[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Image generation
From: |
Ludovic Courtès |
Subject: |
Re: Image generation |
Date: |
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 23:10:54 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.3 (gnu/linux) |
Howdy!
Mathieu Othacehe <address@hidden> skribis:
> I made some progress on the image generation topic. As discussed
> previously, the goal is to use the same principles as genimage[1], to
> achieve faster image generation, without resorting to VM.
Awesome.
> A very related topic, is to bring the possibility to create Guix System
> images with custom layouts. That includes position, size and type of the
> bootloader partition, offset of the root partition and so on. While this
> is not really important for desktop usage, it is almost mandatory for
> embedded usage.
>
> The wip-disk-image branch allows to define a Guix System image along the
> lines of:
>
> (define my-image
> (image
> (format 'disk-image)
> (operating-system my-os)
> (partitions
> (list (partition
> (size (* 40 (expt 2 20)))
> (label "GNU-ESP")
> (file-system "vfat")
> (flags '(esp))
> (initializer (gexp initialize-efi-partition)))
> (partition
> (size 'guess)
> (label "Guix_image")
> (file-system "ext4")
> (flags '(boot))
> (initializer (gexp initialize-root-partition)))))))
That’s really cool! I’ve been willing to have something like that
forever, but the current <partition> record is buried on the build side,
which makes it inconvenient to use like you do above.
> On this branch, it is already possible to generate an EFI disk-image,
> with the traditional command:
>
> ./pre-inst-env guix system disk-image gnu/system/examples/desktop.tmpl
>
> On my computer, this takes 6m50 versus 2h30 for the master version. I
> tested the image in QEMU, everything seems fine.
Oh, this much on ‘master’? Anyway, the speedup is undoubtedly there and
it’s really great.
> Now there's still plenty of work. This branch needs some more
> cleaning. Then we need to:
>
> * Add support for ISO images.
I see you did that in the meantime.
> * Extend support to grub (non-efi), extlinux and u-boot bootloaders.
> * Check everything works with --system and --target arguments.
Yeah.
I saw your message to janneke, and indeed, I think there’s room for
cooperation: janneke has come up with something that’s very close to
“normal” Guix System for GNU/Hurd, and one of the main stumbling blocks
in my mind is building the image and in particular getting proper GRUB
suppotr for multiboot OSes.
> I've re-implemented some parts of genimage in (gnu build disk-image)
> module. Now, we could also go further and remove the use of this tool
> completely.
I think it’s great. :-)
Please do ping us when you want a closer review!
Ludo’.