340 lines
11 KiB
XML
340 lines
11 KiB
XML
<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
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<title>Installing NixOS</title>
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<!--===============================================================-->
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<section>
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<title>Obtaining NixOS</title>
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<para>NixOS ISO images can be downloaded from the <link
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xlink:href="http://nixos.org/nixos/download.html">NixOS
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homepage</link>. These can be burned onto a CD. It is also possible
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to copy them onto a USB stick and install NixOS from there. For
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details, see the <link
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xlink:href="https://nixos.org/wiki/Installing_NixOS_from_a_USB_stick">NixOS
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Wiki</link>.</para>
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</section>
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<!--===============================================================-->
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<section>
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<title>Installation</title>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem><para>Boot from the CD.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>The CD contains a basic NixOS installation. (It
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also contains Memtest86+, useful if you want to test new hardware.)
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When it’s finished booting, it should have detected most of your
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hardware and brought up networking (check
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<command>ifconfig</command>). Networking is necessary for the
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installer, since it will download lots of stuff (such as source
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tarballs or Nixpkgs channel binaries). It’s best if you have a DHCP
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server on your network. Otherwise configure networking manually
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using <command>ifconfig</command>.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>The NixOS manual is available on virtual console 8
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(press Alt+F8 to access).</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Login as <literal>root</literal>, empty
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password.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>If you downloaded the graphical ISO image, you can
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run <command>start display-manager</command> to start KDE.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>The NixOS installer doesn’t do any partitioning or
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formatting yet, so you need to that yourself. Use the following
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commands:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>For partitioning:
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<command>fdisk</command>.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>For initialising Ext4 partitions:
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<command>mkfs.ext4</command>. It is recommended that you assign a
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unique symbolic label to the file system using the option
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<option>-L <replaceable>label</replaceable></option>. This will
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make the file system configuration independent from device
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changes.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>For creating swap partitions:
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<command>mkswap</command>. Again it’s recommended to assign a
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label to the swap partition: <option>-L
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<replaceable>label</replaceable></option>.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>For creating LVM volumes, the LVM commands, e.g.,
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<screen>
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$ pvcreate /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
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$ vgcreate MyVolGroup /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
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$ lvcreate --size 2G --name bigdisk MyVolGroup
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$ lvcreate --size 1G --name smalldisk MyVolGroup</screen>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>For creating software RAID devices, use
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<command>mdadm</command>.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Mount the target file system on which NixOS should
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be installed on <filename>/mnt</filename>.</para></listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>You now need to create a file
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<filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> that
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specifies the intended configuration of the system. This is
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because NixOS has a <emphasis>declarative</emphasis> configuration
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model: you create or edit a description of the configuration that
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you want to be built and activated, and then NixOS takes care of
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realising that configuration. The command
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<command>nixos-option</command> can generate an initial
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configuration file for you:
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<screen>
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$ nixos-option --install</screen>
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It tries to figure out the kernel modules necessary for mounting
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the root device, as well as various other hardware
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characteristics. However, it doesn’t try to figure out the
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<option>fileSystems</option> option yet.</para>
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<para>You should edit
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<filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> to suit your
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needs. The text editors <command>nano</command> and
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<command>vim</command> are available.</para>
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<para>You need to specify a root file system in
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<option>fileSystems</option> and the target device for the Grub boot
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loader in <option>boot.loader.grub.device</option>. See
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<xref linkend="ch-options"/> for a list of the available configuration
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options.</para>
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<note><para>It is very important that you specify in the option
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<option>boot.initrd.kernelModules</option> all kernel modules that
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are necessary for mounting the root file system, otherwise the
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installed system will not be able to boot. (If this happens, boot
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from the CD again, mount the target file system on
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<filename>/mnt</filename>, fix
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<filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> and rerun
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<filename>nixos-install</filename>.) In most cases,
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<command>nixos-option --install</command> will figure out the
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required modules.</para></note>
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<para>Examples of real-world NixOS configuration files can be
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found at <link
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xlink:href="https://nixos.org/repos/nix/configurations/trunk/"/>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem><para>If your machine has a limited amount of memory, you
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may want to activate swap devices now (<command>swapon
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<replaceable>device</replaceable></command>). The installer (or
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rather, the build actions that it may spawn) may need quite a bit of
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RAM, depending on your configuration.</para></listitem>
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<!--
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<listitem><para>Optionally, you can run
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<screen>
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$ nixos-checkout</screen>
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to make the installer use the latest NixOS/Nixpkgs sources from the
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Git repository, rather than the sources on CD.</para></listitem>
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-->
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<listitem><para>Do the installation:
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<screen>
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$ nixos-install</screen>
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Cross fingers.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>If everything went well:
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<screen>
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$ reboot</screen>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>You should now be able to boot into the installed NixOS.
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The Grub boot menu shows a list of <emphasis>available
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configurations</emphasis> (initially just one). Every time you
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change the NixOS configuration (see <xref
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linkend="sec-changing-config" />), a new item appears in the menu.
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This allows you to easily roll back to another configuration if
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something goes wrong.</para>
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<para>You should log in and change the <literal>root</literal>
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password with <command>passwd</command>.</para>
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<para>You’ll probably want to create some user accounts as well,
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which can be done with <command>useradd</command>:
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<screen>
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$ useradd -c 'Eelco Dolstra' -m eelco
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$ passwd eelco</screen>
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</para>
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<para>You may also want to install some software. For instance,
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -qa \*</screen>
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shows what packages are available, and
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<screen>
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$ nix-env -i w3m</screen>
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install the <literal>w3m</literal> browser.</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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<para><xref linkend="ex-install-sequence" /> shows a typical sequence
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of commands for installing NixOS on an empty hard drive (here
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<filename>/dev/sda</filename>). <xref linkend="ex-config" /> shows a
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corresponding configuration Nix expression.</para>
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<example xml:id='ex-install-sequence'><title>Commands for installing NixOS on <filename>/dev/sda</filename></title>
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<screen>
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$ fdisk /dev/sda <lineannotation>(or whatever device you want to install on)</lineannotation>
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$ mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1 <lineannotation>(idem)</lineannotation>
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$ mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2 <lineannotation>(idem)</lineannotation>
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$ mount LABEL=nixos /mnt
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$ nixos-option --install
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$ nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
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<lineannotation>(in particular, set the fileSystems and swapDevices options)</lineannotation>
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$ nixos-install
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$ reboot</screen>
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</example>
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<example xml:id='ex-config'><title>NixOS configuration</title>
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<screen>
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{
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boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda";
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fileSystems."/".device = "/dev/disk/by-label/nixos";
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swapDevices =
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[ { device = "/dev/disk/by-label/swap"; } ];
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services.sshd.enable = true;
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}</screen>
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</example>
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</section>
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<!--===============================================================-->
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<section xml:id="sec-changing-config">
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<title>Changing the configuration</title>
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<para>The file <filename>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename>
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contains the current configuration of your machine. Whenever you’ve
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changed something to that file, you should do
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<screen>
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$ nixos-rebuild switch</screen>
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to build the new configuration, make it the default configuration for
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booting, and try to realise the configuration in the running system
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(e.g., by restarting system services).</para>
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<para>You can also do
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<screen>
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$ nixos-rebuild test</screen>
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to build the configuration and switch the running system to it, but
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without making it the boot default. So if (say) the configuration
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locks up your machine, you can just reboot to get back to a working
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configuration.</para>
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<para>There is also
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<screen>
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$ nixos-rebuild boot</screen>
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to build the configuration and make it the boot default, but not
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switch to it now (so it will only take effect after the next
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reboot).</para>
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<para>Finally, you can do
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<screen>
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$ nixos-rebuild build</screen>
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to build the configuration but nothing more. This is useful to see
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whether everything compiles cleanly.</para>
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<para>If you have a machine that supports hardware virtualisation, you
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can also test the new configuration in a sandbox by building and
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running a <emphasis>virtual machine</emphasis> that contains the
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desired configuration. Just do
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<screen>
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$ nixos-rebuild build-vm
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$ ./result/bin/run-*-vm
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</screen>
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The VM does not have use any data from your host system, so your
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existing user accounts and home directories will not be
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available.</para>
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</section>
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<!--===============================================================-->
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<section xml:id="sec-upgrading">
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<title>Upgrading NixOS</title>
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<para>The best way to keep your NixOS installation up to date is to
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use the <literal>nixos-unstable</literal> channel. (A channel is a
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Nix mechanism for distributing Nix expressions and associated
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binaries.) The NixOS channel is updated automatically from NixOS’s
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Git repository after running certain tests and building most
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packages.</para>
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<para>NixOS automatically subscribes you to the NixOS channel. If for
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some reason this is not the case, just do
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<screen>
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$ nix-channel --add http://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable
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</screen>
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You can then upgrade NixOS to the latest version in the channel by
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running
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<screen>
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$ nix-channel --update nixos
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</screen>
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and running the <command>nixos-rebuild</command> command as described
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in <xref linkend="sec-changing-config"/>.</para>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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