[Nix-dev] Stuck on "Install NixOS on Linode" - bootstrap archives download

[Lluís Batlle i Rossell]

On Thu, Jul 01, 2010 at 01:55:00PM -0400, Daniel Clark wrote:
> 2010/7/1 Lluís Batlle i Rossell <viriketo at gmail.com>:
> > On Thu, Jul 01, 2010 at 01:32:57PM -0400, Daniel Clark wrote:
> >> I'm following / updating http://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Install_NixOS_on_Linode
> >>
> >> The current doc says "The bootstrap archives can be downloaded from
> >> minimal_install_archive [1]", however so far I haven't been able to
> >> actually find a root tarball downloadable under that URL. I'm probably
> >> just being blind; if someone can provide the exact URL to a known-good
> >> "minimal install archive" I'd appreciate it (and update the doc
> >> accordingly).
> > Instead of a root tarball, you will find a NAR archive. You will need nix to
> > install that into your nix store, that must sit in /nix.
> >
> > If some can tell the mechanisms to put the tarballs downloadable in hydra, I can try to
> > make them available. I guess some special files in a special directory of the
> > output store path would do the trick for hydra to show a download link.
> >
> > (I'll investigate a bit)
> >
> > Regards,
> > Lluís.
> 
> Ah, so I need to bootstrap nix packages (but not nixos) locally before
> bootstrapping nixos remotely. I usually work from a mipsel box, but I
> can go install nix packages on some other colo server running
> non-nixos GNU/Linux on x86_64 :-)

In fact I just commited a change to allow the tarball download through the web -
if hydra were doing its job (I think it's stuck somehow), you would have that
link in a while.

OTH, you may be interested in the cross-building facilities in nixpkgs, and
maybe you want to port nixos (native build only) to mipsel?

Nixos works fine on armv5tel (sheevaplug) for one year, so if you have enough
energy to play that game, let me know.

About mipsel, I only own a OpenWRT system mipsel, where I cross-built nixpkgs
programs fine. But that machine cannot stand a native build easily :)

Regards,
Lluís.