variant_id`, the pstore drop-in that stops an install evacuating the target's persistent entries, and the mdadm `PROGRAM` stub that silences the unset-mail warning. Built and booted as an ISO to confirm. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
45 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
45 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
# installer
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The custom NixOS installer image used to bootstrap new boxes.
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- **Source:** [`nixos/installer.nix`](../../nixos/installer.nix)
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- **Host:** — (a build target, not a deployed box)
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## Role
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- Defines `nixos.systems.installer`, a minimal server system rendered as a bootable ISO via
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`config.my.buildAs.iso` (`my.asISO`); the same base can also be built as a kexec or netboot
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tree.
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- Build it with the devshell commands: `build-iso installer` (or `build-kexec installer` /
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`build-netboot installer`). The `update-installer` command force-tags `installer` to
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trigger a release rebuild in CI.
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## Image contents
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- Broad hardware support (`my.build.allHardware` pulls in the nixpkgs all-hardware profile);
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EFI- and USB-bootable, zstd-compressed squashfs. Volume ID
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`jackos-<release>-<arch>`, menu label "/dev/player0 Installer", image base name
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`jackos-installer`.
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- Root SSH with the deploy key authorized (`PermitRootLogin prohibit-password`); a random
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`installer-<hex>` hostname is set at boot.
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- `INSTALL_ROOT=/mnt` in the session environment, plus a `show-hw-config` alias wrapping
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`nixos-generate-config --show-hardware-config --root $INSTALL_ROOT`.
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- NixOS documentation enabled, NetworkManager available but not started at boot (run
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`systemctl start NetworkManager`, then `nmtui`), GC and memory-overcommit tuning for low-memory
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targets, LVM thin and NFS support.
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- Identifies itself as `VARIANT_ID=installer` in `/etc/os-release`, and leaves the target's
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persistent pstore entries alone (`Unlink=no`) so an install doesn't evacuate them.
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- No regular user (`my.user.enable = false`), no tmpfs-root management, no NAT, and not a
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deploy target (`my.deploy.enable = false`).
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## Installing a box
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The devshell's installer commands ([`devshell/install.nix`](../../devshell/install.nix)) drive
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an install over SSH against a booted installer reachable at `$INSTALLER`:
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- `installer-shell` — get a shell on the installer.
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- `do-install <system>` — builds the system's toplevel, `nix copy`s the closure to the
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installer's `$INSTALL_ROOT` remote store, sets the system profile, touches `/etc/NIXOS`,
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and runs `switch-to-configuration boot` with `NIXOS_INSTALL_BOOTLOADER=1` (skip the
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bootloader with `--no-bootloader`, skip substitution with `--no-substitute`).
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