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| # 000 - Building a (non)Guix System Install Image | ||
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| *initially written on August 21st, 2024* | ||
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| ## What is Guix? | ||
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| The typical line is something like "Guix is a package manager designed to enable | ||
| reproducible environments, with a focus on libre software." But, what I value | ||
| Guix, and it's siblings Nix and Aux, for is as tools that enable me to manage | ||
| what lives on my computer in as much of a *deterministic* way as possible. And, | ||
| furthermore to centralize that in just a few files, written in human readable | ||
| (and Git diff-able) text, which in the case of Guix is the Guile implementation | ||
| of the Scheme language. Imagine on your current computer if you could include | ||
| all of the programs you need, none of what you don't need, and not have to | ||
| remember all the random configuration steps you had to to do. | ||
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| Guix System is a (GNU)Linux distribution that takes that to the extreme, by | ||
| making Guix the core package manager of your computer- with Guix managing as | ||
| much of the system configuration as possible. | ||
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| Guix development is led by the GNU Project, a free(libre) software collaboration | ||
| project. GNU is behind a lot of important projects you've used, or at least | ||
| used by the software you use. GNU also has a strong stance on what software | ||
| should be used, and so the packages listed in the main Guix [channel](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Channels.html) | ||
| must somewhat align with that stance. Which in some respects, to some users, | ||
| can hamper practical usage of Guix. | ||
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| ## A Brief Preface on the Use of Non-Libre Software | ||
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| I respect the GNU project's push for only including FOSS(free and open source) | ||
| software, and I appreciate the ecosystem of FOSS software GNU has created. But, | ||
| to be totally honest, I do not have the energy nor motivation fiddle with trying | ||
| to find freedom respecting [Wi-Fi chips](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Hardware-Considerations.html) | ||
| or keyboards. And, its especially problematic when it comes to NVIDIA graphics | ||
| drivers. So, I will settle for a not totally FOSS OS- but [as Nonguix says](https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix): | ||
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| > Those packages are provided as a last resort, should none of the official Guix | ||
| packages work for you. | ||
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| Whenever possible, I will use free(for the un-Gnu-initiated [free, in this case, | ||
| means FOSS essentially](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)) software- | ||
| but when not practical I will use non-free software. I will try to mention | ||
| whenever I use it in this blog, so those motivated to avoid it will do so. I | ||
| encourage you to [read what GNU says about it and decide for yourself.](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html) | ||
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| If you decide to stick with GNU Guix, the rest of this article is useless to you, | ||
| instead you should follow the [official Guix installation instructions.](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/System-Installation.html) | ||
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| ## A (Slightly) Briefer Preface on the Purpose of this Blog | ||
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| I'm just going through the steps of making Guix usable as a distro for me. I | ||
| am writing about it to contribute to the existing body of guidance and examples | ||
| to try to make using Guix more accessible to others as well as as reference | ||
| for me to look back on. A lot of what's included in here may just be repeating | ||
| steps covered in official Guix and Nonguix sources, I hope that what I write can | ||
| still be valuable to fill in any slight gaps that others may be lost or confused | ||
| about. I will assume general knowledge of Linux, a Bash shell, and Git- but | ||
| will try to explain as much as possible regardless. | ||
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| A formatting note, I will try to use "\$" before commands when listing them, to | ||
| show it is a command to run in a terminal(unless specified otherwise), the "\$" | ||
| is not itself part of the command. For example: `$ example_command` | ||
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| ## Installing Guix(the Package Manager) | ||
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| Before a Nonguix image can be built you must have the Guix package manager | ||
| accessible. Most package managers should have Guix available, for Debian-based | ||
| package managers you can do `$ sudo apt install guix`. (Thought you may want to | ||
| run `$ sudo apt update` and `$ sudo apt upgrade` first.) | ||
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| If you're on Windows this is a great use-case for [WSL.](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about) | ||
| But, a virtual machine or other method could also be used. | ||
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| Once Guix is installed, try running `$ guix pull`. On Debian-based distros its | ||
| very slow, if you're impatient it should be fine to cancel with `Control+c`. | ||
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| If you get the error: | ||
| ``guix pull: error: failed to connect to `/var/guix/daemon-socket/socket': No such file or directory`` | ||
| You need to start the Guix-daemon yourself, likely with | ||
| `$ sudo systemctl start guix-daemon`(systemd) or | ||
| `$ sudo service guix-daemon start`. | ||
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| For the latter, you may get the error: | ||
| `/etc/init.d/guix-daemon: line 35: daemonize: command not found` | ||
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| In that case you must install the packages `daemonize` and `opensysusers`, in | ||
| Debian-based distros with `$ sudo apt install daemonize opensysusers`. ([It is | ||
| possible to avoid opensysusers, but more of a hassle.](https://salsa.debian.org/debian/guix/-/blob/debian/latest/debian/guix.README.Debian?ref_type=heads)) | ||
| You can then run `$ sudo service guix-daemon start` to start the daemon, and | ||
| `$ sudo update-rc.d guix-daemon defaults` to autostart the daemon(supposedly, | ||
| though I've not found this to actually work- for unknown reasons). | ||
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| ## Adding Nonguix as a Channel | ||
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| Guix channels basically act as cookbooks- telling Guix how to make your packages. | ||
| Nonguix is the primary channel for non-free(but it's still \$0) software. You | ||
| have to add Nonguix as a channel before you can build the Nonguix system image, | ||
| luckily that's as easy as editing `~/.config/guix/channels.scm`(such as with | ||
| `$ nano ~/.config/guix/channels.scm`) and adding the following text to the | ||
| end of the file: | ||
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| ```scm | ||
| (cons* | ||
| (channel | ||
| (name 'nonguix) | ||
| (url "https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix") | ||
| ;; Enable signature verification: | ||
| (introduction | ||
| (make-channel-introduction | ||
| "897c1a470da759236cc11798f4e0a5f7d4d59fbc" | ||
| (openpgp-fingerprint | ||
| "2A39 3FFF 68F4 EF7A 3D29 12AF 6F51 20A0 22FB B2D5" | ||
| ) | ||
| ) | ||
| ) | ||
| ) | ||
| %default-channels | ||
| ) | ||
| ``` | ||
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| Then run `$ guix pull` to get the channel; it will take a while to run but do | ||
| not cancel it. | ||
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| ## Cloning the Nonguix Repository | ||
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| You need to clone the Nonguix repo so you can build the install image from it, | ||
| simply run `$ git clone https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix.git`. If you don't | ||
| have `git` installed: install it with your package manager, such as | ||
| `$ sudo apt install git`. | ||
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| ## Building the Image | ||
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| Now simply run: | ||
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| `$ guix system image --image-type=iso9660 ./nonguix/nongnu/system/install.scm` | ||
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| Again, it will take a while to run but do not cancel it. | ||
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| If you get an error that says something like: | ||
| ``Throw to key `encoding-error' with args `("scm_to_stringn" "cannot convert wide string to output locale" 84 #f #f)'.`` | ||
| Or | ||
| `guix system: error: corrupt input while restoring archive from #<closed: file 7fc0cb767d20>`. | ||
| You may need to change `/etc/default/locale`(such as by running | ||
| `$ sudo nano /etc/default/locale`) from `LANG=C.UTF-8` to something | ||
| like `LANG=en_US.UTF-8`(or if you prefer another locale). Once that's done you | ||
| should restart for the locale change to take effect. In WSL rather than | ||
| restarting in Linux you should run `$ wsl --shutdown` in a Command Prompt or | ||
| Powershell window then start WSL again. | ||
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| In the unlikely event you want a writable image(if you don't know, you probably | ||
| don't): | ||
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| `$ guix system image --image-size=7.2GiB ./nonguix/nongnu/system/install.scm` | ||
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| (`image-size` should be however much you need) | ||
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| ## Writing the Built Image to a Removable Drive | ||
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| Once your build finishes the last line printed is the path to your built image, | ||
| in my case `/gnu/store/qa1drrr1axhj1wk7x7q5z5ibj5a8c1qb-image.iso`. | ||
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| Plug a USB stick into your computer. [If you prefer to burn a DVD refer to the | ||
| official Guix manual.](https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/USB-Stick-and-DVD-Installation.html#Burning-on-a-DVD) | ||
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| On Linux, [identify the name of the USB stick.](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/File_systems#Identify_existing_file_systems) | ||
| You can then write the built image to the USB drive with the following command, | ||
| filling in the relevant sections with your specific values: | ||
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| `dd if=[Path To Built Image] of=/dev/[USB Drive Name] bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync` | ||
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| For example, assuming the name of the USB stick is `sdX` and using my above | ||
| built image path: | ||
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| `dd if=/gnu/store/qa1drrr1axhj1wk7x7q5z5ibj5a8c1qb-image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync` | ||
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| On Windows with WSL, it's probably easier to move the built image to your | ||
| Windows drive, then write it to a disk. (But if you really want to [follow these | ||
| steps, then you can use the Linux instructions above.](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/connect-usb)) | ||
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| So first copy the built image to your C drive Downloads folder with(of course, | ||
| filling in the bracketed details): | ||
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| `cp [Path To Built Image] /mnt/c/Users/"[Windows Username]"/Downloads/nonguix-image.iso` | ||
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| For example, for my image, and Windows user: | ||
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| `cp /gnu/store/qa1drrr1axhj1wk7x7q5z5ibj5a8c1qb-image.iso /mnt/c/Users/"Aidan"/Downloads/nonguix-image.iso` | ||
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| Now, locate `nonguix-image.iso` in your `Downloads` folder, and use a tool such | ||
| as [Rufus](https://rufus.ie/en/) or [balenaEtcher](https://etcher.balena.io/) to | ||
| write the image to your USB drive. In Rufus if you don't select `DD` mode when | ||
| given the option, it may crash. Once you're done, its safe for you to delete | ||
| the image both from your `Downloads` folder, and from WSL with the command: | ||
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| `rm [Path to Built Image]` | ||
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| Which in my case is: | ||
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| `rm /gnu/store/qa1drrr1axhj1wk7x7q5z5ibj5a8c1qb-image.iso` | ||
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| ## Next | ||
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| In `001` I will cover what to do with this USB stick. If you had any problems | ||
| with this process, [submit a question to github.com/AidanWelch/guix-blog/issues](https://github.com/AidanWelch/guix-blog/issues) |