Re: Best base system for Guix

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

Hello Alexander.

On Thu, Nov 11, 2021 at 06:48:37PM +0100, Alexander Asteroth wrote:
> Ok, you all convinced me to give Guix a third try (yes I already gave up
> twice).

The name of the operating system distribution that can be installed
with the Guix package manager is Guix System.


> Today I installed guix on a seperate partition aside the
> Debian-11 install on the same HD. Everything went fine but for the
> bootloader.

This sounds like a bug.  Does your computer boot with EFI?

When installing, do you configure a mount point such as /boot/efi for
your existing boot/EFI system partition?


> I thought maybe it's best to not install it and let
> os-prober on the Debian side discover the Guix system (which I mounted
> on /mnt). Unfortunately it seems not to recognize the Guix-Install
> (maybe because the kernel-image is hidden deep in the store?).

Yes, that is probably the reason.


> Vice
> versa I could add the Debian partition to the Guix config but if
> something goes wrong ... ?

However, if you boot from EFI, you maybe can use the EFI boot menu to
switch between Debian’s and Guix’s bootloader if both are installed.
This should be sufficient to dual boot.  For extras:

If both are installed, it is even possible to configure Debian’s grub
bootloader to chainload Guix, although I no longer know the commands
for chainloading.

For the opposite, to boot Debian from Guix’ GRUB EFI bootloader, do
this: After installing Guix to boot Guix, I used to change my
/etc/config.scm like this:

 (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
              (bootloader grub-efi-bootloader)
              (targets '("/boot/efi"))
              (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout)
              (menu-entries
               (list (menu-entry
                      (label "Debian")
                      (linux "(hd1,gpt4)/boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-amd64")
                      (linux-arguments '("\
root=UUID=387b3930-178a-4f35-b89c-e77a2c25e686"))
                      (initrd "(hd1,gpt4)/boot/initrd.img-4.19.0-6-amd64"))))))

The initrd and root settings I took from Debian’s GRUB bootloader
configuration.

Regards,
Florian