Nixos-infect Alternatives

nixos-infect reviews and mentions

• From Linux to NetBSD, with SSH Only
  1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 23 Jul 2024

  Similarly, I've used a project called nixos-infect(1) to install NixOS on cloud providers that don't natively offer it. It's worked well on the handful of boxes I've ran it on.

  (1): https://github.com/elitak/nixos-infect

• Automating Azure VM Ubuntu install without fancy tools
  5 projects | dev.to | 22 Jul 2024

  Since then I have been using NixOS on my tinkering computers (x86 & ARM64) at home because I liked this one-file-format-declarative-definition of machines. With some new cloud technology evaluations ahead, for which I usually bring up dedicated disposable VMs, I wanted to transfer some of my NixOS learnings and create a disposable NixOS Azure VM. As I did want to create a (lame, everbody does that) custom image I was focusing a while on some infection methods (use any installed system and then "infect" with NixOS) nixos-anywhere and nixos-infect. I did only succeed to a certain point but had to stop because time was running out. One thing I learned in the past 3 decades: pull back in time before you get stuck in a rabbit hole, contain your frustration, swallow your professional pride and move on. Maybe someone reading this already has figured out how to bring NixOS on an Azure VM in this or another way.

• Ask HN: Please recommend how to manage personal serverss
  4 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 20 Apr 2024

  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...

• NixOS Friendly (Dedicated Server, VPS, Cloud, Container, VM, etc.) Hosters
  1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 21 Oct 2023

  Related:

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

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

• NixOS stability for everyday use and development
  1 project | /r/NixOS | 1 Oct 2023

  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.

• Tech Independence
  5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 17 Sep 2023

  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...

• NixOS RFC 136 accepted: A plan to stabilize the new CLI and Flakes incrementally
  11 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 12 Aug 2023

  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).

• Free Tier using custom images
  1 project | /r/oraclecloud | 22 Jun 2023

  for NixOS

• Is it possible to morph Debian into NixOS?
  2 projects | /r/NixOS | 4 Jun 2023
• NixOS 23.05
  1 project | /r/linux | 2 Jun 2023

  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:

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