1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
|
<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
version="5.0"
xml:id="sec-installation">
<title>Installing NixOS</title>
<section xml:id="sec-installation-booting">
<title>Booting the system</title>
<para>
NixOS can be installed on BIOS or UEFI systems. The procedure for a UEFI
installation is by and large the same as a BIOS installation. The
differences are mentioned in the steps that follow.
</para>
<para>
The installation media can be burned to a CD, or now more commonly, "burned"
to a USB drive (see <xref linkend="sec-booting-from-usb"/>).
</para>
<para>
The installation media contains a basic NixOS installation. When it’s
finished booting, it should have detected most of your hardware.
</para>
<para>
The NixOS manual is available on virtual console 8 (press Alt+F8 to access)
or by running <command>nixos-help</command>.
</para>
<para>
You are logged-in automatically as <literal>root</literal>. (The
<literal>root</literal> user account has an empty password.)
</para>
<para>
If you downloaded the graphical ISO image, you can run <command>systemctl
start display-manager</command> to start KDE. If you want to continue on the
terminal, you can use <command>loadkeys</command> to switch to your
preferred keyboard layout. (We even provide neo2 via <command>loadkeys de
neo</command>!)
</para>
<section xml:id="sec-installation-booting-networking">
<title>Networking in the installer</title>
<para>
The boot process should have brought up networking (check <command>ip
a</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>
<para>
To manually configure the network on the graphical installer, first disable
network-manager with <command>systemctl stop NetworkManager</command>.
</para>
<para>
To manually configure the wifi on the minimal installer, run
<command>wpa_supplicant -B -i interface -c <(wpa_passphrase 'SSID'
'key')</command>.
</para>
<para>
If you would like to continue the installation from a different machine you
need to activate the SSH daemon via <literal>systemctl start
sshd</literal>. In order to be able to login you also need to set a
password for <literal>root</literal> using <literal>passwd</literal>.
</para>
</section>
</section>
<section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning">
<title>Partitioning and formatting</title>
<para>
The NixOS installer doesn’t do any partitioning or formatting, so you need
to do that yourself.
</para>
<para>
The NixOS installer ships with multiple partitioning tools. The examples
below use <command>parted</command>, but also provides
<command>fdisk</command>, <command>gdisk</command>,
<command>cfdisk</command>, and <command>cgdisk</command>.
</para>
<para>
The recommended partition scheme differs depending if the computer uses
<emphasis>Legacy Boot</emphasis> or <emphasis>UEFI</emphasis>.
</para>
<section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-UEFI">
<title>UEFI (GPT)</title>
<para>
Here's an example partition scheme for UEFI, using
<filename>/dev/sda</filename> as the device.
<note>
<para>
You can safely ignore <command>parted</command>'s informational message
about needing to update /etc/fstab.
</para>
</note>
</para>
<para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Create a <emphasis>GPT</emphasis> partition table.
<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add the <emphasis>root</emphasis> partition. This will fill the disk
except for the end part, where the swap will live, and the space left in
front (512MiB) which will be used by the boot partition.
<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 512MiB -8GiB</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Next, add a <emphasis>swap</emphasis> partition. The size required will
vary according to needs, here a 8GiB one is created.
<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap -8GiB 100%</screen>
<note>
<para>
The swap partition size rules are no different than for other Linux
distributions.
</para>
</note>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Finally, the <emphasis>boot</emphasis> partition. NixOS by default uses
the ESP (EFI system partition) as its <emphasis>/boot</emphasis>
partition. It uses the initially reserved 512MiB at the start of the
disk.
<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 512MiB
# parted /dev/sda -- set 3 boot on</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</para>
<para>
Once complete, you can follow with
<xref linkend="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting"/>.
</para>
</section>
<section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-MBR">
<title>Legacy Boot (MBR)</title>
<para>
Here's an example partition scheme for Legacy Boot, using
<filename>/dev/sda</filename> as the device.
<note>
<para>
You can safely ignore <command>parted</command>'s informational message
about needing to update /etc/fstab.
</para>
</note>
</para>
<para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Create a <emphasis>MBR</emphasis> partition table.
<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mklabel msdos</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Add the <emphasis>root</emphasis> partition. This will fill the the disk
except for the end part, where the swap will live.
<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 1MiB -8GiB</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Finally, add a <emphasis>swap</emphasis> partition. The size required
will vary according to needs, here a 8GiB one is created.
<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap -8GiB 100%</screen>
<note>
<para>
The swap partition size rules are no different than for other Linux
distributions.
</para>
</note>
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</para>
<para>
Once complete, you can follow with
<xref linkend="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting"/>.
</para>
</section>
<section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting">
<title>Formatting</title>
<para>
Use the following commands:
<itemizedlist>
<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>,
since this makes the file system configuration independent from device
changes. For example:
<screen>
# mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1</screen>
</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>. For example:
<screen>
# mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
|