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NixOS-generators – Collection of VM and Container disk image builders for NixOS

peter_d_sherman 3y ago
Related: Building NixOS qcow2 images with flakes: https://tarnbarford.net/journal/building-nixos-qcow2-images-with-flakes/ https://tarnbarford.net/journal/building-nixos-qcow2-images-... Build a bare bones bootable nixos qcow2 image suitable for running with libvirt/qemu/kvm: https://gist.github.com/tarnacious/f9674436fff0efeb4bb6585c79a3b9ff https://gist.github.com/tarnacious/f9674436fff0efeb4bb6585c7... A Journey into Nix and NixOS (Building a QEMU image): https://williamvds.me/blog/journey-into-nix/#:~:text=Building%20a%20QEMU%20image https://williamvds.me/blog/journey-into-nix/#:~:text=Buildin... Setting up qemu VM using nix flakes: https://gist.github.com/FlakM/0535b8aa7efec56906c5ab5e32580adf https://gist.github.com/FlakM/0535b8aa7efec56906c5ab5e32580a...
- Jhsto 3y ago
  Another note, NixOS containers with systemd-nspawn cpmpatibility: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_Containers https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_Containers There is a good blog post here about how these work: https://www.tweag.io/blog/2020-07-31-nixos-flakes/ https://www.tweag.io/blog/2020-07-31-nixos-flakes/ And of course, it is just a tarball, so it works on every systemd based distro.
  - peter_d_sherman 3y ago
    There's also this: "Not-OS – NixOS-based OS generator that outputs an OS with 47MB squashfs": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34679031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34679031 https://github.com/cleverca22/not-os https://github.com/cleverca22/not-os For memory constrained VMs and containers based on NixOS... Of course, even that isn't as small as Alpine's absolutely tiny 5MB Docker image: https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine
Cyph0n 3y ago
This is one of the “magical” capabilities provided by Nix and NixOS imo. I recently used this NixOS module to build a new machine as a Proxmox VMA all while sharing the common config with my existing NixOS machine. I then imported the VM into Proxmox, expanded the disk size, and it booted immediately! There were a few manual things I had to do to get secrets working, but end-to-end, it took me about 5 minutes. You can do the exact same thing for other formats. For example, you could have a bootable installer ISO that takes your base config and adds specific tools on top that you’d want on a portable USB.
spdustin 3y ago
This caught my attention, and now I want to dive into NixOS more. Can anyone suggest a solid set of starting resources for someone with a (probably overly complex) home lab and experience with macOS and Ubuntu/Debian?
- Cyph0n 3y ago
  I would recommend this as a starting point for learning about Nix and NixOS: https://zero-to-nix.com/ https://zero-to-nix.com/ And this as a second reference: https://nix.dev/tutorials/first-steps/index.html https://nix.dev/tutorials/first-steps/index.html
- heywoodlh 3y ago
  I’ve found it most helpful to review other people’s configurations to learn Nix. Some specific ones I really like: https://github.com/malob/nixpkgs https://github.com/malob/nixpkgs https://github.com/fufexan/dotfiles https://github.com/fufexan/dotfiles I keep a not comprehensive GitHub Stars list of Nix stuff I find here if you want more: https://github.com/stars/heywoodlh/lists/nix https://github.com/stars/heywoodlh/lists/nix If you aren’t familiar, Nix-Darwin allows you to codify your MacOS deployments in a fashion comparable to NixOS. As a huge Nix-Darwin user myself, I have found malob’s repo extremely helpful for ideas with MacOS configuration. Nix-Darwin has made me so happy as a MacOS user. :) Some other unsolicited tips: 1. Start with Nix flakes for configuration 2. Invest in Home-Manager before NixOS or Nix-Darwin 3. Ask people for help in Matrix or Discourse — my experience is that Nix-related folk are very welcoming and understanding Good luck!
colordrops 3y ago
You can use this repo to build a raspberry pi SD card image. It will build through an arm qemu instance, and works perfectly.
Ao7bei3s 3y ago
I've recently been experimenting with nix generators. It's nice. What's the most pleasant way to develop and build nix images if your dev env is a regular Linux distro without nix installed? So far the least bad seems to be running Nixos in a VM with VS Code remote via SSH and scp'ing images around. At least quickemu makes getting the VM pleasant. But VMs are cumbersome. Docker would be great, but nix from the official Docker container doesn't seem to like running as non-root, which means you can't use volume mounts for the code and change the user ID so that the file permissions are right from inside the container.
- colordrops 3y ago
  Nix generators works on regular Linux distros with nix installed.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
SuperSandro2000 3y ago
NIXOS, NIXOS, NIXOS!

Related: Building NixOS qcow2 images with flakes: https://tarnbarford.net/journal/building-nixos-qcow2-images-with-flakes/ https://tarnbarford.net/journal/building-nixos-qcow2-images-... Build a bare bones bootable nixos qcow2 image suitable for running with libvirt/qemu/kvm: https://gist.github.com/tarnacious/f9674436fff0efeb4bb6585c79a3b9ff https://gist.github.com/tarnacious/f9674436fff0efeb4bb6585c7... A Journey into Nix and NixOS (Building a QEMU image): https://williamvds.me/blog/journey-into-nix/#:~:text=Building%20a%20QEMU%20image https://williamvds.me/blog/journey-into-nix/#:~:text=Buildin... Setting up qemu VM using nix flakes: https://gist.github.com/FlakM/0535b8aa7efec56906c5ab5e32580adf https://gist.github.com/FlakM/0535b8aa7efec56906c5ab5e32580a...

Jhsto 3y ago
Another note, NixOS containers with systemd-nspawn cpmpatibility: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_Containers https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_Containers There is a good blog post here about how these work: https://www.tweag.io/blog/2020-07-31-nixos-flakes/ https://www.tweag.io/blog/2020-07-31-nixos-flakes/ And of course, it is just a tarball, so it works on every systemd based distro.
- peter_d_sherman 3y ago
  There's also this: "Not-OS – NixOS-based OS generator that outputs an OS with 47MB squashfs": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34679031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34679031 https://github.com/cleverca22/not-os https://github.com/cleverca22/not-os For memory constrained VMs and containers based on NixOS... Of course, even that isn't as small as Alpine's absolutely tiny 5MB Docker image: https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine

Cyph0n 3y ago

This is one of the “magical” capabilities provided by Nix and NixOS imo. I recently used this NixOS module to build a new machine as a Proxmox VMA all while sharing the common config with my existing NixOS machine. I then imported the VM into Proxmox, expanded the disk size, and it booted immediately! There were a few manual things I had to do to get secrets working, but end-to-end, it took me about 5 minutes. You can do the exact same thing for other formats. For example, you could have a bootable installer ISO that takes your base config and adds specific tools on top that you’d want on a portable USB.

spdustin 3y ago

This caught my attention, and now I want to dive into NixOS more. Can anyone suggest a solid set of starting resources for someone with a (probably overly complex) home lab and experience with macOS and Ubuntu/Debian?

Cyph0n 3y ago
I would recommend this as a starting point for learning about Nix and NixOS: https://zero-to-nix.com/ https://zero-to-nix.com/ And this as a second reference: https://nix.dev/tutorials/first-steps/index.html https://nix.dev/tutorials/first-steps/index.html
heywoodlh 3y ago
I’ve found it most helpful to review other people’s configurations to learn Nix. Some specific ones I really like: https://github.com/malob/nixpkgs https://github.com/malob/nixpkgs https://github.com/fufexan/dotfiles https://github.com/fufexan/dotfiles I keep a not comprehensive GitHub Stars list of Nix stuff I find here if you want more: https://github.com/stars/heywoodlh/lists/nix https://github.com/stars/heywoodlh/lists/nix If you aren’t familiar, Nix-Darwin allows you to codify your MacOS deployments in a fashion comparable to NixOS. As a huge Nix-Darwin user myself, I have found malob’s repo extremely helpful for ideas with MacOS configuration. Nix-Darwin has made me so happy as a MacOS user. :) Some other unsolicited tips: 1. Start with Nix flakes for configuration 2. Invest in Home-Manager before NixOS or Nix-Darwin 3. Ask people for help in Matrix or Discourse — my experience is that Nix-related folk are very welcoming and understanding Good luck!

colordrops 3y ago

You can use this repo to build a raspberry pi SD card image. It will build through an arm qemu instance, and works perfectly.

Ao7bei3s 3y ago

I've recently been experimenting with nix generators. It's nice. What's the most pleasant way to develop and build nix images if your dev env is a regular Linux distro without nix installed? So far the least bad seems to be running Nixos in a VM with VS Code remote via SSH and scp'ing images around. At least quickemu makes getting the VM pleasant. But VMs are cumbersome. Docker would be great, but nix from the official Docker container doesn't seem to like running as non-root, which means you can't use volume mounts for the code and change the user ID so that the file permissions are right from inside the container.

colordrops 3y ago
Nix generators works on regular Linux distros with nix installed.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

SuperSandro2000 3y ago

NIXOS, NIXOS, NIXOS!