pyrox.dev
1Let all the files in the system tarball sit in a directory served by NFS (the
2NFS root) like this in exportfs:
3 /home/pcroot 192.168.1.0/24(rw,no_root_squash,no_all_squash)
4
5Run "exportfs -a" after editing /etc/exportfs, for the nfs server to be aware
6of the changes.
7
8Use a tftp server serving the root of boot/ (from the system tarball).
9
10In order to have PXE boot, use the boot/dhcpd.conf-example file for your dhcpd
11server, as it will point your PXE clients to pxelinux.0 from the tftp server.
12Adapt the configuration to your network.
13
14Adapt the pxelinux configuration (boot/pxelinux.cfg/default) to set the path to
15your nfrroot. If you use ip=dhcp in the kernel, the nfs server ip will be taken
16from dhcp and so you don't have to specify it.
17
18The linux in bzImage includes network drivers for some usual cards.
19
20
21QEMU Testing
22---------------
23
24You can test qemu pxe boot without having a DHCP server adapted, but having
25nfsroot, like this:
26 qemu-system-x86_64 -tftp /home/pcroot/boot -net nic -net user,bootfile=pxelinux.0 -boot n
27
28I don't know how to use NFS through the qemu '-net user' though.
29
30
31QEMU Testing with NFS root and bridged network
32-------------------------------------------------
33
34This allows testing with qemu as any other host in your LAN.
35
36Testing with the real dhcpd server requires setting up a bridge and having a
37tap device.
38 tunctl -t tap0
39 brctl addbr br0
40 brctl addif br0 eth0
41 brctl addif tap0 eth0
42 ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 up
43 ifconfig tap0 0.0.0.0 up
44 ifconfig br0 up # With your ip configuration
45
46Then you can run qemu:
47 qemu-system-x86_64 -boot n -net tap,ifname=tap0,script=no -net nic,model=e1000
48
49
50Using the system-tarball-pc in a chroot
51--------------------------------------------------
52
53Installation:
54 mkdir nixos-chroot && cd nixos-chroot
55 tar xf your-system-tarball.tar.xz
56 mkdir sys dev proc tmp root var run
57 mount --bind /sys sys
58 mount --bind /dev dev
59 mount --bind /proc proc
60
61Activate the system: look for a directory in nix/store similar to:
62 "/nix/store/y0d1lcj9fppli0hl3x0m0ba5g1ndjv2j-nixos-feb97bx-53f008"
63Having found it, activate that nixos system *twice*:
64 chroot . /nix/store/SOMETHING-nixos-SOMETHING/activate
65 chroot . /nix/store/SOMETHING-nixos-SOMETHING/activate
66
67This runs a 'hostname' command. Restore your old hostname with:
68 hostname OLDHOSTNAME
69
70Copy your system resolv.conf to the /etc/resolv.conf inside the chroot:
71 cp /etc/resolv.conf etc
72
73Then you can get an interactive shell in the nixos chroot. '*' means
74to run inside the chroot interactive shell
75 chroot . /bin/sh
76* source /etc/profile
77
78Populate the nix database: that should be done in the init script if you
79had booted this nixos. Run:
80* `grep local-cmds run/current-system/init`
81
82Then you can proceed normally subscribing to a nixos channel:
83 nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable
84 nix-channel --update
85
86Testing:
87 nix-env -i hello
88 which hello
89 hello