nixos-infect VS nix

There is one solution I've seen being used to solve this issue.

It is to overwrite the current Linux OS with the one you want. I came across this idea here [0]. I researched and got Alpine Linux running on Hetzner (even they don't support custom images) using a similar method [1].

This seems to be the guide to do the same with Arch Linux [2], I'm not sure though.

Once you do create a successful Arch image on OVH, take a snapshot of the machine before installing anything else, in case you want to start from a fresh Arch image in the future.

[0] https://github.com/elitak/nixos-infect

[1] https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Replacing_non-Alpine_Linux...

[2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Install_Arch_Linux_from_exi...

Related:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/u5gi6e/whats_a_good_...

https://github.com/elitak/nixos-infect

In my experience, the initial learning curve is "way steep" due to incomplete learning resources, the community being split on flakes (I'm not jumping on them yet because I'm sticking with the stable branch), and this one documentation gap in particular.

FWIW, I recently found a VPS offering for $1.41/month (!) @ 1.5GB RAM & 30GB HDD via https://lowendbox.com/, at https://my.racknerd.com/index.php?rp=/store/black-friday-202... (please note I have no idea how reliable it is though!). I managed to deploy NixOS there through nixos-infect (https://github.com/elitak/nixos-infect), and then further configure it with NixOps. That said, using NixOps does currently require a Linux (or Mac, probably) box as the managing one, and some Nix-fu, which is definitely non-trivial. A draft (WIP) writeup on that, if you're interested: https://github.com/akavel/scribbles/blob/main/_drafts/202308...

Those Linode instructions are about installing an OS from an installation ISO from Linode's rescue mode. -- I'd consider that more a 'plus' to Linode that you get to be able to install whatever unsupported Linux on Linode's VMs. But, of course it's not as smooth as the officially supported images.

Sibling comment mentions that NixOS provides ways to build VM images (e.g. https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-generators has a generator specifically for Linode).

Another option is to use nixos-infect, which will replace a Linux distribution with a NixOS distribution. https://github.com/elitak/nixos-infect

> At that point, I feel like all of the repeatability gains are gone. If I want to spin up a fresh server, I have to read a guide and set stuff up by hand?

Just as with ansible, "git pull to deploy". You'd keep a copy of your NixOS configuration.nix somewhere else, and would be able to apply it later.

> it really does let me just get a new VPS and deploy to it very fast

Using a tool you're familiar with to get the job done is going to be faster than learning to use a tool you're unfamiliar with.

I believe much of the use of NixOS is for hobby stuff, and for personal machines. (c.f. "In what environments do you use Nix", Development (1242) vs Home Server (845) vs Production (386) https://discourse.nixos.org/t/2022-nix-survey-results/18983).

for NixOS

Now that you both mention it though, I probably could've skipped the "Boot into the installer" step. I know nixos-infect can install in-place. I havent checked how they do it, but a lighter version that just adds nixos should be pretty easy using ZFS. It probably would've been possible for me to do replace the installer steps with something along the lines of:

You can execute nixos-rebuild on other distros but the NixOS modules and activation scripts expect it to run on NixOS system so it probably will not work (e.g. NixOS would want to control systemd, which would conflict with the distro). And if it did, you would no longer have the other distro but NixOS (see also nixos-infect).

> https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/9911#issuecomment-19252073...

As we covered in my last post, NixOS is a amazing Linux distribution for creating stable and declared environments. Now while this is amazing for a desktop setup, it is also perfect for a home-server or home-lab.

(Nix itself is slowly chugging along with Windows via MinGW - https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nix-on-windows/1113/108 and https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/1320 , for example.)

Nix is a cross-platform package manager. It uses the nix programming language. Nix and NixOs are often used in the same context, but while the first is a package manager, the latter is a linux distribution based on nix.

Today I want to talk to you about Nixos. What is it? Nixos is a declarative and reproducible OS, partly taking the words used on their own page. What does that mean?

Software developers often want to customize:

1. their home environments: for packages (some reach for brew on MacOS) and configurations (dotfiles, and some reach for stow).

2. their development shells: for build dependencies (compilers, SDKs, libraries), tools (LSP, linters, formatters, debuggers), and services (runtime, database). Some reach for devcontainers here.

3. or even their operating systems: for development, for CI, for deployment, or for personal use.

Nix provision all of the above in the same language, with Nixpkgs, NixOS, home-manager, and devShells such as https://devenv.sh/. What's more, Nix is (https://nixos.org/):

- reproducible: what works on your dev machine also works in CI in prod,

- declarative: you version control and review your configurations and infrastructure as code, at a reasonable level of abstraction,

- reliable: all changes are atomic with easy roll back.

Hopping from one distro to another with a different package manager might require some time to adapt. Using a package manager that can be installed on most distro is one way to help you get to work faster. Flatpak is one of them; other alternative are Snap, Nix or Homebrew. Flatpak is a good starter, and if you have a bunch of free time, I suggest trying Nix.

- it reduces bloat, because you can generate an environment or OS image with only the software needed to run a specific program or service

My guess is that a big efficiency gain would come from the second point, because you don't waste CPU on code that you don't use.

Does this make sense? Has anyone explored this?

[0]: https://nixos.org

1) Setting up the development environment - I currently use devcontainers for most things, but may also dig into nix -> isolated, portable, repeatable development environment 2) Exploring Echo - understand routing, requests, response, etc. 3) Incorporate Templ - integration with Echo, template composition, etc. 4) Integrating TailwindCSS - config for use with Echo/Templ, development cycle, deployment, etc. 5) Add in HTMX - endpoints, template structure, concepts, etc. 6) hyperscript for interactivity - client side interactivity