Re: installing a mirror for offline installation

[Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>]

Quiliro <quiliro@riseup.net> writes:

> I finally could install bare-bones.scm GuixSD working machine. Now i
> am interested in installing a mirror [of hydra] for offline
> installation. There is no telecommunications where I live. So I could
> bring the server to download substitutes and then take it back to my
> network for local download. I was told that an nginx mirror of hydra
> would cache only substitutes after they have been requested through
> it.

This is a little complicated.  We build software continuously with
Hydra, so what you want would only really work for one particular
version of Guix.

Hydra provides binaries not only for a single version of Guix, so you
cannot just copy everything.  What you *can* do, however, is this:

* provision a portable computer with lots of disk space

* check out the version of Guix you plan to install elsewhere

* build *every* package that you know you will need at the remote site.
  (This could be done by building a system configuration, for example.)
  This will lead to every needed store item to be in your local
  /gnu/store.  Note that you don’t have to build everything from source;
  you can download substitutes for most things.

* set up “guix publish” to share items from your store with others.
  Also make sure to export your local key and authorize it on the
  machines that should install Guix “offline”.

* On the machines that are to be installed override the substitute
  server to be the local address of your portable computer running “guix
  publish”.  This could be a local IP address.

* Make sure that the machines use the exact same version of Guix,
  e.g. the latest release.

As the machines are installed they will download substitutes from the
portable computer instead of trying to go online to talk to hydra.
Since the portable computer has all needed binaries in its store,
nothing has to be built from source.

All you need for this on the remote offline site is a LAN where your
portable computer acts as a substitute server.

Does this make sense?

--
Ricardo

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