Hi Giovanni,
Giovanni Biscuolo <g...@xelera.eu> writes:
[[PGP Signed Part:Undecided]]
Hello Ian,
I'm a little late to this discussion, sorry.
I'm adding guix-devel since it would be nice if some Guix
developer have
something to add on this matter, for this reason I'm leaving all
previous messages intact
Csepp <raingl...@riseup.net> writes:
Ian Eure <i...@retrospec.tv> writes:
Hello,
On Debian, you can create a preseed file containing answers to
all the questions
you’re prompted for during installation, and build a new
install image which
includes it. When booted, this installer skips any steps
which have been
preconfigured, which allows for either fully automated
installation, or partly
automated (prompt for hostname and root password, but
otherwise automatic).
Does Guix have a way to do something like this? The
declarative config is more
or less the equivalent of the Debian preseed file, but I don’t
see anything that
lets you build an image that’ll install a configuration.
When using the guided installation (info "(guix) Guided
Graphical
Installation"), right before the actual installation on target
(guix
system init...) you can edit the operating-system configuration
file:
isn't it something similar to what you are looking for?
Please consider that a preseed file is very limited compared to
a
full-fledged operating-system declaration since the latter
contains the
declaration for *all* OS configuration, not just the installed
packages.
I appreciate where you’re coming from, I also like the one-file
system configuration, but this is inaccurate. Guix’s
operating-system doesn’t encompass the full scope of configuration
necessary to install and run an OS; Debian’s preseed has
significantly more functionality than just specifying the
installed packages. Right now, Debian’s system allows you to do
things which Guix does not.
Preseed files contain values that get set in debconf, Debian’s
system-wide configuration mechanism, so they can both configure
the resulting system as well as the install process itself. This
means you can use a preseed file to tell the installer to
partition disks, set up LUKS-encrypted volumes (and specify one or
more passwords for them), format those with filesystems, install
the set of packages you want, and configure them -- though
debconf’s package configuration is more limited, generally, than
Guix provides[1]. With Debian, I can create a custom installer
image with a preseed file, boot it, and without touching a single
other thing, it’ll install and configure the target machine, and
reboot into it. That boot-and-it-just-works experience is what I
want from Guix.
For things that can’t be declared in operating-system, like disk
partitioning and filesystem layout, the installer performs those
tasks imperatively, then generates a system config with those
device files and/or UUIDs populated, then initializes the system.
There’s no facility for specifying disk partitioning or *creating*
filesystems in the system config -- it can only be pointed at ones
which have been created already.
guix system image is maybe closer, but it doesn’t automate
everything that the
installer does.
But the installer can be used as a Scheme library, at least in
theory. The way
I would approach the problem is by creating a Shepherd service
that runs at boot
from the live booted ISO.
I would really Love So Much™ to avoid writing imperative bash
scripts
and just write Scheme code to be able to do a "full automatic"
Guix
System install, using a workflow like this one:
1. guix system prepare --include preseed.scm disk-layout.scm
/mnt
where disk-layout.scm is a declarative gexp used to partition,
format
and mount all needed filesystems
the resulting config.scm would be an operating-system
declaration with
included the contents of preseed.scm (packages and services
declarations)
2. guix system init config.scm /mnt (already working now)
...unfortunately I'm (still?!?) not able to contribute such code
:-(
I don’t think there’s any need for a preseed.scm file, and I’m not
sure what would be in that, but I think this is close to the right
track. Either operating-system should be extended to support
things like disk partitioning, and effect those changes at
reconfigure time (with suitable safeguards to avoid wrecking
existing installs), or the operating-system config could get
embedded in another struct which contains that, similar to the
(image ...) config for `guix system image'. I think there are
some interesting possibilities here: you could change your
partition layout and have Guix resize them / create new ones for
you.
— Ian
[1]: A workaround for this is to create packages which configure
the system how you want, then include them on the installer image
/ list them in the packages to be installed. Not ideal, but you
can.
