I have a flake-based NixOS system running. I have created a new host entry ssd to facilitate creating bootable USB devices. Using disko (fraught with poor documentation perils) to create a luks+btrfs system:
nix --extra-experimental-features 'nix-command flakes' run github:nix-community/disko -- --mode zap_create_mount /home/dap/.nixos/nixos/ssd/disko-config.nix --arg disks '[ "/dev/sdg" ]'
This works fine:
sdg 8:96 1 57.8G 0 disk
├─sdg1 8:97 1 512M 0 part /mnt/boot
└─sdg2 8:98 1 57.3G 0 part
└─crypted 254:6 0 57.3G 0 crypt /mnt/var/log
/mnt/persist
/mnt/nix
/mnt/home
/mnt
Next:
nixos-generate-config --no-filesystems --root /mnt
followed by:
nixos-install --no-root-password --flake ~dap/.nixos#ssd -v --cores 0
This fails with:
% sudo nixos-install --no-root-password --flake ~dap/.nixos#ssd -v --cores 0
warning: Git tree '/home/dap/.nixos' is dirty
building the flake in git+file:///home/dap/.nixos...
warning: Git tree '/home/dap/.nixos' is dirty
these 12 derivations will be built:
/nix/store/f21v0vjn51x6f5rzymi5vcp4c2ajfzx6-system-path.drv
(... elided ...)
building '/nix/store/4ms17a4j5359ygbiap9qzsby0w8qkvi0-nixos-system-ssd-23.05.20231007.5a237ae.drv'...
installing the boot loader...
setting up /etc...
No filesystem found on "/dev/sdg1": No such device
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/nix/store/lv4wbkqnz0apyj3g24sqwrp3ivs5hlzh-systemd-boot", line 341, in <module>
main()
File "/nix/store/lv4wbkqnz0apyj3g24sqwrp3ivs5hlzh-systemd-boot", line 258, in main
subprocess.check_call(["/nix/store/9gzw98jc64qkwd17a6qqm63w25zysi57-systemd-253.6/bin/bootctl", "--esp-path=/boot"] + bootctl_flags + ["install"])
File "/nix/store/bc45k1n0pkrdkr3xa6w84w1xhkl1kkyp-python3-3.10.12/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py", line 369, in check_call
raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['/nix/store/9gzw98jc64qkwd17a6qqm63w25zysi57-systemd-253.6/bin/bootctl', '--esp-path=/boot', 'install']' returned non-zero exit status 1.
installation finished!
The ssd config pulls in the disko config:
cat disko-config.nix
{ disks ? [ "/dev/disk/by-id/usb-Samsung_Portable_SSD_T5_12345681C1BA-0:0" ], ... }: {
disko.devices = {
disk = {
vdb = {
type = "disk";
device = builtins.elemAt disks 0; # "/dev/disk/by-id/usb-Samsung_Portable_SSD_T5_12345681C1BA-0:0";
content = {
type = "gpt";
partitions = {
ESP = {
size = "512M";
type = "EF00";
content = {
type = "filesystem";
format = "vfat";
mountpoint = "/boot";
mountOptions = [
"defaults"
];
};
};
luks = {
size = "100%";
content = {
type = "luks";
name = "crypted";
extraOpenArgs = [ "--allow-discards" ];
# if you want to use the key for interactive login be sure there is no trailing newline
# for example use `echo -n "password" > /tmp/secret.key`
#passwordFile = "/tmp/secret.key"; # Interactive
# settings.keyFile = "/tmp/secret.key";
# additionalKeyFiles = [ "/tmp/additionalSecret.key" ];
content = {
type = "btrfs";
extraArgs = [ "-f" ];
subvolumes = {
"@" = {
mountOptions = [ "compress=zstd" "noatime" ];
};
"@/root" = {
mountpoint = "/";
mountOptions = [ "compress=zstd" "noatime" ];
};
# Mountpoints inferred from subvolume name
"@/home" = {
mountpoint = "/home";
mountOptions = [ "compress=zstd" ];
};
"@/nix" = {
mountpoint = "/nix";
mountOptions = [ "compress=zstd" "noatime" ];
};
"@/persist" = {
mountpoint = "/persist";
mountOptions = [ "compress=zstd" "noatime" ];
};
"@/log" = {
mountpoint = "/var/log";
mountOptions = [ "compress=zstd" "noatime" ];
};
};
};
};
};
};
};
};
};
};
}
I (just!) found out how to chroot into the nascent system.
% sudo nixos-enter --root /mnt
setting up /etc...
[root@ssd:/]# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /
/dev/sdg1 523248 4 523244 1% /boot
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /home
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /nix
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /persist
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /var/log
devtmpfs 3276416 0 3276416 0% /dev
tmpfs 32764124 524 32763600 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 16382064 9792 16372272 1% /etc/resolv.conf
tmpfs 16382064 0 16382064 0% /run
tmpfs 32764124 504 32763620 1% /run/wrappers
See if I can see wot’s wot:
[root@ssd:/]# ls /boot
[root@ssd:/]# bootctl --esp-path=/boot 'install'
No filesystem found on "/dev/sdg1": No such device
[root@ssd:/]# blkid /dev/sdg
/dev/sdg: PTUUID="5d7eb531-b790-49b7-bc49-26e120eab6b7" PTTYPE="gpt"
[root@ssd:/]# blkid /dev/sdg1
/dev/sdg1: PARTLABEL="disk-vdb-ESP" PARTUUID="1d855595-9c59-4861-a528-0c0b24f9ca3d"
[root@ssd:/]# df /boot
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdg1 523248 4 523244 1% /boot
The chrooted system can access sdg:
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdg1 2048 1050623 1048576 512M EFI System
/dev/sdg2 1050624 121305087 120254464 57.3G Linux filesystem
I can strace! The last few operations prior to failure were rummaging about in:
[root@ssd:/]# ls -l /sys/dev/block/8:96
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 /sys/dev/block/8:96 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-4/2-4.1/2-4.1.2/2-4.1.2:1.0/host12/target12:0:0/12:0:0:0/block/sdg
[root@ssd:/]# ls -l /sys/dev/block/8:96/dm/uuid
ls: cannot access '/sys/dev/block/8:96/dm/uuid': No such file or directory
[root@ssd:/]# ls -l /sys/dev/block/8:96/.
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:08 alignment_offset
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 bdi -> ../../../../../../../../../../../../virtual/bdi/8:96
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 capability
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:00 dev
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 device -> ../../../12:0:0:0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 discard_alignment
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 diskseq
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 events
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 events_async
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 events_poll_msecs
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 ext_range
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:00 hidden
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 holders
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 inflight
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 integrity
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 mq
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 power
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 queue
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 range
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:00 removable
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:00 ro
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 sdg1
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 sdg2
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:00 size
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 slaves
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:14 stat
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 subsystem -> ../../../../../../../../../../../../../class/block
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Oct 27 17:00 trace
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Oct 27 17:08 uevent
It read size and start and decided to abandon:
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/sys/dev/block/8:97", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 5
openat(5, "size", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 6
fcntl(6, F_GETFL) = 0x8000 (flags O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE)
newfstatat(6, "", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0444, st_size=4096, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
read(6, "1048576\n", 4096) = 8
close(6) = 0
openat(5, "start", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 6
fcntl(6, F_GETFL) = 0x8000 (flags O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE)
newfstatat(6, "", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0444, st_size=4096, ...}, AT_EMPTY_PATH) = 0
read(6, "2048\n", 4096) = 5
close(6) = 0
close(5) = 0
writev(2, [{iov_base="No filesystem found on \"/dev/sdg"..., iov_len=50}, {iov_base="\n", iov_len=1}], 2No filesystem found on "/dev/sdg1": No such device
Rather poor choice of error to claim.
Perhaps I need to retry with a larger EFI partition?
Actually, all I did was exit the chroot, and:
% sudo umount /mnt/boot
┌──(dap 💀 z8)-[/mnt/…/nixos/.nixos/nixos/ssd]
└─% sudo mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdg1
mkfs.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
┌──(dap 💀 z8)-[/mnt/…/nixos/.nixos/nixos/ssd]
└─% sudo mount /dev/sdg1 /mnt/boot
┌──(dap 💀 z8)-[/mnt/…/nixos/.nixos/nixos/ssd]
└─% sudo nixos-enter --root /mnt
setting up /etc...
[root@ssd:/]# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /home
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /nix
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /persist
/dev/mapper/crypted 60110848 8566768 50117376 15% /var/log
/dev/sdg1 523248 4 523244 1% /boot
devtmpfs 3276416 0 3276416 0% /dev
tmpfs 32764124 524 32763600 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 16382064 9792 16372272 1% /etc/resolv.conf
tmpfs 16382064 0 16382064 0% /run
tmpfs 32764124 504 32763620 1% /run/wrappers
[root@ssd:/]# ls -l /boot
total 0
[root@ssd:/]# bootctl install
Created "/boot/EFI".
Created "/boot/EFI/systemd".
Created "/boot/EFI/BOOT".
Created "/boot/loader".
Created "/boot/loader/entries".
Created "/boot/EFI/Linux".
Copied "/nix/store/9gzw98jc64qkwd17a6qqm63w25zysi57-systemd-253.6/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi" to "/boot/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi".
Copied "/nix/store/9gzw98jc64qkwd17a6qqm63w25zysi57-systemd-253.6/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi" to "/boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI".
Random seed file /boot/loader/random-seed successfully written (32 bytes).
Created EFI boot entry "Linux Boot Manager".
Thanks for all your help!