nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: init #155426

cyntheticfox · 2022-01-17T22:33:39Z

Create both a configuration and image definition file for Linode, which
uses a QEMU-based configuration but without partition tables for some
reason. Largely bases most of the configuration and image generation on the current GCE configuration.

Motivation for this change

I want to easily be able to use NixOS in Linode, so I wrote a configuration and image builder configuration for it. It seems to work based on my testing of local building and pushing and running a simple image in Linode and doing so with Terranix.

Will require adding an interface to nix-community/nixos-generators, but I can pr one easily with this added to nixpkgs.

Things done

cyntheticfox · 2022-01-17T22:45:10Z

A couple of notes:

I decided against adding Longview to the default configuration due to its explicit dependency on a private API key
The disk configuration (/dev/sda as boot and /dev/sdb as swap) is based on the default configuration for images created by Linode through their Wizard and standard "simple" API interfaces
Linode images must be uploaded gzipped, and with no partition table (thus requiring boot.loader.grub.forceInstall to be set)
Most of this configuration is given in the Linode NixOS configuration guide, but some parts are not -- particularly kernel modules and the partitionless disk scheme. Those which were not given by the guide were found experimentally by following the guide and observing the generated hardware-configuration.nix file.
The Linode wizard and standard API will overwrite the shadow file on disk creation to set the root passsword, which can have unexpected/unintended side-effects.
I do not know what specifying an authorized ssh key in the wizard or via the API will do.
Due to the simplicity of the configuration, I'm also opening to backporting this to 21.11

cyntheticfox · 2022-01-17T22:50:02Z

It also should be mentioned that in order to boot properly, as in the guide, the boot kernel must be set to "GRUB2" in the Linode boot configuration, with all boot helpers disabled. I'm not really sure where to mention that though, if at all, since it is kind of out-of-scope of the image itself.

nixos-discourse · 2022-02-23T13:59:15Z

This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/prs-ready-for-review/3032/741

cyntheticfox · 2022-02-23T14:01:47Z

Forgot to mention, I made a Proof-of-Concept a little while ago using Terranix with the noted caveats: houstdav000/terranix-linode-poc

cyntheticfox · 2022-07-10T20:49:42Z

Rebased and changed docs changes to be in 22.11 instead of 22.05. I also confirmed it works with https://github.com/houstdav000/terranix-linode-poc.

cyntheticfox · 2022-08-14T22:31:04Z

(Unverified commits are because somehow GnuPG decided to sign with a subkey when I explicitly specified the master key. Trying to figure out what's going on)

EDIT: Subkey wasn't there before. Updated my git config and resigned the commits.

lilyinstarlight

I can confirm this seems to work for me and I'd love to see this merged!

nixos-discourse · 2022-08-18T19:41:39Z

This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/prs-ready-for-review/3032/1115

nixos/modules/virtualisation/linode-image.nix

nixos/modules/virtualisation/linode-config.nix

SuperSandro2000 · 2022-08-18T19:56:34Z

nixos/modules/virtualisation/linode-config.nix

+  ### Set networking config
+  #
+  networking = {
+    usePredictableInterfaceNames = false;


We are sure we want to set this?

Linode recommends turning it off and notes that the problem predictable interfaces tries to solve is irrelevant on their platform with only a single interface, but they do also state that turning it off is optional: https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/install-nixos-on-linode/#disable-predictable-interface-names

The Azure and GCP/GCE image generators for NixOS both turn off predictable names as well as the qemu-vm generator so it may be something users would expect (but I don't know enough to say for sure)

nixos/modules/virtualisation/linode-config.nix

cyntheticfox · 2022-08-19T01:46:23Z

Weird, can only request from one at a time. Fixed things and rebased. Sorry for spam.

nixos-discourse · 2022-08-26T11:20:19Z

This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/prs-ready-for-review/3032/1139

lilyinstarlight · 2022-09-03T18:47:41Z

It looks like all of the review items have been addressed now, aside from the one open question about "predictable interface names" which I think should probably not be changed given it would (ironically) make interface names unpredictable for the config, possibly different for different Linode hypervisor hosts, and there are interface name dependent config items like networking.interfaces.eth0.useDHCP

Did you have any other comments on this PR @SuperSandro2000? (Thank you for the review, by the way!)

nixos-discourse · 2022-09-11T16:36:47Z

This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/prs-already-reviewed/2617/602

Create both a configuration and image definition file for Linode, which uses a QEMU-based configuration but without partition tables for some reason.

@lilyinstarlight

Replace PATH modification with direct package path substitution as recommended by @lilyinstarlight.

Force diskSize to be a `ints.positive` to ensure only positive disk sizes are entered. Added per SuperSandro2000's request.

Trim the comments in the `linode-config.nix` file, removing some blank line comments and additional leading comment characters for others.

Remove some redundant comments for immediately evident config.

Add comment and link to supporting documentation for post-image-build gzip task.

Restrict the allowable values for the `compressionLevel` value passed to GZIP while compressing the built image.

Disable IPv6 privacy extensions, as Linode expects them to be off by default, adding a comment and link to supporting material.

cyntheticfox · 2022-09-27T16:56:11Z

Should I add myself to the /maintainers/maintainers-list.nix file and add a meta.maintainers to the image? I know it's standard for packages, but I only see maintainers listed on some NixOS modules and virtualization images.

Mindavi · 2022-09-27T16:57:32Z

LGTM. Adding a meta.maintainers would be nice, even if ofborg doesn't look at it (not sure if it does) it's good to know who maintains the things.

My only comment is that some of the things put as comment here might be better off in the commit message(s). But I don't consider that a big issue.

Mindavi · 2022-09-27T19:01:13Z

I think the maintainers change needs to be 2 different commits: https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#var-meta-maintainers

Signed-off-by: David Houston <houstdav000@gmail.com>

cyntheticfox · 2022-09-27T19:45:19Z

Seems arbitrary, but done

github-actions bot added 6.topic: nixos Issues or PRs affecting NixOS modules, or package usability issues specific to NixOS 8.has: changelog 8.has: documentation 8.has: module (update) This PR changes an existing module in `nixos/` labels Jan 17, 2022

ofborg bot added 10.rebuild-darwin: 0 This PR does not cause any packages to rebuild 10.rebuild-linux: 1-10 labels Jan 17, 2022

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from ddf5acc to a22edfb Compare January 20, 2022 19:13

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from a22edfb to c97be97 Compare February 23, 2022 13:31

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from c97be97 to e9820ea Compare March 12, 2022 19:50

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from e9820ea to 18c6cdf Compare May 21, 2022 09:37

cyntheticfox mentioned this pull request May 21, 2022

Merge image config to nixpkgs cyntheticfox/terranix-linode-poc#1

Closed

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch 2 times, most recently from e9facf5 to 90ff791 Compare July 10, 2022 20:46

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from 90ff791 to c6f22f5 Compare August 13, 2022 20:13

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from a135c74 to 2d32025 Compare August 14, 2022 23:59

lilyinstarlight approved these changes Aug 18, 2022

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SuperSandro2000 reviewed Aug 18, 2022

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lilyinstarlight reviewed Aug 18, 2022

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nixos/modules/virtualisation/linode-config.nix Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch 2 times, most recently from 146dbfb to 506a0f8 Compare August 19, 2022 01:44

cyntheticfox requested review from SuperSandro2000 and lilyinstarlight and removed request for SuperSandro2000 August 19, 2022 01:45

cyntheticfox requested review from SuperSandro2000 and removed request for lilyinstarlight August 19, 2022 01:45

SuperSandro2000 approved these changes Sep 3, 2022

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bobby285271 added the 12.approvals: 1 This PR was reviewed and approved by one reputable person label Sep 3, 2022

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from 506a0f8 to 856b7b4 Compare September 11, 2022 16:38

bobby285271 removed the 12.approvals: 1 This PR was reviewed and approved by one reputable person label Sep 11, 2022

cyntheticfox added 8 commits September 13, 2022 08:42

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: init

09efb32

Create both a configuration and image definition file for Linode, which uses a QEMU-based configuration but without partition tables for some reason.

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: Shorten Script

c67d600

Replace PATH modification with direct package path substitution as recommended by @lilyinstarlight.

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: Restrict type

5400aca

Force diskSize to be a `ints.positive` to ensure only positive disk sizes are entered. Added per SuperSandro2000's request.

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: Trim comments

3245774

Trim the comments in the `linode-config.nix` file, removing some blank line comments and additional leading comment characters for others.

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: Remove comments

0f367d4

Remove some redundant comments for immediately evident config.

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: Add comment

ebc4101

Add comment and link to supporting documentation for post-image-build gzip task.

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: Restrict values

5c47b4c

Restrict the allowable values for the `compressionLevel` value passed to GZIP while compressing the built image.

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: Disable Setting

7255cc3

Disable IPv6 privacy extensions, as Linode expects them to be off by default, adding a comment and link to supporting material.

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from 856b7b4 to 7255cc3 Compare September 13, 2022 12:42

Mindavi approved these changes Sep 27, 2022

View reviewed changes

cyntheticfox added 2 commits September 27, 2022 15:44

maintainers: add houstdav000

1a046dc

Signed-off-by: David Houston <houstdav000@gmail.com>

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: Add maintainer

ccf6019

Signed-off-by: David Houston <houstdav000@gmail.com>

cyntheticfox force-pushed the feature/linode-image branch from f374421 to ccf6019 Compare September 27, 2022 19:45

SuperSandro2000 merged commit 28e90d3 into NixOS:master Sep 28, 2022

cyntheticfox mentioned this pull request Apr 15, 2023

Linode: Use nixos module nix-community/nixos-generators#208

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nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: init #155426

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: init #155426

cyntheticfox commented Jan 17, 2022

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nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: init #155426

nixos/virtualisation/linode-image: init #155426

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cyntheticfox commented Jan 17, 2022

Motivation for this change

Things done

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