[Nix-dev] Installing Nixos

[Tim Hawes]

Julio,

Theoretically, You should be able to delete the partition and recreate
it. I was installing to a USB flash drive. I had initially recreated the
partition with fdisk, but that apparently was not enough.

Probably because what fdisk might have actually done initially was not
to delete the original partition at all, but just relabel it for
Linux.

When I did it the second time, I made sure the partition was destroyed,
and it's destruction written to disk, and then recreated the partition.

Julio Cesar Campos writes:

> This is what I understand from your mail; To install NixOS I need to
> format the entire hard drive and repartition it, this erases all tags
> that it has?
> Or I can delete the partition with cfdisk and recreate a new one?
> I have the disk partitioned for windows sda1, sda2 for backup (like
> home), and to archlinux sda3 and sda4 for swap.
> Now replaced Arch by NixOS is the goal, but once achieved successfully
> install NixOS.
> Asked if what I say does not clear up more labels having the partition,
> then as I do that?
> Thank you
>
>
> 2014-08-08 17:10 GMT-05:00 Tim Hawes <tim at easyfreeunix.com>:
>      I would like to suggest a brief troubleshooting guide of some
>      sorts for first
>      time installers. The first time I installed NixOS, it went
>      smoothly. But
>      on subsequent attempts, I ran into problems.
>
>      One of the main reasons I entertain the idea of using NixOS as
>      a primary
>      desktop is so I can easily restore a desktop setup with all
>      the software
>      I use day-to-day already installed without constantly
>      returning to the
>      package manager to add a new piece of software.
>
>      I've learned it is better to do a fresh install with as few
>      additional
>      packages in the configuration.nix file as possible, and then
>      add those
>      packages to the configuration later, after the first
>      successful boot
>      into the new system.
>
>      The trouble I ran into was that grub could not be installed on
>      a
>      partition that had more than one label. Given that the only
>      (non-bothersome) way to correct this problem is re-running
>      fdisk,
>      re-partitioning the drives, and that grub was installed at the
>      very end
>      of the installation process, it was just better to do a
>      minimal install
>      first before adding all those packages to configuraton.nix.
>
>      If the first-time installer is not paying attention, he/she
>      could end up
>      missing the error message, and try to reboot before grub gets
>      properly
>      installed. So, maybe returning a message in RED that an error
>      occured if
>      the grub-installer returns anything other than 0, might be in
>      order as well.
>
>      Luca Bruno writes:
>
>      > On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 10:00 PM, Julio Cesar Campos
>      > <kabbalah100 at gmail.com> wrote:
>      >   Hello, in the last week I have made 3 attempts to
>      install
>      >   NixOS following 2 pages which give some pointers on how
>      to
>      >   install this, the result NixOS grub does not recognize
>      and
>      >   does not start session.
>      >
>      > It would be helpful if you reported the installation steps
>      that you
>      > performed and your disk partitions layout.
>      >
>      >   I want to install this, but really the information for
>      people
>      >   who are not informatics but afiiconados GNU / Linux is
>      sparse,
>      >   there will be a chance of someone developing a generic
>      >   configuration to install NixOS to be available at the
>      time of
>      >   the installation via the Manual?
>      >
>      > What do you mean? nixos-generate-config should already
>      generate a
>      > generic configuration working for you.
>      >
>      >   Another concern can be installed Gnome 3.12 from the
>      >   beginning?
>      >
>      >
>      > You need to use nixpkgs unstable, and set
>      environment.gnome3.packageSet
>      > = pkgs.gnome3_12;
>      >
>      > Beware gnome3 in nixos is somewhat experimental, though it
>      runs fine.
>
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