Update on #guix (#nonguix) on my laptop... It works!
I've run a system update and rebooted the host successfully. (*comfort level increasing*)
I logged on to the first console with my user and "WHABAM!" There it was! A tiling window manager running Emacs (with a broken config) on Wayland!
David's work and his guide are greatly appreciated. I'll be adopting some of his config setup permanently and importing my own.
No Exwm for now.
I've succeeded in installing the system on my old Dell XPS13 system with the ath10k firmware using #Nonguix Installation Guide - System Crafters, but it wasn't without it's difficulties. David Wilson's dotfiles and the custom boot image were essential to success.
"Trial by fire" works, but training and customizing in a VM would have helped greatly.
https://wiki.systemcrafters.net/guix/nonguix-installation-guide/
@amszmidt @gugurumbe I didn't say the #Guix project should distribute such images. We are fine with #nonguix distributing them, as it has done for the past years. The point is that right now it is not possible to install the nonguix channel and substitute server through the Guix installer. The same goes for all third party channels such as guix-hpc or guix-science.
Also, as far as I am concerned, Guix should leave the GNU project. It is possible to build completely free software based distros outside of GNU.
@khleedril Yeah that's a good one! It also caught my eye - I think it's also why so many people are using #nonguix as sadly most common hardware requires #linux drivers.
Was intrigued that only 5% start using guix in a server set-up, but then about a third land up using it as a user. I couldn't find any data on #nix, but it's not what I would have generally expected!
@rouge both #nix and #guix are far better than containers or any other Windows-like dependency bundle technology.
Also #guix is pretty different from other
Nix forks, it is not simply a reimplementation of it. It has slightly different features and completely different governance and philosophical goals. I think of guix as the next Debian, in the intentions at least.
Also with #nonguix and #gocix you have a pragmatic answer to run proprietary/unpackaged packages or services
@csepp thank you for elaborating. I hope not to have downplayed your experience. I'm definitely aware that #guix is pretty difficult to install, to the point of having my own really fragile script for that
It was just to understand major pain points so to figure out what would need the highest priority in your opinion. IIUC you don't find the whole proprietary stuff in a separate channel approach difficult, but it is the lack of good tools that allow users that need proprietary software to figure out what they need to add to their installation configuration, correct?
I.e. if the #nonguix installer would detect that you are installing a Framwork 16 (as an example) and propose the right system services in the install configuration, that would make it better in your opinion?
Thanks
Cool #NixOS hardware enablement repo:
https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware
This and #postmarketOS are nice examples of dealing with hardware quirks on #Linux .
Really wish #Guix had this. (And #nonguix should not be necessary for basic hardware support.)
@flypaper For learners the difficult part - which you're already through - is #declarative config. Both #guix and #nix are the same here. I find #scheme easier to read.
#guix is a small community compared to #Nix. To get the best from it you need to 'actively' hangout with people. Be on #irc (yup!) and the mailing list.
#Nix users think #guix has a 'lack of software' and no 'proprietary'. For #modules and proprietary there is #nonguix. The #guix way is less centralised with channels.
Got atuin working on #guix, using #nonguix's binary-build-system to use the linux realease tarball as a shortcut. Still not have enough of an understanding of the service API to figure out how to write a re-usable module out of it. Relying on (plain-file + a string to append directly to my .bashrc instead in the mean time
Hey @daviwil, is the #nonguix image on the #systemcrafters gitlab not maintained anymore? It's from August last year
First official use of Firefox on #guix / #nonguix. Also first official test drive of #exwm. I don't dislike being able to use normal emacs commands to change into my "Firefox" buffer. Not at all.
The only wierd thing about this laptop is that the BIOS "Forgot" about the custom UEFI entry I had made. Is there something about the harddrive that guix isn't doing to have it recognized automatically?
I've finally been able to turn my attention to the Dell laptop I'm installing #guix on. Due to the proprietary/non-free firmware drivers, I'm using the #nonguix channel.
The first couple attempts failed for different reasons, but ultimately it came down to following outdated instructions from an old blog post and an unmaintained repo unassociated with the project.
Now, the old Core i5 is using all 4 cores to try to compile the #linux kernel. Maybe I'll wake up to a new system?
Finally getting around to installing guix on my last remaining laptops (pinebook-pro and dell precision mobile workstation). Sadly I didn't think to enable substitutes for #nonguix , so now its building a kernel, and the nvidia drivers :(
Then I started thinking..how would I even reasonably do this on a livecd guix? The best I can think of is `herd stop guix-daemon` and then starting it myself manually, specifying '--substitute-urls' (and other params normally set by #guix )
Okay, I got some help from #nonguix on Libera, turns out, the System Crafters install image I was using pinned the nonguix channel to a specific commit, and that commit was either broken or had an implicit dependency on the stock guix channel which caused breakage.
Removed the pin and I was able to reconfigure the system. This took several hours, since it downloaded hundreds of megs of... something... and compiled the whole Linux kernel.
But, I have a caps lock key that works like control, which means I can type on this laptop without immediately becoming enraged.
I am not sure it should be so difficult to change one keyboard layout setting.
@boilingsteam #guix and #nonguix mostly these days!
OK. I've got #emacs 29 (emacs-next-pgtk) and mastodon.el working under #guix.
I'm guessing that installing exwm as a package means that I have an emacs 28 tied to that?
I'm not enitrely happy with how this is set up, but at least I have something workable now.
The fediverse seems to be a pretty good place to get #nonguix advice beyond the Free #guix advice. Where else is a good place to ask questions that go beyond just libre things in a guix installation?
(thanks for everyone who helped me get to this place. Once I figure out what I've actually done to get it working I'll write things up a bit more.
