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It's spelt out in the article, but be aware that Guix as a distro will give you a libre kernel, so no blobs. I am afraid it might not work with nvidia or AMD GP
by MayeulC 5y ago
It's spelt out in the article, but be aware that Guix as a distro will give you a libre kernel, so no blobs. I am afraid it might not work with nvidia or AMD GPUs, as well as some wi-fi adapters (there's the cough nonguix project umbrella I haven't yet dug into).
Other than that, the approach taken by Guix and Nix to package management (or even fedora silverblue) is quite interesting, and I've been folowing it rather closely.
You get a more ansible-like (one config file for deployment) way of configuring your system, with rollbacks possible, it lets you have multiple software configurations exist simultaneously, that would be hard to achieve on other distributions (say, different environments with various versions of glibc). And portability+reproductibility of your environments.
- SkyMarshal 5y agoGUIX should work with AMD’s open source drivers, just not Nvidia’s blob drivers.
- MayeulC 5y agoNot out-of-the box, though, as recent GPUs need to have firmware loaded before being usable. IIRC, older AMD GPUs have firmware pre-loaded (and though they would be better performing with newer firmware, they can run as-is).
- podiki 5y agoThe issue is loading firmware with the kernel, which linux-libre won't (by design) do. You can run the full linux kernel instead (but not in Guix default channels).
- opan 5y agoIt's not that simple, unfortunately. The AMD drivers are free, but rely on some blobs in the kernel that aren't there when using linux-libre.
- MayeulC 5y agoI'd just like to clarify that these blobs are never executed on the main CPU, and are instead running inside the GPU, or possibly "management engine"-like cores inside it. They also likely contain opaque data like DRM-related keys, thermal management look-up tables, etc.
- ekianjo 5y ago> I am afraid it might not work with nvidia or AMD GPUs, You can still install non-free blobs on Guix, as described in the article.
- MayeulC 5y agoYeah, I commented before reading the article, I had missed "Guix" in the title. I now read it, and adjusted my comment a bit. Nice to know that firmware is easily available, though I am not sure nvidia's driver can install and play nice with guix, unless it's packaged up in the nonguix channel. I have previously had a test run on Guix on an old laptop with 1GB of ram, but it was clearly not powerful enough, as a guix pull could take 2-3 days (!) to complete. I guess I'll revisit it in a few months on a more powerful computer (an leave my old one with Alpine)
- podiki 5y agoI'm not sure exactly the Nvidia situation, I know people have it working but still a little bit of work. I think the drivers are fine, but also might need some changes to make sure Nvidia's GL libraries are used. But it does work. I, for one, am happy to be in AMD-land now. (Good on you for admitting commenting before reading, and extra points for then reading! I jest, but we are all guilty)