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<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="sec-building-image">
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<title>Building a NixOS (Live) ISO</title>
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<para>
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Default live installer configurations are available inside
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<literal>nixos/modules/installer/cd-dvd</literal>. For building
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other system images,
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<link xlink:href="https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-generators">nixos-generators</link>
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is a good place to start looking at.
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</para>
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<para>
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You have two options:
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</para>
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<itemizedlist spacing="compact">
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Use any of those default configurations as is
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Combine them with (any of) your host config(s)
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>
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System images, such as the live installer ones, know how to enforce
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configuration settings on wich they immediately depend in order to
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work correctly.
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</para>
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<para>
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However, if you are confident, you can opt to override those
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enforced values with <literal>mkForce</literal>.
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</para>
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<section xml:id="sec-building-image-instructions">
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<title>Practical Instructions</title>
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<programlisting>
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$ git clone https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs.git
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$ cd nixpkgs/nixos
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$ nix-build -A config.system.build.isoImage -I nixos-config=modules/installer/cd-dvd/installation-cd-minimal.nix default.nix
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</programlisting>
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<para>
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To check the content of an ISO image, mount it like so:
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</para>
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<programlisting>
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# mount -o loop -t iso9660 ./result/iso/cd.iso /mnt/iso
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</programlisting>
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</section>
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<section xml:id="sec-building-image-tech-notes">
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<title>Technical Notes</title>
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<para>
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The config value enforcement is implemented via
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<literal>mkImageMediaOverride = mkOverride 60;</literal> and
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therefore primes over simple value assignments, but also yields to
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<literal>mkForce</literal>.
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</para>
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<para>
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This property allows image designers to implement in semantically
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correct ways those configuration values upon which the correct
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functioning of the image depends.
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</para>
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<para>
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For example, the iso base image overrides those file systems which
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it needs at a minimum for correct functioning, while the installer
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base image overrides the entire file system layout because there
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can’t be any other guarantees on a live medium than those given by
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the live medium itself. The latter is especially true befor
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formatting the target block device(s). On the other hand, the
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netboot iso only overrides its minimum dependencies since netboot
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images are always made-to-target.
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</para>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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