Re: converting a distro to guixsd

[kevinbanjo]

On Sun, Jan 17, 2021 at 7:42 PM Joshua Branson <jbranso@dismail.de> wrote:

> kevinbanjo <kevinbanjo@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > On Sun, Jan 17, 2021, 11:47 AM <jbranso@dismail.de> wrote:
> >
> > Actually I was looking at trying to convert an Alpine Linux in WSL into
> GuixSd
>
> You may be confusing terms.  GuixSD is the deprecated term.  The new
> term is Guix System, which is running guix paired with the GNU shepherd
> as a GNU/Linux distro.
>
>
ugh, I hate it when a nice terse term gets deprecated to a more verbose one
:\



> Guix System implies that GNU/Linux is the host OS.  I suppose that it
> might be possible to run Guix System in WSL, but I do not know of anyone
> that has tried it.   Why don't you try to run the installer script on
> WSL first?


yeah, I guess that's what I'll have to try and do.

I started trying to use this to install The Guix System ("TGS") directly
using the instructions here but due to a bug in busybox (not being able to
access directory entries on the virtual disk partitions) I decided to try
and just install it over Alpine.

https://github.com/giuliano108/guix-packages/blob/master/notes/Guix-on-WSL2.md


> That would get running guix as a package manager in WSL.
> Then you could do some playing around.
>
> You could also try running Guix System inside a virtual machine in Windows.
>
>
That's kind of in essence what WSL (at least version 2) is.


> If you really want computing freedom, you might be interested in dual
> booting windows and Guix System.  That way at boot time you could choose
> to boot into Windows or Guix System.
>
>
I tried that with no luck, the difficulties of which can be seen in some of
my very recent earlier emails to this list.


> I personally gave up Windows a long time ago.  I prefer GNU/Linux
> because I want to be able to watch all the sappy romantic comedies I
> want and not report it to Big Brother.  :)
>
>
Yes, I have mostly stuck to some form of Unix most of my long career but
recently I've been asked to develop software for windows and there are
several applications I need that only run under it.   Also, I've downloaded
a bunch of stuff on it recently I'd rather not move off yet so I was
thinking I'd use WSL to check out several more innovative recent distros
before I try and wipe it and go fully native (perhaps eventually running
windows in a VM under linux)

-Kevin