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

[Lluís Batlle i Rossell]

Hello,

On Thu, Jul 01, 2010 at 02:11:52PM -0400, Daniel Clark wrote:
> > 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 :)
> 
> If that's all that is holding you back, my company has a developer's
> program; we could send you (or another interested NixOS community
> member) a faster mipsel box for free - if interested send me your
> address and phone # (needed by shippers) off-list.

I don't mind the speed that much - the lack of a proper amount of RAM (12MB in
that machine) disallows the usage of a hungry compilers like GNU's (the only
ones working fine enough for nixpkgs builds).

I did the effort for the sheevaplug because:
- I wanted a server at home, and I wanted it to be low power. And I found the
  Sheevaplug affordable for my pocket, and I found it quite open, in terms of
  software running in it; I thank its easy JTAG and openocd.
- I wanted only to manage NixOS systems.

Now, having the experience, some cross-platform facilities, and cross-build
facilities in nixpkgs, I think that porting to another platform can be quite
trivial.

But I don't envise in the next days my willing to do the effort of porting to a
system that I don't know what I would use it for. If you think I could use that
"mipsel box" for something, or maybe you think that others will find a good
benefit of a NixOS port to it, then I may accept that box without remorse. :)

In one year there has been zero other users of the Nixos armv5tel port. :) But
I'm very happy with it - it works great at home.

> 
> I actually have a bunch of the type of machine I'd send you in a
> cluster, but haven't had time to do config in it yet; plans are to set
> it up to do distributed compiles using icecream [1]. Does Nix's
> compile farm software do icecream/distcc type distributed compiling
> stuff?
I think not. We even had discussions about whether to build using multicores
(in the sense of make -j). Multiple builds can run in parallel.
The build farm can delegate full build jobs to different machines,
instead of delegating the more fine-grained module compilation jobs. That works
with the nix system "build-remote.pl" AFAIK.

Regards,
Lluís.