Dualboot NixOS with Arch

Sparsetacus · December 31, 2023, 6:38pm

Hi there,

I tried to install NixOS beside archlinux and the installation failed when it comes to grub.

So basically, here is what I did (I created my partitions before with gparted) :

mounting /root : mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mounting /home : mkdir -p /mnt/home and mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home
mounting /boot : mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi and mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi where /dev/sda1 is the initial boot partition of my arch.
generate the config file : nixos-generate-config --root /mnt
edit the config file

In the latter I changed :

# Use the systemd-boot EFI boot loader.
# boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
boot.loader.grub.device = "nodev";
boot.loader.grub.efiSupport = true;
boot.loader.grub.useOSProber = true;

[After a 1st nixos-install I also had an issue with boot.loader.grub.devices = /dev/sda so I had to remove it. It was redundant with boot.loader.grub.device = "nodev"; thanks to the output error.]

I also uncommented time.timeZone and i18n.defaultLocale.

And then nixos-install and it failed at/or after grub install. As it was blocked on an ERROR message, I ended up the process.

Concerning grub, is there something to do with the hardware-configuration.nix file like here for the Keeping kernels/initrd on the main partition case ?

In my generated hardware-configuration.nix, the fileSystems."/boot/efi" has the right UUID, and point to /dev/sda1.

Other idea : should I add boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true; in the nix config file ?

octomancer · January 1, 2024, 10:23am

Hi,

I don’t know how to solve your specific problem, however I have Fedora, Kali and Nixos installed on the same SSD and may have some useful info for you.

Fedora was installed first, it set up its UEFI stuff in a separate /boot partition. Kali was next and it managed to use the same boot partition as Fedora without me doing anything. It did replace the Fedora GRUB on the MBR, but I used UEFI boot to boot into Fedora and re-installed its GRUB, which then picked up the Kali install and added boot entries for it.

When it came to Nixos, I didn’t change it from the default systemd boot and this mandated that I had to give it its own /boot partition. The Fedora GRUB didn’t pick up Nixos, but I manually added an entry to chainload the Nixos systemd bootloader.

If you don’t mind giving Nixos its own /boot partition (it’s only 1GB) then this would probably work for you too.

Cheers,
Rich

Sparsetacus · January 1, 2024, 12:37pm

Hi Rich,

thank you for your answer/solution !

Nevertheless I would like to have a clean full-GRUB install. I did it once with windows and it worked. But I don’t remember how exactly I did…

Just few questions on your solution :

I guess you used the graphic installer of Kali and made an install alongside. To re-install your GRUB with fedora you just did grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg in fedora ?
How do you manage to add an entry of the NixOS systemd-boot entry to the GRUB of fedora ? I did try to install NixOS with the graphic installer and it does not let you the choice and use systemd-boot. I tried to changed it to GRUB but I broke everything… I don’t know which one is best but I am more used to GRUB.

octomancer · January 1, 2024, 2:33pm

Hi,

Re-installing the Fedora GRUB on the MBR was a bit of a hassle. When I tried to use the command, it complained about a missing UEFI file. I eventually found out what I had to install and so how it went was:

$ dnf install grub2-efi-x64-modules-1:2.06-100.fc39.noarch
$ grub2-install --force /dev/nvme1n1
$ grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
$ grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

!!! Adjust the device in the second line !!!

For the GRUB entry to chain Nixos, I created a file /etc/grub.d/25_nixos:

[root@nixos:/mnt/fedora/etc/grub.d]# cat 25_nixos 
#!/usr/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.

# The Nixos boot loader
menuentry "Nixos" {
  insmod chain
  insmod fat
  insmod part_gpt
  search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid 3897-22B3
  chainloader (${root})/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi
}

You will need to find the UUID of your Nixos boot partition, /dev/disk/by-* are your friends, as are blkid and lsblk.

HTH

EDIT: I’m also much more used to GRUB, this is my first time using a systemd bootloader. But if Nixos makes it difficult to use GRUB, I can put up with it. Everything else is booted from the Fedora GRUB, including Windows on the other SSD so

I can’t quite remember what sort of Kali install it was, but it might well have been install alongside. I just gave it a 100GB btrfs partition to do what it wanted with and it happily used the /boot partition created by Fedora without breaking anything.

Sparsetacus · January 1, 2024, 4:03pm

Thanks again for your answer. But it seems a bit too sinuous for me…

But if Nixos makes it difficult to use GRUB, I can put up with it.

I don’t think it makes it difficult. It is just a matter of choice. Using GRUB is totally possible. Just need to find how.

octomancer · January 1, 2024, 5:09pm

Thanks again for your answer. But it seems a bit too sinuous for me…

But if Nixos makes it difficult to use GRUB, I can put up with it.

I don’t think it makes it difficult. It is just a matter of choice. Using GRUB is totally possible. Just need to find how.

I just have other fish to fry. Like face login Good luck.

Sparsetacus · January 2, 2024, 9:28am

So I tried again the install with the following config file :

# Edit this configuration file to define what should be installed on
# your system. Help is available in the configuration.nix(5) man page, on
# https://search.nixos.org/options and in the NixOS manual (`nixos-help`).

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:

{
  imports =
    [ # Include the results of the hardware scan.
      ./hardware-configuration.nix
    ];

  # Use the systemd-boot EFI boot loader.
  # boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
  boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
  boot.loader.grub.device = "nodev";
  boot.loader.grub.efiSupport = true;
  boot.loader.grub.useOSProber = true;

  # networking.hostName = "nixos"; # Define your hostname.
  # Pick only one of the below networking options.
  # networking.wireless.enable = true;  # Enables wireless support via wpa_supplicant.
  networking.networkmanager.enable = true;  # Easiest to use and most distros use this by default.

  # Set your time zone.
  time.timeZone = "Europe/Paris";

  # Configure network proxy if necessary
  # networking.proxy.default = "http://user:password@proxy:port/";
  # networking.proxy.noProxy = "127.0.0.1,localhost,internal.domain";

  # Select internationalisation properties.
  i18n.defaultLocale = "fr_FR.UTF-8";
  # console = {
  #   font = "Lat2-Terminus16";
  #   keyMap = "us";
  #   useXkbConfig = true; # use xkb.options in tty.
  # };

  # Enable the X11 windowing system.
  # services.xserver.enable = true;


  

  # Configure keymap in X11
  # services.xserver.xkb.layout = "us";
  # services.xserver.xkb.options = "eurosign:e,caps:escape";

  # Enable CUPS to print documents.
  # services.printing.enable = true;

  # Enable sound.
  # sound.enable = true;
  # hardware.pulseaudio.enable = true;

  # Enable touchpad support (enabled default in most desktopManager).
  # services.xserver.libinput.enable = true;

  # Define a user account. Don't forget to set a password with ‘passwd’.
  users.users.toto = {
    isNormalUser = true;
    extraGroups = [ "wheel" ]; # Enable ‘sudo’ for the user.
    packages = with pkgs; [
      firefox
      git
    ];
  };

  # List packages installed in system profile. To search, run:
  # $ nix search wget
  # environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
  #   vim # Do not forget to add an editor to edit configuration.nix! The Nano editor is also installed by default.
  #   wget
  # ];

  # Some programs need SUID wrappers, can be configured further or are
  # started in user sessions.
  # programs.mtr.enable = true;
  # programs.gnupg.agent = {
  #   enable = true;
  #   enableSSHSupport = true;
  # };

  # List services that you want to enable:

  # Enable the OpenSSH daemon.
  # services.openssh.enable = true;

  # Open ports in the firewall.
  # networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ ... ];
  # networking.firewall.allowedUDPPorts = [ ... ];
  # Or disable the firewall altogether.
  # networking.firewall.enable = false;

  
  # For more information, see `man configuration.nix` or https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/options#opt-system.stateVersion .
  system.stateVersion = "23.11"; # Did you read the comment?

}

The difference for boot options is that I add boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;

And I still have the same error after GRUB : ERROR : mkdir /var/lock/dmraid.

Any idea ?

Sparsetacus · January 2, 2024, 5:32pm

I also tried with boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda"; with no more success. Same error.

Sparsetacus · January 3, 2024, 10:51am

I also tried with boot.loader.grub.enable = true; with no more success. Same error.

Sparsetacus · January 3, 2024, 11:00am

To be completely precise : I try to install NixOS beside Arch on an external SSD. I have already Win11 on the nvme main pc drive. Dualboot Arch/Win11 with GRUB.

Sparsetacus · January 3, 2024, 4:52pm

The problem comes from GRUB apparently.

What if I do not use a boot loader ? Will my arch GRUB could still detect Nix ?

This thing is driving me crazy.

Sparsetacus · January 7, 2024, 4:48pm

According to the documentation, it does not seem to be possible with GRUB :

With GRUB, set boot.loader.grub.useOSProber to true, but this will only detect windows partitions, not other Linux distributions. If you dual boot another Linux distribution, use systemd-boot instead.