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+---
+title: Getting started with nixos
+description: How to setup an UEFI compatible virtual machine running nixos
+date: 2023-09-30
+tags:
+- nix
+---
+
+## Introduction
+
+After discovering nix I quickly jumped into nixos, the Linux distribution based on nix. It has been a few months now and I very much like nixos's stability and reproducibility. Upgrades went smoothly each time and I migrated quite a few services to a nixos server.
+
+## Installation
+
+### Virtual machine bootstrap
+
+Installing nixos is really not hard, you quickly get to a basic setup you can completely understand thanks to its declarative nature. When I began tinkering with nixos, my goal was to install it on a vps for which I needed UEFI support, here is how I bootstrapped a virtual machine locally:
+```sh
+qemu-img create -f raw nixos.raw 4G
+qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=nixos.raw,format=raw,cache=writeback \
+ -cdrom Downloads/nixos-minimal-23.05.1994.af8279f65fe-x86_64-linux.iso \
+ -boot d -machine type=q35,accel=kvm -cpu host -smp 2 -m 1024 -vnc :0 \
+ -device virtio-net,netdev=vmnic -netdev user,id=vmnic,hostfwd=tcp::10022-:22 \
+ -bios /usr/share/edk2-ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd
+```
+
+### Partitioning
+
+From there, I performed the following simple partitioning (just one big root partition):
+```sh
+parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt
+parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1MB 512MB
+parted /dev/sda -- set 1 esp on
+parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 512MB 100%
+mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/sda1
+mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda2
+mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
+mkdir -p /mnt/boot
+mount /dev/disk/by-label/boot /mnt/boot
+```
+
+### Initial configuration
+
+The initial configuration is generated with:
+```sh
+nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
+```
+
+This will generate a `/mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix` with the specifics of your machine along with a basic `/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix` that I replaced with:
+```sh
+{ config, pkgs, ... }:
+{
+ boot.kernelParams = [
+ "console=ttyS0"
+ "console=tty1"
+ "libiscsi.debug_libiscsi_eh=1"
+ "nvme.shutdown_timeout=10"
+ ];
+ boot.loader = {
+ efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
+ systemd-boot.enable = true;
+ };
+ environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
+ curl
+ tmux
+ vim
+ ];
+ networking = {
+ dhcpcd.enable = false;
+ hostname = "dalinar";
+ nameservers = [ "1.1.1.1" "9.9.9.9" ];
+ firewall = {
+ allowedTCPPorts = [ 22 ];
+ logRefusedConnections = false;
+ logRefusedPackets = false;
+ };
+ usePredictableInterfaceNames = false;
+ };
+ nix = {
+ settings.auto-optimise-store = true;
+ extraOptions = ''
+ min-free = ${toString (1024 * 1024 * 1024)}
+ max-free = ${toString (2048 * 1024 * 1024)}
+ '';
+ gc = {
+ automatic = true;
+ dates = "weekly";
+ options = "--delete-older-than 30d";
+ };
+ };
+ security = {
+ doas.enable = true;
+ sudo.enable = false;
+ };
+ services = {
+ services = {
+ openssh = {
+ enable = true;
+ settings.KbdInteractiveAuthentication = false;
+ settings.PasswordAuthentication = false;
+ };
+ resolved.enable = false;
+ };
+ systemd.network.enable = true;
+ time.timeZone = "Europe/Paris";
+ users.users = {
+ adyxax = {
+ description = "Julien Dessaux";
+ extraGroups = [ "wheel" ];
+ isNormalUser = true;
+ hashedPassword = "$y$j9T$Nne7Ad1nxNmluCKBzBG3//$h93j8xxfBUD98f/7nGQqXPeM3QdZatMbzZ0p/G2P/l1";
+ home = "/home/julien";
+ openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [ "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAILOJV391WFRYgCVA2plFB8W8sF9LfbzXZOrxqaOrrwco adyxax@yen" ];
+ };
+ root = {
+ hashedPassword = "$y$j8F$ummLlZmPdS1KGxSnwH8CY.$bjvADB9IdfwzO6/2if5Sl9DeCmCRdasknq4IJEAuxyA";
+ openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [ "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAILOJV391WFRYgCVA2plFB8W8sF9LfbzXZOrxqaOrrwco adyxax@yen" ];
+ };
+ };
+ # This value determines the NixOS release from which the default
+ # settings for stateful data, like file locations and database versions
+ # on your system were taken. It's perfectly fine and recommended to leave
+ # this value at the release version of the first install of this system.
+ # Before changing this value read the documentation for this option
+ # (e.g. man configuration.nix or on https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html).
+ system.stateVersion = "23.05";
+ # Copy the NixOS configuration file and link it from the resulting system
+ # (/run/current-system/configuration.nix). This is useful in case you
+ # accidentally delete configuration.nix.
+ system.copySystemConfiguration = true;
+}
+```
+
+This will setup a system that in particular will use the systemd-bootd boot loader in lieu of grub and systemd-networkd instead of NetworkManager. Not much else is going on. The nix section slows builds a bit but greatly reduced disk space consumption.
+
+### Installation
+
+```sh
+nixos-install --no-root-passwd
+```
+
+### Rebooting
+
+In order to boot on the newlly installed system and not the installer, the virtual machine command needs to be changed, so shutdown your system with:
+```sh
+halt -p
+```
+
+And start it with:
+```sh
+qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=nixos.raw,format=raw,cache=writeback \
+ -boot c -machine type=q35,accel=kvm -cpu host -smp 2 -m 1024 -vnc :0 \
+ -device virtio-net,netdev=vmnic -netdev user,id=vmnic,hostfwd=tcp::10022-:22 \
+ -bios /usr/share/edk2-ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd
+```
+
+## Updating the configuration
+
+If you change the configuration, you need to rebuild the system with:
+```sh
+nixos-rebuild switch
+```
+
+## Upgrading
+
+You can rebuild your system with the latest nixos packages using:
+```sh
+nix-channel --update
+nixos-rebuild switch
+```
+
+## Conclusion
+
+Installing and tinkering with nixos is quite fun! In the next articles I will explain how I organized my configurations to manage multiple servers, how to use a luks encrypted system and remotely unlock them after rebooting, and how to run the builds for small servers from a much more powerful machine.