nix flakes 4: WSL #3
|
|
@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ nix = {
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Then rebuild your system and you can continue along with the article.
|
Then rebuild your system and you can continue along with the article.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">EDIT: You can use WSL for this. See
|
||||||
|
[here](/blog/nix-flakes-4-wsl-2022-05-01) for more information.</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
If you are not on NixOS, you will need to either edit `~/.config/nix/nix.conf`
|
If you are not on NixOS, you will need to either edit `~/.config/nix/nix.conf`
|
||||||
or `/etc/nix/nix.conf` and add the following line to it:
|
or `/etc/nix/nix.conf` and add the following line to it:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,341 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: "Nix Flakes on WSL"
|
||||||
|
date: 2022-05-01
|
||||||
|
series: nix-flakes
|
||||||
|
tags:
|
||||||
|
- nixos
|
||||||
|
- wsl
|
||||||
|
vod:
|
||||||
|
youtube: https://youtu.be/VzQ_NwFJObc
|
||||||
|
twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1464781566
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
About five years ago, Microsoft released the Windows Subsystem for Linux
|
||||||
|
([WSL](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/)). This allows you to run
|
||||||
|
Linux programs on a Windows machine. When they released WSL version 2 in 2019,
|
||||||
|
this added support for things like Docker and systemd. As a result, this is
|
||||||
|
enough to run NixOS on Windows.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">This will give you an environment to run
|
||||||
|
Nix and Nix Flakes commands with. You can use this to follow along with this
|
||||||
|
series without having to install NixOS on a VM or cloud server. This is going to
|
||||||
|
retread a bunch of ground from the first article. If you have been following
|
||||||
|
along through this entire series, once you get to the point where you convert
|
||||||
|
the install to flakes there isn't much more new material here.
|
||||||
|
</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Installation
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Head to the NixOS-WSL [releases
|
||||||
|
page](https://github.com/nix-community/NixOS-WSL/releases/) and download the
|
||||||
|
`nixos-wsl-installer-fixed.tar.gz` file to your Downloads folder.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Then open Powershell and make a folder called `WSL`:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```powershell
|
||||||
|
New-Item -Path .\WSL -ItemType Directory
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">It's worth noting that Powershell does
|
||||||
|
have a bunch of aliases for common coreutils commands to the appropriate
|
||||||
|
Powershell CMDlets. However these aliases are <b>NOT</b> flag-compatible and use
|
||||||
|
the Powershell semantics instead of the semantics of the command it is aliasing.
|
||||||
|
This will bite you when you use commands like <code>wget</code> out of instinct
|
||||||
|
to download things. In order to avoid your muscle memory betraying you, the
|
||||||
|
Powershell CMDlets are shown here in their full overly verbose glory.
|
||||||
|
</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Then enter the directory with `Set-Location`:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```powershell
|
||||||
|
Set-Location -Path .\WSL
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">This directory is where the NixOS root
|
||||||
|
filesystem will live. If you want to put this somewhere else, feel free to.
|
||||||
|
Somewhere in `%APPDATA%` will work, just as long as it's on an NTFS volume
|
||||||
|
somewhere.
|
||||||
|
</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Make a folder for the NixOS filesystem:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```powershell
|
||||||
|
New-Item -Path .\NixOS -ItemType Directory
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Then install the NixOS root image with the `wsl` command:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```powershell
|
||||||
|
wsl --import NixOS .\NixOS\ ..\Downloads\nixos-wsl-installer-fixed.tar.gz --version 2
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
And start NixOS once to have it install itself:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```powershell
|
||||||
|
wsl -d NixOS
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Once that finishes, press control-D (or use the `exit` command) to exit out of
|
||||||
|
NixOS and restart the WSL virtual machine:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```powershell
|
||||||
|
exit
|
||||||
|
wsl --shutdown
|
||||||
|
wsl -d NixOS
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
And then you have yourself a working NixOS environment! It's very barebones, but
|
||||||
|
we can use it to test the `nix run` command against our gohello command:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```console
|
||||||
|
$ nix run github:Xe/gohello
|
||||||
|
Hello reader!
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Local Services
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
We can also use this NixOS environment to run a local nginx server. Open
|
||||||
|
`/etc/nixos/configuration.nix`:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```nix
|
||||||
|
{ lib, pkgs, config, modulesPath, ... }:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
with lib;
|
||||||
|
let
|
||||||
|
nixos-wsl = import ./nixos-wsl;
|
||||||
|
in
|
||||||
|
{
|
||||||
|
imports = [
|
||||||
|
"${modulesPath}/profiles/minimal.nix"
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
nixos-wsl.nixosModules.wsl
|
||||||
|
];
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
wsl = {
|
||||||
|
enable = true;
|
||||||
|
automountPath = "/mnt";
|
||||||
|
defaultUser = "nixos";
|
||||||
|
startMenuLaunchers = true;
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
# Enable integration with Docker Desktop (needs to be installed)
|
||||||
|
# docker.enable = true;
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
# Enable nix flakes
|
||||||
|
nix.package = pkgs.nixFlakes;
|
||||||
|
nix.extraOptions = ''
|
||||||
|
experimental-features = nix-command flakes
|
||||||
|
'';
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Right after the `wsl` block, add this nginx configuration to the file:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```nix
|
||||||
|
services.nginx.enable = true;
|
||||||
|
services.nginx.virtualHosts."test.local.cetacean.club" = {
|
||||||
|
root = "/srv/http/test.local.cetacean.club";
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This will create an nginx configuration that points the domain
|
||||||
|
`test.local.cetacean.club` to the contents of the folder `/srv/http/test.local.cetacean.club`.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">The <code>/srv</code> folder is set aside
|
||||||
|
for site-specific data, which is code for "do whatever you want with this
|
||||||
|
folder". In many cases people make a separate <code>/srv/http</code> folder and
|
||||||
|
put each static subdomain in its own folder under that, however I am also told
|
||||||
|
that it is idiomatic to put stuff in <code>/var/www</code>. Pick your poison.
|
||||||
|
</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Then you can test the web server with the `curl` command:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```console
|
||||||
|
$ curl http://test.local.cetacean.club
|
||||||
|
<html>
|
||||||
|
<head><title>404 Not Found</title></head>
|
||||||
|
<body>
|
||||||
|
<center><h1>404 Not Found</h1></center>
|
||||||
|
<hr><center>nginx</center>
|
||||||
|
</body>
|
||||||
|
</html>
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This is good! Nginx is running and since we haven't created the folder with our
|
||||||
|
website content yet, this 404 means that it can't find it! Let's create the
|
||||||
|
folder so that nginx has permission to it and we can modify things in it:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
sudo mkdir -p /srv/http/test.local.cetacean.club
|
||||||
|
sudo chown nixos:nginx /srv/http/test.local.cetacean.club
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Finally we can make an amazing website. Open
|
||||||
|
`/srv/http/test.local.cetacean.club/index.html` in nano:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
nano /srv/http/test.local.cetacean.club/index.html
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
And paste in this HTML:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```html
|
||||||
|
<title>amazing website xD</title>
|
||||||
|
<h1>look at my AMAZING WEBSITE</h1>
|
||||||
|
It's so cool *twerks*
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">This doesn't have to just be artisanal
|
||||||
|
handcrafted HTML in bespoke folders either. You can set the <code>root</code> of
|
||||||
|
a nginx virtual host to point to a Nix package as well. This will allow you to
|
||||||
|
automatically generate your website somehow and deploy it with the rest of the
|
||||||
|
system. Including being able to roll back changes.</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
And then you can see it show up with `curl`:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```console
|
||||||
|
$ curl http://test.local.cetacean.club
|
||||||
|
<title>amazing website xD</title>
|
||||||
|
<h1>look at my AMAZING WEBSITE</h1>
|
||||||
|
It's so cool *twerks*
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
You can also check this out in a browser by clicking
|
||||||
|
[here](http://test.local.cetacean.club):
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Installing `gohello`
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To install the `gohello` service, first we will need to convert this machine to
|
||||||
|
use NixOS flakes. We can do that really quick and easy by adding this file to
|
||||||
|
`/etc/nixos/flake.nix`:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">Do this as root!</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```nix
|
||||||
|
{
|
||||||
|
inputs = {
|
||||||
|
nixpkgs.url = "nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
outputs = { self, nixpkgs, ... }: {
|
||||||
|
nixosConfigurations.nixos = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
|
||||||
|
system = "x86_64-linux";
|
||||||
|
modules = [
|
||||||
|
./configuration.nix
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
# add things here
|
||||||
|
];
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Then run `nix flake check` to make sure everything is okay:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
sudo nix flake check /etc/nixos
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
And finally activate the new configuration with flakes:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hmm">Why don't you have the <code>--flake</code>
|
||||||
|
flag here? Based on what I read in the documentation, I thought you had to have
|
||||||
|
it there.</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby"><code>nixos-rebuild</code> will
|
||||||
|
auomatically detect flakes in <code>/etc/nixos</code>. The only major thing it
|
||||||
|
cares about is the hostname matching. If you want to customize the hostname of
|
||||||
|
the WSL VM, change the <code>nixos</code> in
|
||||||
|
<code>nixosConfigurations.nixos</code> above and set
|
||||||
|
<code>networking.hostName</code> to the value you want to use. To use flakes
|
||||||
|
explicitly, pass <code>--flake /etc/nixos#hostname</code> to your
|
||||||
|
<code>nixos-rebuild</code> call.
|
||||||
|
</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
After it thinks for a bit, you should notice that nothing happened. This is
|
||||||
|
good, we have just converted the system over to using Nix flakes instead of the
|
||||||
|
classic `nix-channel` rebuild method.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To get `gohello` in the system, first we need to add `git` to the commands
|
||||||
|
available on the system in `configuration.nix`:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```nix
|
||||||
|
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ git ];
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Then we can add `gohello` to our system flake:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```nix
|
||||||
|
{
|
||||||
|
inputs = {
|
||||||
|
nixpkgs.url = "nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
|
||||||
|
# XXX(Xe): this URL may change for you, such as github:Xe/gohello-http
|
||||||
|
gohello.url = "git+https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gohello-http?ref=main";
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
outputs = { self, nixpkgs, gohello, ... }: {
|
||||||
|
nixosConfigurations.nixos = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
|
||||||
|
system = "x86_64-linux";
|
||||||
|
modules = [
|
||||||
|
./configuration.nix
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
# add things here
|
||||||
|
gohello.nixosModule
|
||||||
|
({ pkgs, ... }: {
|
||||||
|
xeserv.services.gohello.enable = true;
|
||||||
|
})
|
||||||
|
];
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">The block of code under
|
||||||
|
<code>gohello.nixosModule</code> is an inline NixOS module. If we put
|
||||||
|
<code>gohello.nixosModule</code> before the <code>./configuration.nix</code>
|
||||||
|
reference, we could put the <code>xeserv.services.gohello.enable = true;</code>
|
||||||
|
line inside <code>./configuration.nix</code>. This is an exercise for the
|
||||||
|
reader.</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
And rebuild the system with `gohello` enabled:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Finally, poke it with `curl`:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```console
|
||||||
|
$ curl http://gohello.local.cetacean.club
|
||||||
|
hello world :)
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To update it, update the flake inputs in `/etc/nixos` and run `nixos-rebuild`:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
sudo nix flake update /etc/nixos
|
||||||
|
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
And from here you can do whatever you want with NixOS. You can use
|
||||||
|
[containers](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/#ch-containers), set up
|
||||||
|
arbitrary services, or plan for world domination as normal.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet">I thought it was "to save the world from
|
||||||
|
devastation", not "to plan for world domination". Who needs a monopoly on
|
||||||
|
violence for world domination when you have Nix expressions?</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.</xeblog-conv>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I will use this setup in future posts to make this more accessible and easy to
|
||||||
|
hack at without having to have a dedicated NixOS machine laying around.
|
||||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue