nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[jgart]

Hi Guixers,

How can we make it easier to install nix with guix on a foreign distro?

Guix System has a nix-service-type but there is no such thing on Debian.

wdyt

Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[Maxime Devos]

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On 26-07-2022 08:00, jgart wrote:

> Hi Guixers,
>
> How can we make it easier to install nix with guix on a foreign distro?
>
> Guix System has a nix-service-type but there is no such thing on Debian.
>
> wdyt

This sounds like a question for Nix or Debian people to me, as AFAICT it 
doesn't concern Guix.

Greetings,
Maxime.


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nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[Nathan Dehnel]

I just installed the nix package provided by the host distro (not
guix). Seems to work fine.

Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[jgart]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2022 16:16:58 -0500 Nathan Dehnel <ncdehnel@gmail.com> wrote:
> I just installed the nix package provided by the host distro (not
> guix). Seems to work fine.

Hi Nathan,

I've done that plenty of times before. That's usually how I install nix
on a foreign distro (i.e. by using apt or xbps (void linux), etc.)

What I'm asking about here is making it easy to install nix with guix on a foreign distro.

Currently, I can do the following on a foreign distro:

`guix install nix`

But the above will not set up the daemon service and create the build users, etc...

So, currently I'm not sure how we should go about supporting that on a foreign distro...

wdyt,

jgart

Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[jgart]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2022 12:10:22 +0200 Maxime Devos <maximedevos@telenet.be> wrote:
> On 26-07-2022 08:00, jgart wrote:
> 
> > Hi Guixers,
> >
> > How can we make it easier to install nix with guix on a foreign distro?
> >
> > Guix System has a nix-service-type but there is no such thing on Debian.
> >
> > wdyt
> 
> This sounds like a question for Nix or Debian people to me, as AFAICT it 
> doesn't concern Guix.

What do you think Debian people should be providing to make it easier to run the guix installed nix package?

Or, what should I ask the Debian people if I decide to inquire with them?

all best,

jgart

Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[Julien Lepiller]

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It's a common limitation of packages that provide a server. Guix doesn't manage daemons on foreign distros, it's the role of your distro.

You might be able to set it up by installing as root, maybe manually copy the systemd service and hope that's enough. We can't support all methods of running daemons there exist on foreign distros, so you're on your own.

Le 27 juillet 2022 00:49:07 GMT+02:00, jgart <jgart@dismail.de> a écrit :
>On Tue, 26 Jul 2022 16:16:58 -0500 Nathan Dehnel <ncdehnel@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I just installed the nix package provided by the host distro (not
>> guix). Seems to work fine.
>
>Hi Nathan,
>
>I've done that plenty of times before. That's usually how I install nix
>on a foreign distro (i.e. by using apt or xbps (void linux), etc.)
>
>What I'm asking about here is making it easy to install nix with guix on a foreign distro.
>
>Currently, I can do the following on a foreign distro:
>
>`guix install nix`
>
>But the above will not set up the daemon service and create the build users, etc...
>
>So, currently I'm not sure how we should go about supporting that on a foreign distro...
>
>wdyt,
>
>jgart
>

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Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[Maxime Devos]

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On 27-07-2022 00:50, jgart wrote:
> What do you think Debian people should be providing to make it easier to run the guix installed nix package?
> 
> Or, what should I ask the Debian people if I decide to inquire with them?
> 
> all best,

Right, you want to install "nix" (a distro) with "guix" (a distro) on 
$FOREIGN_DISTRO (a distro) (let's assume Debian).

My answer is: why not install nix on $FOREIGN_DISTRO directly?  There 
appears to be a nice Debian package already
<https://packages.debian.org/sid/nix-bin> (at least, I assume it is 
nice, I've never used nix).

I mean, this is service stuff, not just an application.  In theory I 
suppose that, with lots of work, Guix could support some kind of 
'foreign services', but I think you'll be better off (less effort, 
better integration) with installing the service directly, with 
$FOREIGN_DISTRO when available.

Worse, this is not just a service, but a distro.  You would be putting a 
distro inside a distro inside a distro ... that's too much nesting, at 
least for me.  Sounds interesting to observe from a distance though ...

Now I notice I haven't actually answered your question ... Let's say, 
they shouldn't be providing to make that use case easier -- if they 
really want to, then they can decide to do so, but see the stuff above, 
would the effort be worth it?

Greetings,
Maxime

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Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[jgart]

On Sat, 10 Sep 2022 02:45:46 +0200 Maxime Devos <maximedevos@telenet.be> wrote:
> Worse, this is not just a service, but a distro.  

I mean that I want to run nix, the package manager, not the distro.

Nix suffers from the holy trinity #~problem unlike Guix.

#$ https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/watch?v=qjq2wVEpSsA

Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[zimoun]

Hi,

On Tue, 26 Jul 2022 at 01:00, jgart <jgart@dismail.de> wrote:

> How can we make it easier to install nix with guix on a foreign distro?

Well, I think you need to manage some stuff by yourself.

For example, write the nix-daemon service for starting/stopping; it
depends on your distribution and it is probably some Systemd files.
Give a look at etc/guix-daemon.service for inspiration.

You also probably need to set the Nix store.

Maybe it is possible to share the daemon and/or the store with your
Guix; but I do not know if it would just work out of the box.


Cheers,
simon

Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[Maxime Devos]

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On 10-09-2022 04:02, jgart wrote:
> On Sat, 10 Sep 2022 02:45:46 +0200 Maxime Devos<maximedevos@telenet.be>  wrote:
>> Worse, this is not just a service, but a distro.
> I mean that I want to run nix, the package manager, not the distro.
> 
> Nix suffers from the holy trinity #~problem unlike Guix.
> 
> #$https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/watch?v=qjq2wVEpSsA

Nix comes with lots of packages, making it a distro.
Similarly to how you can install guix (distro) on top of a 'foreign 
distro' (e.g. Debian).

Greetings,
Maxime.

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Re: nix installed with guix on a foreign distro

[jgart]

On Sat, 10 Sep 2022 02:45:46 +0200 Maxime Devos <maximedevos@telenet.be> wrote:
> would the effort be worth it?

This was more of a "I was just curious if I could get it to run" but yes
I agree on the effort not being worth it.

I'd rather spend my time working on something else.