Re: How to add custom channels to ISO

[phodina]

Thanks Elais. This is exactly what I need.

Also you're right regarding the ISO running out of space (memory) as I ran 
=guix pull= once before the store was setup and mounted on the target system.

Also pinning the channels is useful to get "identical" os installed across the 
machines.

This might be a neat code excerpt and note in the manual perhaps. Would you 
agree?

Of course, once the system is setup then there is =guix deploy=.




‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

On Friday, July 30th, 2021 at 6:15 PM, Elais Player <elais@fastmail.com> wrote:

> You could add the custom channels file as an
>
> =extra-special-file=1 in the =os-configuration=.
>
> It would look something like this:
>
> #+BEGIN_SRC scheme
>
> (define %my-installation-os
>
> (operating-system
>
> (inherit installation-os)
>
> (services
>
> (cons*
>
> (extra-special-file
>
> "/etc/guix/channels.scm"
>
> (local-file "/path/to/my/channels.scm"))
>
> (operating-system-services installation-os)))))
>
> #+END_SRC
>
> Plus side is you now have a global channels file from which all
>
> you need to do is run =guix pull= to have all your channels up to
>
> date. You may also want to pin those channels to certain commits
>
> just in case. Down side is running =guix pull= will start filling
>
> up your disk or memory on an ISO and you can easily run out of
>
> space. (I would advise not running =guix pull= until after
>
> partitioning and setting up the target system), and this file will
>
> be added to the store (but if you're creating a channels file in
>
> =/etc= shouldn't matter honestly).
>
> phodina via help-guix@gnu.org writes:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm migrating to a newer machine and I'm taking my GuixSD
> >
> > configuration with me.
> >
> > So the first logical step I did was to create an ISO image based
> >
> > on this section 1. As I use my custom channel with modified
> >
> > packages I added them to the configuration to make them
> >
> > available on the new machine.
> >
> > Or so I thought. I booted and partitioned the new machine then
> >
> > ran
> >
> > guix system init /root/configurations.scm /mnt to install Guix
> >
> > there.
> >
> > However, after reboot turns out that the packages are not from
> >
> > my channel but from public Guix repository without
> >
> > modifications.
> >
> > Therefore my question is if it's possible to specify also
> >
> > channels in the configuration file so that they are used during
> >
> > installation?
> >
> > Reading the manual I came to a nice command guix system describe
> >
> > 2 which gives me the current configuration with the
> >
> > channels. Could that be used to build an ISO which would then
> >
> > also know about the additional channels?
> >
> > Kind regards
> >
> > Petr