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nixfiles/docs/misc/installer.md
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jackos1998 d51f2d62b6 docs: Document the deployment 
Add a top-level README mapping the boxes and a full docs/ tree: topic
pages (architecture, networking, deployment), per-site box pages for
colony and home with containers nested under their hosts, remote and
mobile boxes, the installer, and the home switch fabric reference
(folded in from home-switches.md, with AGENTS.md and code comments
retargeted to its new home). Box pages carry marked assignment tables
that CI regenerates from nixos.allAssignments.

AGENTS.md points at the new docs and keeps its terse agent version of
the mechanics, referring to the topic pages for depth.
2026-07-26 19:16:43 +01:00

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installer

The custom NixOS installer image used to bootstrap new boxes.

Role

  • Defines nixos.systems.installer, a minimal server system rendered as a bootable ISO via config.my.buildAs.iso (my.asISO); the same base can also be built as a kexec or netboot tree.
  • Build it with the devshell commands: build-iso installer (or build-kexec installer / build-netboot installer). The update-installer command force-tags installer to trigger a release rebuild in CI.

Image contents

  • Broad hardware support (my.build.allHardware pulls in the nixpkgs all-hardware profile); EFI- and USB-bootable, zstd-compressed squashfs. Volume ID jackos-<release>-<arch>, menu label "/dev/player0 Installer", image base name jackos-installer.
  • Root SSH with the deploy key authorized (PermitRootLogin prohibit-password); a random installer-<hex> hostname is set at boot.
  • INSTALL_ROOT=/mnt in the session environment, plus a show-hw-config alias wrapping nixos-generate-config --show-hardware-config --root $INSTALL_ROOT.
  • NixOS documentation enabled, wpa_supplicant available but not started, aggressive GC (GC_INITIAL_HEAP_SIZE=1M) and vm.overcommit_memory=1 for low-memory targets, LVM thin and NFS support.
  • No regular user (my.user.enable = false), no tmpfs-root management, no NAT, and not a deploy target (my.deploy.enable = false).

Installing a box

The devshell's installer commands (devshell/install.nix) drive an install over SSH against a booted installer reachable at $INSTALLER:

  • installer-shell — get a shell on the installer.
  • do-install <system> — builds the system's toplevel, nix copys the closure to the installer's $INSTALL_ROOT remote store, sets the system profile, touches /etc/NIXOS, and runs switch-to-configuration boot with NIXOS_INSTALL_BOOTLOADER=1 (skip the bootloader with --no-bootloader, skip substitution with --no-substitute).
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