Booting GUIX in single user

Booting GUIX in single user

[Alexander Asteroth]

Hi there,

While experimenting with Guix and installing one more package the disk of the test system filled to 100%. After shutting down the system to provide more disk to the VM, after reboot, the gdm session is indefinitely started and killed.

I tried to boot into non-x11 (level3) or single user mode but unfortunately the option I pass to Grub seems not to be recognized by the linux-libre kernel. Any hint where I find the correct boot options for a Guix System, so I can repair my system?

Thanks,
Alex

PS: one more thing. Is there any documentation about the packages? How to use them after just Guix install? After installing a package, e.g. a window manager like exam or a desktop environment like lxde additional steps are necessary for a user to use them. Can I find these steps somewhere? In particular to do the configuration such that it is compatible with the package and will not brake after updating the package to a new version.

Re: Booting GUIX in single user

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Hullo Alexander,

[It's just ‘Guix’, by the way.]

Alexander Asteroth 写道：
> I tried to boot into non-x11 (level3) or single user mode but 
> unfortunately the option I pass to Grub

Which option did you try?  I've happily purged all memory of which 
obsolete System V run-level did which obsolete thing (and Guix 
probably should, too).

> seems not to be recognized by the linux-libre kernel.

The kernel doesn't play a role here.  It's the (early) user space 
that looks at the kernel's command line, and performs certain 
actions when it sees (a) particular magic keyword(s).

> Any hint where I find the correct boot options for a Guix 
> System, so I can repair my system?

I think the only ones are currenly ‘--load’, ‘--root’, and 
‘--repl’.  The latter allows for some very rudimentary debugging 
and fixing but it's not exactly pleasant.

In keeping with Guix's idiosyncratic syntax, one could add 
‘--rescue’ and corresponding menu entry to only mount the root 
filesystem and spawn the current system's bash shell.  What do 
people think?

Soon, we'll have to add ‘--help’…

Kind regards,

T G-R

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Re: Booting GUIX in single user

[Alexander Asteroth]

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Hi,

I tried “single” and 3. Now I tried —root and it still booted into gdm.

Alex

> On 24. Jul 2019, at 17:25, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> wrote:
> 
> Hullo Alexander,
> 
> [It's just ‘Guix’, by the way.]
> 
> Alexander Asteroth 写道：
>> I tried to boot into non-x11 (level3) or single user mode but unfortunately the option I pass to Grub
> 
> Which option did you try?  I've happily purged all memory of which obsolete System V run-level did which obsolete thing (and Guix probably should, too).
> 
>> seems not to be recognized by the linux-libre kernel.
> 
> The kernel doesn't play a role here.  It's the (early) user space that looks at the kernel's command line, and performs certain actions when it sees (a) particular magic keyword(s).
> 
>> Any hint where I find the correct boot options for a Guix System, so I can repair my system?
> 
> I think the only ones are currenly ‘--load’, ‘--root’, and ‘--repl’.  The latter allows for some very rudimentary debugging and fixing but it's not exactly pleasant.
> 
> In keeping with Guix's idiosyncratic syntax, one could add ‘--rescue’ and corresponding menu entry to only mount the root filesystem and spawn the current system's bash shell.  What do people think?
> 
> Soon, we'll have to add ‘--help’…
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> T G-R


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Re: Booting GUIX in single user

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Alexander Asteroth 写道：
> I tried “single” and 3.

Thanks!  ‘single’ *might* be worth supporting as an alias, 
although the preferred way to expose this would be a GRUB menu 
entry and the argument wouldn't matter.

> Now I tried —root and it still booted into gdm.

I don't see why it wouldn't.  ‘--root <file name>’ specifies the 
root device.

Kind regards,

T G-R

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Re: Booting GUIX in single user

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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[Re-CC'ing help-guix@.]

Alexander Asteroth 写道：
> I misinterpreted —root as the equivalent to single.

Aha, nope, sorry.

> So currently the only rescue option would be the repl?

Yep.  It's a Scheme REPL that also has a *very* rough ‘,bournish’
mode, but it's (ironically) not very useful with Guix because it 
lacks
tab-completion (fun with store hashes!) and any useful 
line-editing or
history (so if you make a typo you can type the whole thing anew).
That's true for the Scheme mode, too.

Believe me, I am not defending the status quo of Guix rescue 
modes.

Your current best option is booting a live medium like the Guix
installer to free up some space and reboot.

Kind regards,

T G-R

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