guix-install

Guix System installer. Boot a Guix ISO, run one binary, get a working system — libre Guix, Nonguix, PantherX, or an enterprise config from a server.

Why

The existing Python installer (px-install) had gotten hard to live with — partitioning tangled into config generation, no resume on failure, four modes bolted on with conditionals. Rewrote it in Rust with the install mode as the central axis.

Status

Pre-1.0. Runs end-to-end on the machines I've tested. Read what it's about to do before you let it touch your disk. --dry-run prints the generated system.scm (+ channels.scm) without partitioning anything.

Prebuilt static x86_64 binaries (musl, no runtime deps) are attached to each GitHub release so you can use this on a plain Guix ISO without building anything.

Modes

Channel	Kernel	Notes
guix	linux-libre	Hardware preflight warns about Wi-Fi/GPU/Ethernet needing non-free firmware.
nonguix	linux + microcode	substitutes.nonguix.org key compiled in.
panther (default)	linux + microcode	Pulls nonguix transitively. Inherits %os-base from (px system os). substitutes.guix.gofranz.com key compiled in.
enterprise	from remote	Fetches a tarball over HTTPS by config ID. Skips locale/timezone/hostname/users/desktop.

Build

guix shell rust rust:cargo gcc-toolchain -- sh -c "CC=gcc cargo build --release"
# or
guix shell -m manifest.scm -- cargo build --release

Usage

On the PantherX ISO the binary is pre-installed — just run:

guix-install

Latest PantherX ISO (2.2 GB, BIOS + UEFI, x86_64):

https://temp.pantherx.org/1xnvrrk5n25llks8pjx64f2kb3nfasn4-image.iso

Hash (Guix nix-base32, SHA-256): 0vvnfzw6y52z1qd2k60jcxw9r5y9mfvp9s1p4nj53ii4l3gyhbmg

On a plain Guix ISO (or anywhere else), grab the static musl binary from a release:

curl -L -o guix-install \
  https://github.com/franzos/guix-install/releases/latest/download/guix-install-x86_64-linux-musl
chmod +x guix-install
./guix-install

Walks through Mode → Locale → Timezone → Hostname → Disk → Encryption → Users → Desktop → Summary. Escape goes back a step. Enterprise mode collapses the middle to just Disk + Encryption.

Dry run (no disk touched):

guix-install --dry-run --mode nonguix --hostname mybox --disk /dev/sda \
             --filesystem btrfs --encrypt --desktop gnome

Common flags:

Flag	Default
--mode	panther	guix, nonguix, panther, enterprise
--hostname	<mode>-<6 random>
--timezone	Europe/Berlin
--locale	en_US.utf8
--disk	/dev/sda
--filesystem	ext4	or btrfs
--encrypt	off	LUKS on /
--username	panther	login name for the primary user
--keyboard	none	layout, e.g. us, de
--desktop	none	gnome, kde, xfce, mate, sway, i3, lxqt
--swap	4096 MB	swap file size
--ssh-key	none	dropped into the user's authorized_keys
--config <ID>		implies --mode enterprise
--config-url	https://temp.pantherx.org/install	enterprise base URL
--dry-run	off	print scheme, do nothing

Subcommands:

guix-install list-disks    # lsblk-style summary
guix-install wifi          # connmanctl WiFi setup

Phases

8 phases, state persisted to /tmp/.guix-install-state after each:

1. Partition (parted, BIOS/EFI auto-detected from /sys/firmware/efi)
2. Format (ext4/btrfs, optional LUKS)
3. Mount under /mnt
4. Swap file
5. Generate system.scm + channels.scm (or fetch enterprise tarball)
6. Authorize substitute servers
7. guix pull (skipped for plain Guix)
8. guix system init, set user password

Re-running picks up at the failed phase. Change disk/mode/firmware and state is discarded.

Notes

• Passwords never land in system.scm. SHA-512-crypted in-process, atomically written to /mnt/etc/shadow (sibling-write + fsync + rename + dir fsync). Plaintext held in Zeroizing<String>. No chroot/chpasswd.
• Substitute keys compiled in via include_str!.
• Enterprise tarballs streamed through ureq → flate2 → tar. No intermediate file.
• Partition naming handles NVMe/MMC (/dev/nvme0n1p1) vs SATA (/dev/sda1) via disk::partition_path.
• UI is a trait (UserInterface). REPL uses dialoguer; TUI/GUI plug in without touching step logic.

Development

Three layers of testing, in order of how often I run them.

1. Unit + golden tests. Pure-Rust assertions on the action sequences and the rendered scheme. Covers the 2×2×2×4 matrix (firmware × encryption × filesystem × mode). Fast.

guix shell rust rust:cargo gcc-toolchain -- sh -c "CC=gcc cargo test"

2. Scheme validation. Pipes each generated system.scm through guix time-machine ... system build -d to confirm Guix actually accepts it. #[ignore]d by default — first run is slow.

guix shell guix -- cargo test --test scheme_validate -- --ignored

3. Guided VM install (Claude Code). The /guix-install-test skill drives a QEMU VM end-to-end: builds the binary, boots a Guix ISO, copies the binary in over SSH, and walks through real install scenarios (mode × filesystem × encryption × firmware) with reboots between cycles. Use it when changing partition / format / mount / cow-store / pull / system-init paths.

/guix-install-test

Format:

podman run --rm -v $PWD:/work -w /work rust:latest \
  sh -c "rustup component add rustfmt && cargo fmt"