If you are trying to learn the operating system specific features then you will need to instal nixos, however you can learn about nixpkgs with out installing the nixos operating system. The nixpkgs package system installs on ubuntu and most other distributions and operates cleanly and orthogonally to any other package system present. This would allow you to learn the terminal commands and experiment with your own nix expressions with out having to install nixos. nixpkgs does not spread files through out the file system like most package systems so a tool like debootstrap may not be needed if you want to try out nixpkgs.
Typically this installs nix and nix/store folder at the root directory so you would need to have the correct permissions for installation. > I'd like start to learn and experiment with NixOS, in a virtualized environment. nixops makes it easy to set up a nixos instance in amazon's cloud, then when you are not experimenting with it you can just halt it so changes do not accumulate. I also have install nixos with vmware to help myself learn and this seem to work well. > Is there some tool like debootstrap for NixOS? Petr, the nix user manual has instructions to install the store in an arbitrary location with `--with-store-dir=path` and the install location can be changed with `--prefix=prefix` when using bootstrap.sh and building from source. http://nixos.org/nix/manual/#idp24488432 This would allow you to install nix in a arbitrary location. The large downside is that this is currently incompatible with taking advantage of the pre complied binaries so you would have to compile everything from scratch. If possible I would suggest letting nix install the store in the default location: /nix/store. If I was not clear or need some additional questions answer please ask I will do my best to answer them. Patrick On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 11:47 AM, Petr Pudlák <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I'm looking for something that could be automated. Some kind of a > self-contained script that automatically prepares a minimal NixOS > installation. Eventually I'd like to create OS installation scripts [1] for > Ganeti cluster management software [2]. > > [1] http://docs.ganeti.org/ganeti/current/man/ganeti-os-interface.html > [2] https://code.google.com/p/ganeti/ > > Thanks, > Petr > > > On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 3:23 PM, Thomas Bereknyei <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Would a LiveCD work for you? There a some available at >> http://nixos.org/nixos/download.html as well as some virtualbox >> appliances. >> >> On Sat, Dec 21, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Petr Pudlák <[email protected]> wrote: >> > Hi, >> > >> > I'd like start to learn and experiment with NixOS, in a virtualized >> > environment. Is there some tool like debootstrap for NixOS? Some kind >> of a >> > minimalistic script/program that downloads and unpacks the bare >> essentials >> > of NixOS, allowing it to be run in a chroot or a VM? I tried to search, >> but >> > didn't find anything. >> > >> > Thank you, >> > Petr >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > nix-dev mailing list >> > [email protected] >> > http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev >> > >> > > > _______________________________________________ > nix-dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev > > -- Patrick Wheeler [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
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