GNU bug report logs - #51547
Erase / on boot

Previous Next

Full log

Message #8 received at 51547 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tom Fitzhenry <tom <at> tom-fitzhenry.me.uk>
To: 51547 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Erase / on boot
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2021 23:19:08 +1100

Adventures so far...

I've pasted a working system configuration at the bottom.

The idea is to boot / as tmpfs, and to mount the minimal set of 
directories from persistent storage:
* /boot
* /gnu
* /home is not strictly required, but is useful!
* /var/guix

What's working:
* Booting to GNOME
* `guix system reconfigure`
* Booting previous generations
* /etc and /var are empty upon boot, woo!

A few issues:

* Bootstrapping all this is non-trivial. It requires fiddling with 
partitions, and getting it wrong can easily make your system unbootable. 
Suggestions? Maybe the user could set up bind-mounts to map to their 
preferred partition scheme? A basic cookbook entry could bind-mount 
directories from a single ext4 partition to the required directories.

* I tried setting up /gnu and /var/guix as bind-mounts per 
<https://guix.gnu.org/cookbook/en/html_node/Setting-up-a-bind-mount.html>, 
but this didn't seem to work from initrd: the kernel panic'd on boot. I 
need to confirm this and raise a bug.

* Mounting / as tmpfs falsely requires a device, otherwise it waits 
forever on boot. I need to confirm this and raise a bug.

* Activation-on-boot fails due to inexistence of /run and /var/run. 
<https://issues.guix.gnu.org/51548> fixes this.


Here's the config:



(use-modules (gnu))
(use-service-modules desktop networking ssh xorg)

(operating-system
 (timezone "Australia/Sydney")
 (host-name "test")
 (users (cons* (user-account
                (name "tom")
                (comment "Tom")
                (group "users")
                (home-directory "/home/tom")
		;; Needed since /etc/passwd is not persisted.
		(password (crypt "password" "foobar"))
                (supplementary-groups
                 '("wheel" "netdev" "audio" "video")))
               %base-user-accounts))
 (packages
  (append
   (list
    (specification->package "emacs-next"))
   %base-packages))
 (services
  (append
   (list (service gnome-desktop-service-type)
         (set-xorg-configuration
          (xorg-configuration
           (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout))))
   %desktop-services))
 (bootloader
  (bootloader-configuration
   (bootloader grub-bootloader)
   (target "/dev/sda")
   (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout)))
 (file-systems
  (cons* (file-system
          (mount-point "/")
          (device
	   ;; TODO: Raise bug that root-as-tmpfs falsely requires a partition.
           (uuid "59457d60-2b08-4f5c-b1c7-e29cd5f7a3da"
                 'btrfs))
	  (options "size=1G")
          (type "tmpfs"))
	 (file-system
	  (mount-point "/boot")
          (device
           (uuid "59457d60-2b08-4f5c-b1c7-e29cd5f7a3da"
                 'btrfs))
	  (options "subvol=boot")
	  (needed-for-boot? #t)
          (type "btrfs"))	
	 (file-system
	  (mount-point "/home")
          (device
           (uuid "59457d60-2b08-4f5c-b1c7-e29cd5f7a3da"
                 'btrfs))
	  (options "subvol=home")
          (type "btrfs"))
 	 (file-system
	  (mount-point "/var/guix")
          (device
           (uuid "59457d60-2b08-4f5c-b1c7-e29cd5f7a3da"
                 'btrfs))
	  (options "subvol=var/guix")
	  ;; Needed to boot old generations, which needs /var/guix/profiles/
	  (needed-for-boot? #t)
          (type "btrfs"))
	 (file-system
	  (mount-point "/gnu")
          (device
           (uuid "59457d60-2b08-4f5c-b1c7-e29cd5f7a3da"
                 'btrfs))
	  (options "subvol=gnu")
	  (needed-for-boot? #t)
          (type "btrfs"))
         %base-file-systems)))

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.