bug#30867: Troubles and solutions during install GuixSD

[Gábor Boskovits]

2018-03-19 23:41 GMT+01:00 Axel Koolhaas <address@hidden>:

Hello,

I've recently installed GuixSD on my old laptop, but there were some problems where a Gentoo user even couldn't get past without IRC help.

First i ran into old package problems, maybe mention on "https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Proceeding-with-the-Installation.html#Proceeding-with-the-Installation" that one has to run "guix pull " to avoid these kind of errors:

warning: collision encountered: /gnu/store/hi7gadjf2gc3ma5bzabpkzjzcd89zz87-util-linux-2.30.1/share/man/man8/nologin.8.gz /gnu/store/a8arlhcrf70113zw7b3qrwqbqfq2hgj6-shadow-4.5/share/man/man8/nologin.8.gz 
warning: arbitrarily choosing /gnu/store/hi7gadjf2gc3ma5bzabpkzjzcd89zz87-util-linux-2.30.1/share/man/man8/nologin.8.gz
Backtrace:
           5 (primitive-load "/gnu/store/nai4dbb66sv8b1c7s8dh10kf13h…")
In ./guix/build/profiles.scm:
    137:2  4 (build-profile "/gnu/store/xwjp5021qhc5y75spvj2wgvhb9y…" …)
In unknown file:
           3 (hash-for-each #<procedure 76ed40 at ./guix/build/unio…> …)
           2 (hash-for-each #<procedure addf40 at ./guix/build/unio…> …)
           1 (hash-for-each #<procedure b68a80 at ./guix/build/unio…> …)
           0 (scm-error misc-error #f "~A ~S" ("union-build: col…" …) …)

ERROR: In procedure scm-error:
ERROR: union-build: collision between file and directories ((files ("/gnu/store/2m4kj0py6dcsm33r4h0wgmm7cqc9fhqi-nano-2.9.1/share/locale/es")) (dirs ("/gnu/store/hi7gadjf2gc3ma5bzabpkzjzcd89zz87-util-linux-2.30.1/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/a8arlhcrf70113zw7b3qrwqbqfq2hgj6-shadow-4.5/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/w3h1kpg13s8d12rddqkjv29xzidxwxyj-man-db-2.7.6.1/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/w7mj8n7lzmwihs58hipfwcih82j31n60-info-reader-6.3/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/9gww54njmvi0isyhlxabbzz80bx751zs-sudo-1.8.21p2/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/pwl7clzd9z87vrgbk5lqp49glddn432v-e2fsprogs-1.43.6/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/6b6mps3s9nmavlixkkifmp93fkzv13wd-kbd-2.0.4/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/ars9lm9jk9hgdifg0gqvf1jrvz5mdg1j-bash-4.4.12/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/jq01kjk404gwyjz0xnr098zh20b5i0n3-coreutils-8.27/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/44hxccx5q9dwai01d3ngvjs23ng4ynz3-findutils-4.6.0/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/ccsanpky6z3f4w5gd75x3i0xgv9yalw7-grep-3.0/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/s5n8rml09apz4ld8g9j3k9fjh8mkpb83-sed-4.4/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/nlk8wizl96yf9xrzgis41vqwdfzyhj8s-diffutils-3.6/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/50kx5jp0ccr2vk0q5q6ini1r1ajyqxqk-gawk-4.1.4/share/locale/es" "/gnu/store/30zazbgh0lx2pav0ikx5hglgay28264j-tar-1.29/share/locale/es")))
builder for `/gnu/store/1sm0amip5hdqk2wmjcwh207y022wgc7s-profile.drv' failed with exit code 1
cannot build derivation `/gnu/store/zd61d3qda8ij0pkxc5kiyf7rxk0xyp26-system.drv': 1 dependencies couldn't be built
guix system: error: build failed: build of `/gnu/store/zd61d3qda8ij0pkxc5kiyf7rxk0xyp26-system.drv' failed

Secondly, in the manual now, it appears as if to mount the EFI System Partition /mnt/boot/efi, whilst one needs to mount ESP at /boot/efi, resulting in this kind of error:

/gnu/store/nwg3rkmb2is1j6zfin0v58lgw2b57kwh-system
/gnu/store/r8qpnbydygbwdfsjcla4ms5rjikbmkjv-grub.cfg
/gnu/store/nkn9f21jjzcj0a3mr4sqc0qj549g8vfl-grub-efi-2.02
/gnu/store/gjb81f7h063l83rlfb9ih1vrsg9k0z4l-bootloader-installer

initializing operating system under '/mnt'...
copying to '/mnt'...
populating '/mnt'...
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
/gnu/store/nkn9f21jjzcj0a3mr4sqc0qj549g8vfl-grub-efi-2.02/sbin/grub-install: error: failed to get canonical path of `/boot/efi'.
guix system: error: failed to install bootloader /gnu/store/gjb81f7h063l83rlfb9ih1vrsg9k0z4l-bootloader-installer

Thirdly, whilst this isn't a bug but more noob user-friendliness, maybe add a link or an example of a working EFI config to manual?
I now had to search before finding e.g.

(file-systems (cons* (file-system
                         (device "my-root")
                         (title 'label)
                         (mount-point "/")
                         (type "ext4"))
                       (file-system
                         (device (uuid "1234-ABCD" 'fat))
                         (title 'uuid)
                         (mount-point "/boot/efi")
                         (type "vfat"))
                       %base-file-systems))

Also, whilst I know this but not all other people, one needs to mount ESP's with "mount -t vfat /dev/sda* /boot/efi", maybe also mention this in the guide?

Kind regards,
Shoaloak

Thanks very much for your findings, we currently have a few EFI installation documentation related bugs, this is being worked on.

We also intend to add system tests, so that we can check, if the documentation is in sync with the code.

I will check if there is a bug this should be merged to.