From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Pierre Neidhardt Subject: Installer, recommended store size and hardware detection Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2019 15:13:22 +0100 Message-ID: <874l9hgg3h.fsf@ambrevar.xyz> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:39233) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1grNxI-0004u3-MA for help-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 06 Feb 2019 09:13:38 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1grNxH-0006Xh-KP for help-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 06 Feb 2019 09:13:36 -0500 Received: from relay1-d.mail.gandi.net ([217.70.183.193]:49221) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1grNxH-0006Sd-Bb for help-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 06 Feb 2019 09:13:35 -0500 Received: from bababa (lfbn-1-12225-33.w90-92.abo.wanadoo.fr [90.92.41.33]) (Authenticated sender: mail@ambrevar.xyz) by relay1-d.mail.gandi.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 9E73D24000B for ; Wed, 6 Feb 2019 14:13:22 +0000 (UTC) List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-guix-bounces+gcggh-help-guix=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Help-Guix" To: help-guix --=-=-= Content-Type: text/plain Hi Guix! During the Guix days we talked about the graphical installer and more specifically about the recommended partition size to host the store. Question for everyone: How much do you allocate to the store? I don't think that a rule like "10% of the disk" is really what we need. The store "recommended size" does not grow linearly in my understanding (but I could be missing a point). I've tried with 25GB: it's way too painful. Alex Kost once told me that he used 50GB and needn't `guix gc` for about a year. Too small a partition for the store can lead to a painful Guix experience. We don't want to frustrate newcomers. Frustration typically occurs when the partition is full and the user must run `guix gc`. Running `guix gc` can lead to packages being re-downloaded, etc. This is even more painful on slow connections. Of course, we all make different uses of Guix and the rate at which the store gets filled may vary a lot from user to user. It seems hard to "recommend" something universal. Let me try anyways: "How much space to we need so that the store does not get filled before a year with a default desktop.scm (with GNOME?), running weekly updates (i.e. about 52 times)." This will take some time to measure ;) I'm not sure we need to partition at all: is it a problem to use the full disk? If the user really wants to keep the store separate, we could document a recommended minimum of 50GB for instance. On a similar note, what do you think about adding hardware detection to the installation process and help create a config.scm with the right values for a specific machine? Lewo from the Nix community told me they have hardware detection in their config generation script: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/c01eeda8e96c0fa63eb23df3df51403cc0589672/nixos/modules/installer/tools/nixos-generate-config.pl What do you people think? -- Pierre Neidhardt https://ambrevar.xyz/ --=-=-= Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQEzBAEBCAAdFiEEUPM+LlsMPZAEJKvom9z0l6S7zH8FAlxa64IACgkQm9z0l6S7 zH+4cAf/UU/4CzG+KtG0oGKtSBZb5QWiZYN6Hkq+eFQJTWHxBD8x9KISOUaHNYgN XV0BujGCPfYKzzCi5nWmUBkglxW9nFGZ4QYJjPLiDHr+e7gF4rqNqbn8RlWqey84 +Qm+AgNdUyHi/dKEe9Tb0MpeTL/B0+HUWAIbytm5PH8PbTZYKmyBctLVSYsYlwn7 S+tv51bekgT9gqROOFe/B4kuQw8WgPW/j1bSp737tsqOnhx5SUfXajIw/Oa8V6a6 C+GcM4D2bCkctU8suGpqo4C6W/op2uwPLs8LNn9uCo1jUmDFlXuD+zvETJIlSSIf 32wvyvMUUP+7/vgIikUClDX37iftxg== =aCzx -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-=-=--