[Nix-dev] Problems installing NixOS with btrfs from a USB stick

[Wout Mertens]

Well I think to workaround it, a call to ln -s needs to be added here:
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/installer/cd-dvd/iso-image.nix#L213

I just can't remember right now what the symlink has to be... When I get
some time (and someone else doesn't beat me to it) I'll try to reproduce.

Of course the real issue is that mkfs.btrfs gets confused while trying to
find the root fs and should be fixed. Adding a symlink is an easier fix
though ;-)

Cheers,

Wout.

On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 9:31 AM, Lluís Batlle i Rossell <viric at viric.name>wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 07:09:32AM +0200, Wout Mertens wrote:
> > Actually, I wasn't being clear, I only fixed it for me :-)
>
> I remember going through this too, two years ago. At some point I reported
> that
> upstream, and as I didn't install anything else, I hoped someone fixed it.
>
> > On Apr 16, 2014 3:11 AM, "Thomas Strobel" <ts468 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> >
> > > Thank you very much for looking into it and fixing it so quickly!
> > >
> > > On Tue, 2014-04-15 at 08:52 +0200, Wout Mertens wrote:
> > > > I fixed it by stracing mkfs. btrfs and creating a symlink to /.
> > > > Basically it gets confused by the bind mounts and looks for root at
> > > > the original location.
> > > > So just strace -eopen mkfs... and look for enoent.
> > > > On phone, sorry for lack of details.
> > > >
> > > > On Apr 13, 2014 12:41 PM, "Alexei Robyn" <shados at shados.net> wrote:
> > > >         Hello,
> > > >
> > > >         If you're talking about the "can't determine mount status
> > > >         of /dev/..."
> > > >         issue, this is a bug with mkfs.btrfs. See
> > > >
> > > http://lists.science.uu.nl/pipermail/nix-dev/2012-December/010237.html
> > > >
> > > >         - Alexei
> > > >
> > > >         On Sun, Apr 13, 2014, at 07:49 PM, Cillian de Róiste wrote:
> > > >         > Hi!
> > > >         >
> > > >         > On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 11:05 AM, Thomas Strobel
> > > >         <ts468 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> > > >         > > Hi there,
> > > >         > >
> > > >         > > I was running into problems when trying to install NixOS
> > > >         with btrfs from
> > > >         > > a USB stick. I downloaded the current .iso and used
> > > >         unetbootin to create
> > > >         > > a bootable USB drive from it.
> > > >         > >
> > > >         > > Unfortunately, the resulting installation environment did
> > > >         not allow to
> > > >         > > use mkfs.btrfs as it could not decide on the mounting
> > > >         status of my
> > > >         > > partition. It seemed as if unetbootin prepared the system
> > > >         in a way that
> > > >         > > prevented mkfs.btrfs from working.
> > > >         > >
> > > >         > > Did anyone else experience that problem?
> > > >         > >
> > > >         > > If so, then my question is if the .iso files could be
> > > >         changed in a way
> > > >         > > that allows to prepare the USB stick with a simple
> > > >         dd-command, e.g. like
> > > >         > > Debian or GRML ISOs do, and that keeps mkft.btrfs
> working?
> > > >         >
> > > >         > You could try installing syslinux and using isohybrid to
> > > >         create a
> > > >         > hybrid bootable image which you can dd onto a USB stick:
> > > >         >
> > > >         >     isohybrid filename.iso
> > > >         >
> > > >         >
> > > >
> > >
> http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Doc/isolinux#HYBRID_CD-ROM.2FHARD_DISK_MODE
> > > >         >
> > > >         > I'm not sure if that will help with the btrfs issue, but it
> > > >         would be
> > > >         > good to know if it worked.
> > > >         >
> > > >         > Good luck!
> > > >         > Cillian
> > > >         > _______________________________________________
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