.github | ||
docs | ||
src | ||
tests | ||
.envrc | ||
.gitignore | ||
bors.toml | ||
flake.lock | ||
flake.nix | ||
LICENSE | ||
README.md |
nixos-remote - install nixos everywhere via ssh
nixos-remote makes it possible to install nixos from Linux machines reachable via ssh. Under the hood uses a kexec image to boot into a NixOS installer from a running Linux system. It then uses disko to partition and format the disks on the target system before it installs the user provided nixos configuration.
Requirements
- x86_64 Linux system with kexec support (most x86_64 machine do have kexec support)
- At least 2.5GB RAM (swap does not count). If you do not have enough RAM you will see failures unpacking the initrd), this is because kexec needs to load the whole nixos into memory.
Usage
Needs a repo with your configurations with flakes. For a minimal example checkout https://github.com/numtide/nixos-remote-examples.
Your NixOS configuration will also need a disko configuration as we can see in our example
Afterwards you can just run:
nix run github:numtide/nixos-remote -- root@yourip --flake github:your-user/your-repo#your-system
The parameter passed to --flake
should point to your nixos configuration
exposed in your flake (nixosConfigurations.your-system
in the example above).
nixos-remote --help
Usage: nixos-remote [options] ssh-host
Options:
* -f, --flake flake
set the flake to install the system from
* -L, --print-build-logs
print full build logs
* -s, --store-paths
set the store paths to the disko-script and nixos-system directly
if this is give, flake is not needed
* --no-ssh-copy
skip copying ssh-keys to target system
* --no-reboot
do not reboot after installation, allowing further customization of the target installation.
* --kexec url
use another kexec tarball to bootstrap NixOS
* --stop-after-disko
exit after disko formating, you can then proceed to install manually or some other way
* --extra-files files
files to copy into the new nixos installation
* --disk-encryption-keys remote_path local_path
copy the contents of the file or pipe in local_path to remote_path in the installer environment,
after kexec but before installation. Can be repeated.
* --debug
enable debug output
Using your own kexec image
By default nixos-remote
will download the kexec image from here.
It is also possible to provide your own by providing a file to --kexec
. The image will than uploaded prior to executing.
nixos-remote \
--kexec "$(nix build --print-out-paths github:nix-community/nixos-images#packages.x86_64-linux.kexec-installer-nixos-unstable)/nixos-kexec-installer-x86_64-linux.tar.gz" \
--flake 'github:your-user/your-repo#your-system' \
root@yourip
--kexec
can be useful for example for aarch64-linux, where there is no
pre-build image. The following example assumes that your local machine can
build for aarch64-linux either natively or through a remote builder
nixos-remote \
--kexec "$(nix build --print-out-paths github:nix-community/nixos-images#packages.aarch64-linux.kexec-installer-nixos-unstable)/nixos-kexec-installer-aarch64-linux.tar.gz" \
--flake 'your-flake#your-system' \
root@yourip
Developer guide
To run nixos-remote
from the repo:
nix run . -- --help
To format the code
nix fmt