From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" Subject: Re: wip blog post: running Guix System on ARM Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2019 12:05:34 +0100 Message-ID: <20191114110534.2xnprzfpkh24s4xq@pelzflorian.localdomain> References: <20191113222154.6eb6a78c@sybil.lepiller.eu> <87k182g619.fsf@ambrevar.xyz> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:56925) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1iVCwU-0005xv-91 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Nov 2019 06:05:43 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iVCwT-00021i-0H for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Nov 2019 06:05:38 -0500 Received: from pelzflorian.de ([5.45.111.108]:42166 helo=mail.pelzflorian.de) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iVCwS-000217-Gw for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Nov 2019 06:05:36 -0500 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87k182g619.fsf@ambrevar.xyz> List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Pierre Neidhardt Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 10:29:22AM +0100, Pierre Neidhardt wrote: > Neat, thanks for this article! >=20 Yes, thank you! I have not tried yet though. Maybe add the top add instructions what to do if installation fails (i.e. flash the SD with another operating system and start anew). > > Make sure there is an empty /etc, or the new system won't boot > > properly. >=20 > Isn't this a bug in Guix? >=20 >=20 Is installing on the same drive an =E2=80=9Cofficial=E2=80=9D installatio= n method? I mean, it probably works and people can ask for help after using it, but remaining files from the old system could be problematic. If this is dangerous (is it?) then please add a warning. Also, I wonder: On Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 10:21:54PM +0100, Julien Lepiller wrote: > Then, initialize the system with: >=20 > ```bash > mount /dev/sda1 /mnt > mkdir /mnt/etc > $EDITOR /mnt/etc/config.scm # create the configuration file > guix system init /mnt/etc/config.scm /mnt > ``` So the mmcblk you install on is different from the running system=E2=80=99= s mmcblk, otherwise how could you keep your old system=E2=80=99s SD card? Then the mmcblk device number will change on the running Guix System and the config.scm will have to be adapted to use the mmcblk before reconfiguring from the installed Guix System. Otherwise if you install on the same mmcblk as the running system, then maybe this could fail if the u-boot partition is too small? That would leave both the existing operating system and the new Guix System unusable. Maybe there should be more of a warning. > ### The bootloader >=20 > Because of the way the Guix System is designed, you cannot use an alrea= dy existing bootloader > to boot your system: it wouldn't know where to look for the kernel, bec= ause it doesn't know > its store path. It wouldn't be able to let you boot older generations = either. Most boards > use the u-boot bootloader, so we will focus on that bootloader here. More generally, since no old Guix generation can be selected in pure u-boot when booting (I think) this warrants more of a warning that one important feature of Guix is missing. For later: What would a rescue of a broken Guix System look like? I do not know if all this works better with grub-efi on supported ARM systems; I have never tried. For later, maybe in the manual: Maybe it would be interesting how to create a reusable SD install image for Guix. I also remember there were discussions about making ci.guix.gnu.org build a two-part bootable installation image in the past, one part with a bootloader for a specific board and another part general for all boards. Regards, Florian