Re: Best base system for Guix

["pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian@pelzflorian.de>]

Hello Alexander.  I’m glad booting works.

On Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 04:16:17PM +0100, Alexander Asteroth wrote:
> I created a second EFI partition for
> the guix grub (to be sure it doesn't make my Debian installation
> unbootable)

Debian and Guix can share an EFI system partition, otherwise I’m not
sure if dual boot is possible.  Except probably with (menu-entry …).


> Of course now the next issues arise, like "how do I configure postfix
> under guix"

If you want Postfix to run an e-mail server: Is this on a VPS, so you
have a static IP?

AFAIK there is not yet a postfix service for Guix, only Exim and
OpenSMTPd.  But maybe someone has written a Guix channel for Postfix
outside the main Guix repo.

I’m not sure, but maybe it would be better to configure Postfix with
traditional configuration files and only start it automatically on
boot with a custom Shepherd service (see the syslogd example at
`info "(guix) Shepherd Services"`).  Or imitate the Exim service in
the Guix repo.



> and what is the right way to make my keyboard layout known
> to the system (so far I have added a few lines (a variant) to the
> /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us file, wich is now hidden somewhere in the
> guix-store)?

You need to change the value of (keyboard-layout …) in your operating
system configuration (by default /etc/config.scm).

See the examples at `info "(guix) Keyboard Layouts"`.



> Guix configuration is really very different from other
> *ix'es. Are packages configurable at all without writing scheme-modules
> for them? An where would this configuration go?

In Scheme code in your operating system configuration
(/etc/config.scm) or in your package manifest, you can add your own
package records in-place or you can use a module in which you defined
them.  It is probably best to look at the packages in the Guix repo.
For example you can use the command `guix edit hello` to look at GNU
Hello’s package.  The Guix cookbook contains a packaging tutorial.



> Is everything hidden in
> some directories in the gnu store?

Yes, kind of.  Guix manages the directories /gnu, /var/guix,
~/.config/guix and on Guix System a few more like /run/current-system.

Regards,
Florian