Re: Best base system for Guix

[Alexander Asteroth <alexander.asteroth@h-brs.de>]

Ok, you all convinced me to give Guix a third try (yes I already gave up
twice). Today I installed guix on a seperate partition aside the
Debian-11 install on the same HD. Everything went fine but for the
bootloader. I thought maybe it's best to not install it and let
os-prober on the Debian side discover the Guix system (which I mounted
on /mnt). Unfortunately it seems not to recognize the Guix-Install
(maybe because the kernel-image is hidden deep in the store?). Vice
versa I could add the Debian partition to the Guix config but if
something goes wrong ... ?

Any advice? I'd really like to switch to guix (particularly because I've
programmed a lot in guile in the late 90s and like the idea to configure
my system in scheme :-)

Bests,
Alex


On Thu, Nov 11 2021, 15:47:52, André A. Gomes <andremegafone@gmail.com> wrote:

> Alexander Asteroth <alexander.asteroth@h-brs.de> writes:
>
>> of course the optimum is probably a pure native Guix system. But if this
>> is not possible, what system forms the best base for Guix. I've tried
>> arch and debian 11 and noticed that the packages available in Guix under
>> arch are way more recent (e.g icecat 91 vs 6x) and more in general.
>
> I don't see how the base system could influence Guix's package
> availability.
>
> Things that might differ from one base system to the other are some
> default configurations (environment variables, etc).  For example, a
> friend of mine tried to use Guix on top of Ubuntu and there was a big
> mess concerning XDG_* environment variables and the X window system (I
> don't remember the details).
>
> If you're curious about Guix, I strongly advice using the whole system.
> The community, afaik, doesn't put too much effort in making sure that it
> works flawlessly out-of-the-box for all systems, since there other
> priorities.  Regardless, the community would be happy to accommodate any
> contribution in that direction.