4.6 KiB
Hardware Installation
For installations on physical hardware, create a NixOS installer image and transfer it to a bootable USB drive as described below.
Creating a Bootable USB Drive on Linux
To create a bootable USB flash drive with the NixOS installer:
Download the install iso
Either with wget:
wget https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-images/releases/download/nixos-unstable/nixos-installer-x86_64-linux.iso
or with curl:
curl -L https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-images/releases/download/nixos-unstable/nixos-installer-x86_64-linux.iso -o nixos-installer-x86_64-linux.iso
Prepare the USB Flash Drive
-
Insert your USB flash drive into your computer.
-
Identify your flash drive with
lsblk
.lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS sdb 8:0 1 117,2G 0 disk └─sdb1 8:1 1 117,2G 0 part /run/media/qubasa/INTENSO nvme0n1 259:0 0 1,8T 0 disk ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 512M 0 part /boot └─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 1,8T 0 part └─luks-f7600028-9d83-4967-84bc-dd2f498bc486 254:0 0 1,8T 0 crypt /nix/store
In this case it's
sdb
-
Ensure all partitions on the drive are unmounted. Replace
sdX
in the command below with your device identifier (likesdb
, etc.):sudo umount /dev/sdb1
Write the Image to the USB Drive
Use the dd
utility to write the NixOS installer image to your USB drive:
sudo dd bs=4M conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress if=./nixos-installer-x86_64-linux.iso of=/dev/sd<X>
In this case, the USB device is sdb
use of=/dev/sdb
Boot and Connect
After writing the installer to the USB drive, use it to boot the target machine.
-
For this secure boot needs to be disabled. Go into your UEFI / Bios settings by pressing one of the keys outlined below while booting:
- Dell: F2/Del (BIOS Setup)
- HP: Esc (Startup Menu)
- Lenovo: F2/Fn+F2/Novo Button (IdeaPad Boot Menu/BIOS Setup)
- Acer: F2/Del (BIOS Setup)
- Asus: F2/Del (BIOS Setup)
- Toshiba: Esc then F12 (Alternate Method)
- Sony: F11
- Samsung: F2 (BIOS Setup)
- MSI: Del (BIOS Setup)
- Apple: Option (Alt) Key (Boot Menu for Mac)
- If your hardware was not listed read the manufacturers instructions how to enter the boot Menu/BIOS Setup.
-
Inside the UEFI/Bios Menu go to
Security->Secure Boot
and disable secure boot -
Save your settings. Put in the USB stick and reboot.
-
Press one of keys outlined below to go into the Boot Menu
- **Dell**: F12 (Boot Menu) - **HP**: F9 (Boot Menu) - **Lenovo**: F12 (ThinkPad Boot Menu) - **Acer**: F12 (Boot Menu) - **Asus**: F8/Esc (Boot Menu) - **Toshiba**: F12/F2 (Boot Menu) - **Sony**: F11 - **Samsung**: F2/F12/Esc (Boot Menu) - **MSI**: F11 - **Apple**: Option (Alt) Key (Boot Menu for Mac) - If your hardware was not listed read the manufacturers instructions how to enter the boot Menu/BIOS Setup.
-
Select
NixOS
to boot into the clan installer -
The installer will display an IP address and a root password, which you can use to connect via SSH.
Alternatively you can also use the displayed QR code. -
Set your keyboard language (i.e.
de
for German keyboards, default is English). Important for writing passwords correctly.loadkeys de
-
If you only have Wifi available, execute:
-
Bring up the
iwd
shelliwctl
-
List available networks. Double press tab after station for autocompleting your wlan device. In this case
wlan0
[iwd] station wlan0 get-networks
-
Connect to a Wifi network. Replace
SSID
with the wlan network name.[iwd] station wlan0 connect SSID
-
-
Now that you have internet re-execute the init script by pressing
Ctrl+D
or by executing:bash
-
Connect to the machine over ssh
ssh-copy-id -o PreferredAuthentications=password root@<ip>
Use the root password displayed on your screen as login.
Whats next?
- Deploy a clan machine-configuration on your prepared machine