nixstrap - declarative OS/distro bootstrapper | Operating System Development | Page 1

rotund zealot Aug 31, 2024, 7:35 PM

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https://sr.ht/~asya/nixstrap/
nixstrap is a declarative OS/distro bootstrapper that makes use of the Nix ecosystem. It's built similarly to NixOS, home-manager and other nix-based systems, except its output is not a full system or a home directory but instead bootable disk images. It is modular, and several modules are provided by nixstrap itself, such as support for bootloaders including limine. It replaces Makefiles and other build systems for OS/distros. It is bootloader- and kernel-agnostic.

nixstrap builds everything as nix derivations, in the nix sandbox. It does not need root access for building. It can (and should) be used with nix flakes, with pinned dependencies, therefore providing a lockfile for the OS and ensuring reproducibility. nixstrap allows you to have multiple configurations for your OS, so you can have any amount of pre-customized images (e.g. a linux distro could have the following configurations: aarch64-plasma riscv64-xfce x86_64-minimal...). For huge OSes with many packages and a long build time, you can spin up a nix cache server and spare your contributors hours, thanks to the reproducibility guarantee.

Here's a basic guide to how to use nixstrap for an OS with a homebrew kernel and environment:

write nix packages for user software and the kernel. (not as complex as that sounds)
enable and configure modules (such as bootloaders) that your 🫵 OS needs and nixstrap already supports. yes you heard it right 🫵 nixstrap saves you from sketchy makefiles downloading dependencies with unpinned versions suddenly breaking everything when your dependencies update.
nix build .#nixstrapConfigurations.<configuration name>.config.build.artifacts TODO: CLI tool to not have this long command
your bootable images are now ready, with your 🫵 favourite bootloader installed, your 🫵 kernel & initramfs placed in the boot partition and every other file that your 🫵 VM images and installer ISOs need placed exactly where they need to be.

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nixstrap currently supports x86_64, aarch64 & riscv64 (uefi only for all of them, for now)
limine is currently the only supported bootloader

grave skiff Aug 31, 2024, 7:43 PM

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nice

rotund zealot Aug 31, 2024, 7:44 PM

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grave skiff nice

thanks so much for all your help (and for limine 🫵

grave skiff Aug 31, 2024, 7:44 PM

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np lol

rotund zealot Aug 31, 2024, 7:44 PM

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did you like the marketing talk

grave skiff Aug 31, 2024, 7:45 PM

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sure

stark ibex Aug 31, 2024, 7:51 PM

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nice introduction lol

rotund zealot Aug 31, 2024, 7:53 PM

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thanks

stone frigate Aug 31, 2024, 8:20 PM

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does it handle patching

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and stuff

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like is it an alternative to jinx

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 6:29 AM

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stone frigate does it handle patching

that comes for free thanks to nix

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for example I had to patch the freestanding-toolchain that limine 8.0.6 uses (I think mint fixed it in master but no idea)

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this is from the limine package (built into nixstrap)

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nix defaults to certain hardening options being enabled for gcc and clang btw

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 6:36 AM

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stone frigate like is it an alternative to jinx

that's the plan yes

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it's supposed to replace any meta-build system or hell of shell scripts and makefiles that you might be using

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 10:30 AM

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WIP template https://git.sr.ht/~asya/nixstrap-limine-c-template

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nixstrap hasn't been released yet tho

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currently busy building llvm for the god-knows-how-th time

slate hollow Sep 1, 2024, 10:40 AM

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cool project.

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I might have a go at using this in the future.

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 11:07 AM

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slate hollow cool project.

thanks

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 5:24 PM

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any idea why this happens?

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it was a typo

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lol

grave skiff Sep 1, 2024, 6:35 PM

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rotund zealot for example I had to patch the `freestanding-toolchain` that limine 8.0.6 uses (...

yes i believe it should be "fixed" (wasn't really a bug but you get the point)

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 6:36 PM

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yep

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i just mean I won't need the patch on 8.0.7

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currently upstreaming my nixpkgs OVMF one-line patch

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someone introduced a regression that would make OVMF not build for riscv

grave skiff Sep 1, 2024, 6:46 PM

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really?

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it works for the nightly

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for me

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 6:47 PM

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grave skiff really?

it's a nixpkgs-specific issue

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the nixpkgs package recipe is broken

grave skiff Sep 1, 2024, 6:48 PM

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i see

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 7:19 PM

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grave skiff it works for the nightly

what does your patches to ovmf contain? I saw the resolution changes and stuff but is there anything really important that maybe I would consider including in nixstrap?

grave skiff Sep 1, 2024, 7:21 PM

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nah it's just the timeout and resolution for rv64/aarch64/loong64

rotund zealot Sep 1, 2024, 7:25 PM

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ok

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https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/338877 simplest patch ever

GitHub

OVMF: fix building for riscv64 by AsyaTheAbove · Pull Request #3388...

Description of changes
Fixes #338864. I made that issue before I noticed how easy it was to fix 🤦‍♀️ At least this became my first nixpkgs contribution.
Things done

Built on platform(s)

riscv64...

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i will upstream nixstrap's limine package after 8.0.7 is released (so I can get rid of the patch

rotund zealot Sep 2, 2024, 8:49 AM

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edk2/OVMF loongarch64 support in nixpkgs

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this was a blocker for loongarch64 in nixstrap

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the main blocker is that there is no default cross target for embedded loongarch64

rotund zealot Sep 2, 2024, 8:52 AM

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rotund zealot i will upstream nixstrap's limine package after 8.0.7 is released (so I can get ...

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/338953

GitHub

limine: 7.9.1 -> 8.0.7 by AsyaTheAbove · Pull Request #338953 · Nix...

Description of changes
The package is updated to limine 8.0.7 (changelog) and support for disabling targets has been added (as before, all targets are built by default). I've also added mys...

grave skiff Sep 2, 2024, 9:10 AM

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🎉

rotund zealot Sep 2, 2024, 12:33 PM

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<arch>-release-<hdd/iso> or <arch>-<hdd/iso>-release?

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which sounds better?

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I decided to do the rust template differently to the C template

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it's obviously not too different it's like a monorepo/not-monorepo thing

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not specific to rust

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but if I can showcase both, it would be awesome

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so let's do the rust template differently

rotund zealot Sep 4, 2024, 3:55 PM

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rust template is close to being done

rotund zealot Sep 4, 2024, 6:19 PM

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update

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rust template works and is somewhat clean

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but I need to document it

rotund zealot Sep 4, 2024, 7:06 PM

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AND IT'S UP! https://git.sr.ht/~asya/nixstrap-limine-rust-template

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still working on releasing nixstrap

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i don't think it's ready

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but I do not really have the power to finish what I want it to have

rotund zealot Sep 5, 2024, 10:22 AM

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here's a question ❓

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for people who are interested in potentially using nixstrap for their projects, what are some of your requirements?

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at least for a first release

rotund zealot Sep 6, 2024, 9:20 AM

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I'm gonna work on "runners"

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so nixstrap can do more than generate the image

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and actually run it with qemu

rotund zealot Sep 8, 2024, 10:37 AM

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I've decided to refactor (and partly rewrite) my last kernel around nixstrap

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nixstrap's release will be tightly coupled with it

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I do not think I will release nixstrap this year unless anyone else wants to use nixstrap (then I can release it earlier but it would be a bit half-baked)

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if you have name ideas for that project, tell me but I'm keeping the previous name for now

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it's gearbox

rotund zealot Sep 28, 2024, 5:53 PM

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nixpkgs' limine is updated

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one less blocker for nixstrap release

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the biggest blocker rn is the fact that this is my exam year

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also I'm a maintainer for the limine package in nixpkgs now :3

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note to self: add a way to provide extra outputs in the build artifacts

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maybe a new output so e.g. result has images and result-* has extras

grave skiff Sep 28, 2024, 10:44 PM

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rotund zealot nixpkgs' limine is updated

🎉

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thanks!

rotund zealot Sep 29, 2024, 7:28 AM

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well I did write a patch for it, but someone else improved it

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really they should be thanked

grave skiff Sep 29, 2024, 9:36 AM

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i read the github thread

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seems like someone really should open an issue to gcc to tell them they pointlessly don't support PIE on riscv-elf targets

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plus i am not sure what is going on with darwin

rotund zealot Sep 29, 2024, 9:39 AM

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i don't understand what's wrong with darwin either

grave skiff Sep 29, 2024, 9:39 AM

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though i hope that they actually listen to such bug report and don't just ignore it and sweep it under the rug

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(i have experience with that)

rotund zealot Sep 29, 2024, 7:49 PM

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limine 8.0.13 from upstream nixpkgs :3

grave skiff Sep 29, 2024, 7:49 PM

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awesome!!

rotund zealot Sep 30, 2024, 7:43 PM

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nixstrap is officially released

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I released nixstrap late yesterday

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I updated the templates today

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https://sr.ht/~asya/nixstrap

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have fun

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it would be great if some of you could test https://git.sr.ht/~asya/nixstrap-limine-c-template

grave skiff Sep 30, 2024, 7:58 PM

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very nice!

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i'll test it later maybe

rotund zealot Sep 30, 2024, 8:09 PM

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it's very easy (albeit kinda slow, but at least it's cached :3) to build it

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i think it would be faster if it wasn't on nixpkgs-unstable

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even moving it to nixos-unstable could get more cache hits but limine 8.0.13 did not hit nixos-unstable the last time I checked

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it's bootstrapping the compiler that compiles your compiler soo it's kinda ok but

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cache hits are better :3

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maybe one day they it will be on the latest stable

rotund zealot Sep 30, 2024, 8:15 PM

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rotund zealot even moving it to nixos-unstable could get more cache hits but limine 8.0.13 did...

nixpkgs-unstable = it built in hydra and the pkgs checks did not fail
nixos-unstable = it built in hydra and nixos checks did not fail so slightly more stable

sullen iron Dec 18, 2024, 11:03 PM

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rip nixstrap

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😔

rotund zealot Dec 20, 2024, 5:00 PM

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sullen iron rip nixstrap

it's not dead, I'm dead

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will return to it in uhh

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7 months or so

sullen iron Dec 20, 2024, 5:00 PM

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oki

rotund zealot Dec 20, 2024, 5:00 PM

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are you interested in it?

rotund zealot Dec 20, 2024, 5:01 PM

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rotund zealot it's not dead, I'm dead

hopefully in those 7 months I will finally get into university

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centralized entrance exam is :(

sullen iron Dec 20, 2024, 5:02 PM

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rotund zealot are you interested in it?

yes

rotund zealot Dec 20, 2024, 5:02 PM

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ok keep an eye on it

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i have plans

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i plan on dedicating my summer to osdev

rotund zealot Dec 21, 2024, 3:12 PM

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i really want to do osdev again

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can't wait for everything to be over

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hopefully nixstrap will be able to generate qemu runners when i work on it again

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and sometime i should rework the image creation to not launch guestfish 3 times because as you can guess creating 3 ephemeral linux VMs per image is sloww

rotund zealot Jan 26, 2025, 11:44 AM

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idea: nix overlay (similar to NUR) for homebrew OSes

drifting scroll Feb 2, 2025, 11:22 AM

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owo this is very interesting

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I had a similar-ish thing in mind but that never really got anywhere

rotund zealot Mar 22, 2025, 12:30 PM

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nixstrap is getting rewritten

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this time I'm dropping disk images (for now) and doing ISOs

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so no VM needed

rotund zealot Mar 22, 2025, 8:04 PM

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we're so back

digital shadow Mar 22, 2025, 9:10 PM

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🎉

rotund zealot Mar 23, 2025, 12:07 PM

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nixstrap linux is slowly becoming a thing

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I have no idea why I can't get keyboard input to work lol

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wait I need udev for that right?

rotund zealot Mar 23, 2025, 2:00 PM

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I got udev working

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no udev rules tho

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I just have a short list of kernel modules to load (not detected but always loaded) and then I start udev

rotund zealot Mar 23, 2025, 2:19 PM

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i don't like how this depends on systemd to build but thankfully it only copies udevadm from systemd (the rest is not built into the initrd

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note this is not mlibc yet

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this is glibc

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I'll add add mlibc to this after it's merged to nixpkgs

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but now building with musl for funsies

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I want to try dracut or mkinitcpio for this too, nixos' make-initrd is too tightly integrated into nixos so I have to copy everything from nixos

rotund zealot Jul 2, 2025, 6:08 PM

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will be back soon :3

rotund zealot Jul 2, 2025, 8:16 PM

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qemu runners are a thing now

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i will clean it up then release nixstrap rewrite

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this is the same rewrite as last time i was just gone for exams

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#!/nix/store/00zrahbb32nzawrmv9sjxn36h7qk9vrs-bash-5.2p37/bin/bash
exec /nix/store/w094gkcbv6w3n0c9q6ydgz73w1fx11j7-qemu-10.0.0/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -machine accel=kvm:tcg -cpu max \
  -m 4096 \
  -smp 2 \
  -cdrom /nix/store/g956mqld4079hvc34g4ryx9r48qlbaal-cd.iso-x86_64-elf/iso/cd.iso \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=/nix/store/470q0bdhxmbqnb9zgq8wfyrsc35qbcdx-OVMF-x86_64-elf-202505-fd/FV/OVMF_CODE.fd,unit=0,readonly=on \
  -device qemu-xhci \
  -device usb-kbd \
  -serial mon:stdio

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this was autogenerated by nixstrap

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cd.iso is also autogenerated by nixstrap

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{ pkgs, ... }: {
  # Timeout in seconds that Limine will use before automatically booting.
  boot.loader.timeout = 3;
  boot.loader.limine.enable = true;
  boot.entry."Limine Template" = {
    # We use the Limine boot protocol.
    protocol = "limine";
    # Path to the kernel to boot. boot():/ represents the partition on which
    # limine.conf is located.
    kernelPath = "boot():/kernel";
  };

  # This builds the kernel using ./kernel/default.nix, and places it in the ISO
  # image.
  isoImage.file."kernel".source = pkgs.callPackage ./kernel {};

  virtualisation.cores = 2;
  virtualisation.memorySize = 4096;
}

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this is the nixstrap configuration that generated them

rotund zealot Jul 6, 2025, 2:45 PM

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wow 10 stars

fading spruce Jul 6, 2025, 2:56 PM

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That’s like… over 9 stars

rotund zealot Jul 7, 2025, 9:32 AM

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I'm rewriting nixstrap-limine-rust-template for the "new" nixstrap rewrite

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i already had the c template ready

rotund zealot Jul 7, 2025, 10:01 AM

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should I add a crane (nix library for building and managing rust stuff) module to nixstrap?

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it's kinda boilerplate-y to do it right now but not impossible, but I'm not sure how exactly I'd wrap crane

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i mean a rust project would probably prefer to ship their own target jsons so I should probably not do that

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https://codeberg.org/sanana/nixstrap

Codeberg.org

nixstrap

nixstrap is a declarative OS/distro bootstrapper

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nixstrap rewrite is out

digital shadow Jul 7, 2025, 10:10 AM

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yo, nice

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also based usage of codeberg

rotund zealot Jul 7, 2025, 10:12 AM

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yea I'm not happy with sourcehut

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it's good software but I don't want to use the sourcehut instance hosted by drew devault

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i don't hate him but I don't like him either and i think it may scare away contributors

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I should probably port the NixOS assertations module

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NixOS assertos module

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fuck OVMF failed to build for aarch64

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well if it's a regression that's a free PR to nixpkgs

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let me try with the older OVMF build i used

rotund zealot Jul 15, 2025, 11:46 AM

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loongarch is working

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i had to fix nolibc support in nixpkgs

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i've probably written more nixpkgs code than nixstrap code just to get nixstrap to work

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which is good imo cuz it means this is upstreamable code - the core of nixstrap and its modules obviously cannot be upstreamed but packages and fixes can be

rotund zealot Jul 15, 2025, 7:02 PM

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proper nixstrap release (with templates) is soon

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i have some nixpkgs patches I need to be merged

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and I'm changing my email

drifting scroll Oct 5, 2025, 3:56 PM

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How's nixstrap going? :3

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(@rotund zealot)

rotund zealot Oct 5, 2025, 4:30 PM

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i took a break to start uni and move

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ill be back to nixstrap after some mlibc and nixpkgs work

nocturne comet Dec 17, 2025, 12:41 PM

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rotund zealot ill be back to nixstrap after some mlibc and nixpkgs work

Did you ever continue nixstrap?

rotund zealot Jan 5, 2026, 9:47 PM

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not yet

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finals month

rotund zealot Jan 5, 2026, 9:48 PM

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nocturne comet Did you ever continue nixstrap?

one day!! i will!!

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mlibc in nixpkgs is still not merged mostly due to me being slow

#nixstrap - declarative OS/distro bootstrapper