nixpkgs/doc/manual/installation.xml

<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
         xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

<title>Installing NixOS</title>


<!--===============================================================-->

<section>

<title>Obtaining NixOS</title>

<para>NixOS ISO images can be downloaded from the <link
xlink:href="http://nixos.org/nixos/download.html">NixOS
homepage</link>.  These can be burned onto a CD.  It is also possible
to copy them onto a USB stick and install NixOS from there.  For
details, see the <link
xlink:href="https://nixos.org/wiki/Installing_NixOS_from_a_USB_stick">NixOS
Wiki</link>.</para>

</section>


<!--===============================================================-->

<section>

<title>Installation</title>

<orderedlist>

  <listitem><para>Boot from the CD.</para></listitem>

  <listitem><para>The CD contains a basic NixOS installation.  (It
  also contains Memtest86+, useful if you want to test new hardware.)
  When it’s finished booting, it should have detected most of your
  hardware and brought up networking (check
  <command>ifconfig</command>).  Networking is necessary for the
  installer, since it will download lots of stuff (such as source
  tarballs or Nixpkgs channel binaries).  It’s best if you have a DHCP
  server on your network.  Otherwise configure networking manually
  using <command>ifconfig</command>.</para></listitem>

  <listitem><para>The NixOS manual is available on virtual console 8
  (press Alt+F8 to access).</para></listitem>

  <listitem><para>Login as <literal>root</literal>, empty
  password.</para></listitem>

  <listitem><para>If you downloaded the graphical ISO image, you can
  run <command>start display-manager</command> to start KDE.</para></listitem>

  <listitem><para>The NixOS installer doesn’t do any partitioning or
  formatting yet, so you need to that yourself.  Use the following
  commands:

  <itemizedlist>

    <listitem><para>For partitioning:
    <command>fdisk</command>.</para></listitem>

    <listitem><para>For initialising Ext4 partitions:
    <command>mkfs.ext4</command>.  It is recommended that you assign a
    unique symbolic label to the file system using the option
    <option>-L <replaceable>label</replaceable></option>.  This will
    make the file system configuration independent from device
    changes.</para></listitem>

    <listitem><para>For creating swap partitions:
    <command>mkswap</command>.  Again it’s recommended to assign a
    label to the swap partition: <option>-L
    <replaceable>label</replaceable></option>.</para></listitem>

    <listitem><para>For creating LVM volumes, the LVM commands, e.g.,

<screen>
$ pvcreate /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
$ vgcreate MyVolGroup /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
$ lvcreate --size 2G --name bigdisk MyVolGroup
$ lvcreate --size 1G --name smalldisk MyVolGroup</screen>

    </para></listitem>

    <listitem><para>For creating software RAID devices, use
    <command>mdadm</command>.</para></listitem>

  </itemizedlist>

  </para></listitem>

  <listitem><para>Mount the target file system on which NixOS should
  be installed on <filename>/mnt</filename>.</para></listitem>

  <listitem>

    <para>You now need to create a file
    <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> that
    specifies the intended configuration of the system.  This is
    because NixOS has a <emphasis>declarative</emphasis> configuration
    model: you create or edit a description of the configuration that
    you want to be built and activated, and then NixOS takes care of
    realising that configuration.  The command
    <command>nixos-option</command> can generate an initial
    configuration file for you:

<screen>
$ nixos-option --install</screen>

    It tries to figure out the kernel modules necessary for mounting
    the root device, as well as various other hardware
    characteristics.  However, it doesn’t try to figure out the
    <option>fileSystems</option> option yet.</para>

    <para>You should edit
    <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> to suit your
    needs.  The text editors <command>nano</command> and
    <command>vim</command> are available.</para>

    <para>You need to specify a root file system in
    <option>fileSystems</option> and the target device for the Grub boot
    loader in <option>boot.loader.grub.device</option>.  See
    <xref linkend="ch-options"/> for a list of the available configuration
    options.</para>

    <note><para>It is very important that you specify in the option
    <option>boot.initrd.kernelModules</option> all kernel modules that
    are necessary for mounting the root file system, otherwise the
    installed system will not be able to boot.  (If this happens, boot
    from the CD again, mount the target file system on
    <filename>/mnt</filename>, fix
    <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> and rerun
    <filename>nixos-install</filename>.)  In most cases,
    <command>nixos-option --install</command> will figure out the
    required modules.</para></note>

    <para>Examples of real-world NixOS configuration files can be
    found at <link
    xlink:href="https://nixos.org/repos/nix/configurations/trunk/"/>.</para>

  </listitem>

  <listitem><para>If your machine has a limited amount of memory, you
  may want to activate swap devices now (<command>swapon
  <replaceable>device</replaceable></command>).  The installer (or
  rather, the build actions that it may spawn) may need quite a bit of
  RAM, depending on your configuration.</para></listitem>

  <!--
  <listitem><para>Optionally, you can run

<screen>
$ nixos-checkout</screen>

  to make the installer use the latest NixOS/Nixpkgs sources from the
  Git repository, rather than the sources on CD.</para></listitem>
  -->

  <listitem><para>Do the installation:

<screen>
$ nixos-install</screen>

    Cross fingers.</para></listitem>

  <listitem><para>If everything went well:

<screen>
$ reboot</screen>

  </para></listitem>

  <listitem>

    <para>You should now be able to boot into the installed NixOS.
    The Grub boot menu shows a list of <emphasis>available
    configurations</emphasis> (initially just one).  Every time you
    change the NixOS configuration (see <xref
    linkend="sec-changing-config" />), a new item appears in the menu.
    This allows you to easily roll back to another configuration if
    something goes wrong.</para>

    <para>You should log in and change the <literal>root</literal>
    password with <command>passwd</command>.</para>

    <para>You’ll probably want to create some user accounts as well,
    which can be done with <command>useradd</command>:

<screen>
$ useradd -c 'Eelco Dolstra' -m eelco
$ passwd eelco</screen>

    </para>

    <para>You may also want to install some software.  For instance,

<screen>
$ nix-env -qa \*</screen>

    shows what packages are available, and

<screen>
$ nix-env -i w3m</screen>

    install the <literal>w3m</literal> browser.</para>

  </listitem>

</orderedlist>

<para><xref linkend="ex-install-sequence" /> shows a typical sequence
of commands for installing NixOS on an empty hard drive (here
<filename>/dev/sda</filename>).  <xref linkend="ex-config" /> shows a
corresponding configuration Nix expression.</para>

<example xml:id='ex-install-sequence'><title>Commands for installing NixOS on <filename>/dev/sda</filename></title>
<screen>
$ fdisk /dev/sda <lineannotation>(or whatever device you want to install on)</lineannotation>
$ mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1 <lineannotation>(idem)</lineannotation>
$ mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2 <lineannotation>(idem)</lineannotation>
$ mount LABEL=nixos /mnt
$ nixos-option --install
$ nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
<lineannotation>(in particular, set the fileSystems and swapDevices options)</lineannotation>
$ nixos-install
$ reboot</screen>
</example>

<example xml:id='ex-config'><title>NixOS configuration</title>
<screen>
{
  boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda";

  fileSystems."/".device = "/dev/disk/by-label/nixos";

  swapDevices =
    [ { device = "/dev/disk/by-label/swap"; } ];

  services.sshd.enable = true;
}</screen>
</example>

</section>



<!--===============================================================-->

<section xml:id="sec-changing-config">

<title>Changing the configuration</title>

<para>The file <filename>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename>
contains the current configuration of your machine.  Whenever you’ve
changed something to that file, you should do

<screen>
$ nixos-rebuild switch</screen>

to build the new configuration, make it the default configuration for
booting, and try to realise the configuration in the running system
(e.g., by restarting system services).</para>

<para>You can also do

<screen>
$ nixos-rebuild test</screen>

to build the configuration and switch the running system to it, but
without making it the boot default.  So if (say) the configuration
locks up your machine, you can just reboot to get back to a working
configuration.</para>

<para>There is also

<screen>
$ nixos-rebuild boot</screen>

to build the configuration and make it the boot default, but not
switch to it now (so it will only take effect after the next
reboot).</para>

<para>Finally, you can do

<screen>
$ nixos-rebuild build</screen>

to build the configuration but nothing more.  This is useful to see
whether everything compiles cleanly.</para>

<para>If you have a machine that supports hardware virtualisation, you
can also test the new configuration in a sandbox by building and
running a <emphasis>virtual machine</emphasis> that contains the
desired configuration.  Just do

<screen>
$ nixos-rebuild build-vm
$ ./result/bin/run-*-vm
</screen>

The VM does not have use any data from your host system, so your
existing user accounts and home directories will not be
available.</para>

</section>



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<section>

<title>Upgrading NixOS</title>

<para>The best way to keep your NixOS installation up to date is to
use the <literal>nixos-unstable</literal> channel.  (A channel is a
Nix mechanism for distributing Nix expressions and associated
binaries.)  The NixOS channel is updated automatically from NixOS’s
Git repository after running certain tests and building most
packages.</para>

<para>NixOS automatically subscribes you to the NixOS channel.  If for
some reason this is not the case, just do

<screen>
$ nix-channel --add http://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable
</screen>

You can then upgrade NixOS to the latest version in the channel by
running

<screen>
$ nix-channel --update nixos
</screen>

and running the <command>nixos-rebuild</command> command as described
in <xref linkend="sec-changing-config"/>.</para>

</section>

</chapter>