[Nix-dev] few questions before migrating from Debian…

[Roger Qiu]

ZFS still requires separate /boot. Actually this depends on your boot
loader, not ZFS. So if you find a better boot loader that can run ZFS, then
you won't need a separate /boot. If you use UEFI, you'll need a separate
ESP partition anyway, which you can use as your /boot if you are only using
UEFI.
On 10/04/2016 5:15 AM, "Saša Janiška" <gour at atmarama.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> for some time I’m considering which Linux distro to use to have
> relatively fresh packages as well as not to waste too much time for
> admin work.
>
> Morever, it would be ideal to have same distro for the machine of my
> relative’s to make it easier during trouble.shooting session. So, in
> order to fulfill those two requirements I did consider to stay with
> Debian (Sid) on my desktop and netbook machines, but put Debian Stable
> on the machines of my relatives.
>
> However, after checking about NixOS which I tried many years ago, I’ve
> concluded it’s the best option at the moment since I learnt that
> nixos-stable might be good-enough for other’s machine requiring not much
> admin time, while I can use nixos-unstable if stable channel is not
> fresh–enough for my own needs.
>
> So, before jumping to install on real hardware - today I did install
> under vbox, I’ve few questions…
>
> My desktop is i7 2.8G/16G machine having 1xTB+1x2TB disks which are
> assembled in btrfs raid1 with / and /home as btrfs subvolumes (the
> remaining 1TB is used for daily backups.)
>
> I’m delighted that NixOS provides ZFS as filesytem option since it was
> one of the reasons why I was evaluating Free/PC-BSD option in the past.
>
> a) do you, in general, recommend using ZFS over Btrfs for NixOS desktop
> machine?
>
> b) is ZFS good option even for single-disk netbook machine with 4G of
> memory?
>
> c) can one use ZFS on root *without* usage of separate /boot partition?
> I use same disk layout on Debian, but with btrfs and do not have any
> experience with ZoL, although I’ve found that there is
> ’boot.loader.grub.zfsSupport’ option?
>
> Any doc/tutorial explaining how to do such install?
>
> I’ve found: https://gist.github.com/vizanto/7374277 but wonder if it is
> still relevant?
>
> There are of course few packages I do miss in NixOS, but everything else
> is so great, so that I’m very enthusiastic to put NixOS on all my
> relative’s  machines very soon.
>
> On all machines, I plan to use GNOME3, so wonder if there are some
> gotchas in regard - someone on #nixoes mentioned that GTK does not like
> custom paths as used by Nix and recommended i3 instead which is, atm,
> not option considering that other family members also use my machine and
> relatives are not savvy-enough for that tiling wm.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> Gour
>
> --
> Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities,
> one should act as a matter of duty, for by working without
> attachment one attains the Supreme.
>
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