# How to build a standalone NixOS QEMU VM?

**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-build-a-standalone-nixos-qemu-vm/5688
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [January 30, 2020, 11:04am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-build-a-standalone-nixos-qemu-vm/5688 "2020-01-30T11:04:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 4

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### Author: ![573](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/573/32/2640_2.png) [@573](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/573)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2020, 9:55am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-build-a-standalone-nixos-qemu-vm/5688/4 "2020-07-13T09:55:35Z")

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Hi @eonpatapon, how would I do this interactively (to put it in @gesturbjarkason’s script) ?  
Right now I have

```auto
nix-build '<nixpkgs/nixos>' - <<'EOF'
(import <nixpkgs/nixos/lib/make-disk-image.nix> {
    inherit lib config;
    pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { inherit (pkgs) system; };
    diskSize = 10240;
    format = "qcow2";
}).system.build.qcow2
EOF

```

but get

> error: undefined variable ‘lib’ at (string):1:50

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