Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:42 JST Boosty Collins

   in reply to

   With the signing key set up and /etc/config.scm edited to use the normal-ass Linux kernel, you can run the overly long `guix system reconfigure` command from the blog. The command it gives is also bad advice, since it manually specifies the substitute server URLs, but they should be in config.scm. But whatever.

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:42 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     @ieure FWIW the author of the post is on fedi if you want to ask him directly; dthompson at toot.cat

     but yeah this sounds about like what I was expecting from guix; weird mix of jetsons and flintstones

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:43 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     To be fair, the manual covers this reasonably well: https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Getting-Substitutes-from-Other-Servers.html

     It seems like it's just bad advice from the blog.

     But the manual is generally very poor, so you *have* to turn to unofficial sources, and it's very difficult for a newcomer to distinguish good advice from bad.

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:44 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     The blog says to do some stuff. I do the stuff, and get this output:

     > guix archive: warning: replacing symbolic link /etc/guix/acl with a regular file
     > hint: On Guix System, add all `authorized-keys' to the `guix-service-type' service of your `operating-system' instead.

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:45 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     I'm trying to follow this thing to get Linux with firmware installed: https://www.dthompson.us/installing-guix-on-a-10th-gen-thinkpad-x1.html

     Since the manual and official support channels absolutely will not tell you how to do this or where to find the things to do it with.

     On to the next step, adding the signing key.

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:46 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     If you don't do that, then `guix describe` (which lists available channels) won't have the channel.

     I think this is because the pull upgraded some part of the OS state, but Guix works by using $PATH as a list of pointers into /gnu/store, and the guix you run isn't the new one that knows about the channel.

     but like

     This is a brand new install that used the network. Why is stuff changing two minutes after the install like this? Why isn't GUIX_PROFILE set for me already? Why does it need profiles *at all*?

     The Guix manual doesn't have an obvious thing explaining what profiles are, or why I'd want to use them, or examples of applying them. There's some stuff about them in the section on packaging (which I don't care about yet).

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:46 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     The "Getting Started" thing has the seemingly most relevant section on profiles: https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/guix.html#Getting-Started

     But it says "Unless you’re using Guix System, the guix install command must have printed this hint..."

     But I *am* using Guix System and it printed that. Is my install broken? Is the manual wrong? I have literally no idea.

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:47 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     After you add a channel, you run `guix pull`, which fetches stuff from that channel, but also upgrades packages that are currently installed. Seems convenient, I have a thing that does an apt update && apt upgrade which I use a bunch.

     but

     Sometimes -- not all the time, and I don't know why! -- it prints this out:

     > hint: Consider setting the necessary environment variables by running:
     >
     > GUIX_PROFILE="$HOME/.guix-profile"
     > . "$GUIX_PROFILE/etc/profile"
     >
     > Alternately, see `guix package --search-paths -p "$HOME/.guix-profile"'.

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:48 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     Making the situation even more bizarre, the config.scm is what creates the user accounts on the system. So bootstrapping a system with a normal Linux kernel means you make a config.scm with the linux-libre kernel and some user, then configure that user's channels (by plopping a file into ~/.config/guix/channels.scm), then editing config.scm, then reconfiguring the system as that user.

     This feels completely bizarre. Why not have system channels and do it all in one go?

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:48 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     (If someone has an answer or link to documentation explaining the rationale for any of this, I'd really like to know.)

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:49 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     Okay, so this thing is installed.

     Something I have never understood about #guix is:

     You configure your system with /etc/config.scm. If you want software that doesn't come with Guix proper (like drivers for your hardware), that has to come from a "channel," which is the Guix thing akin to a package repo in other distros. But on Guix, channels are per-user instead of whole-system. As far as I can tell, there simply is no support for channels that apply to the whole system.

     Which means the exact same config.scm will work or fail based on which user tries to use it.

     That feels incredibly wrong to me, and I can't find any rationale for why it works like this.

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:50 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     And we're off!

     Guix: you absolutely cannot have firmware blobs, gtfo
     Also Guix: the installer requires internet access

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:50 JST Boosty Collins

     in reply to

     As much shit as I (rightly) give Guix, having an option to install an Emacs/EXWM environment right in the installer is a a thing I appreciate, which has a 0% chance of happening in any other distro.

   • Embed this notice
     Boosty Collins (ieure@retro.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-Jun-2023 07:01:51 JST Boosty Collins

     I decided I haven't been computermad enough, so I'm once again trying to make an actually usable Guix setup.