installation-cd: Build Graphical ISOs for aarch64

[Thra11]

Description of changes

Changed installation-graphical-base to only enable virtualisation.vmware.guest and services.xe-guest-utilities on x86. The VMWare guest module is marked as not supported on aarch64, while the xe-guest-utilities package fails to build on aarch64.

With the changes in this PR, it is possible to build and boot a graphical iso on aarch64, presumably opening up the possiblity of pre-built aarch64 graphical isos from hydra. (See https://discourse.nixos.org/t/arm-graphical-iso-builds/16729)

Things done

• Built on platform(s)
  • x86_64-linux
  • aarch64-linux
  • x86_64-darwin
  • aarch64-darwin
• For non-Linux: Is sandbox = true set in nix.conf? (See Nix manual)
• Tested, as applicable:
  • NixOS test(s) (look inside nixos/tests)
  • and/or package tests
  • or, for functions and "core" functionality, tests in lib/tests or pkgs/test
  • made sure NixOS tests are linked to the relevant packages
• Tested compilation of all packages that depend on this change using nix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review rev HEAD". Note: all changes have to be committed, also see nixpkgs-review usage
• Tested basic functionality of all binary files (usually in ./result/bin/)
• 22.11 Release Notes (or backporting 22.05 Release notes)
  • (Package updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is major or breaking
  • (Module updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is significant
  • (Module addition) Added a release notes entry if adding a new NixOS module
  • (Release notes changes) Ran nixos/doc/manual/md-to-db.sh to update generated release notes
• Fits CONTRIBUTING.md.

[Thra11]

Btw, I tested this by creating my-iso-image.nix with the following contents (based on this guide):

{ pkgs, modulesPath, lib, ... }: {
  imports = [
    "${modulesPath}/installer/cd-dvd/installation-cd-graphical-plasma5-new-kernel.nix"
  ];

  boot.supportedFilesystems = lib.mkForce [ "btrfs" "reiserfs" "vfat" "f2fs" "xfs" "ntfs" "cifs" ];
}

and then running

nixos-generate --format iso --configuration ./my-iso-image.nix -o result 

I then dd'd the result to an SD Card:

sudo dd if=result/iso/nixos-22.11.git.75f15399cc2-aarch64-linux.iso of=/dev/XXX status=progress

booted from the SD Card, and choose the graphical installer option from the boot menu.

[nixos-discourse]

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

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/arm-graphical-iso-builds/16729/3

[Thra11]

CC @vlinkz @edolstra @samueldr @dezgeg

[samueldr]

I have not tested the resulting builds, but in principle it should just work, as there's nothing special with AArch64 systems when they boot with standards-based protocols (UEFI).

Obviously in the real world it will be "YMMV", but just as much as any other distro that only supports mainline. The limitations here will be whatever works with the current LTS of Linux. (Which is also true for x86_64!)

[samuela]

changes LGTM

anything else we need to do before merging?

[mweinelt]

Seeing an error when building the GNOME ISO.

$ nix-build nixos/release.nix -A iso_gnome --system aarch64-linux
[...]
error: a 'x86_64-linux' with features {} is required to build '/nix/store/7v9gqlcf6zn9al5b1gl8y4v8rrf2bx5k-loopback.cfg.drv', but I am a 'aarch64-linux' with features {benchmark, big-parallel, kvm, nixos-test}

[abhillman]

FWIW I was able to build a gnome image for aarch64 using

$ docker run -it --platform linux/arm64 nixos/nix
$ git clone https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs.git --depth 1

# fetch and check out the latest release tag
# apply changes to `https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/compare/master...Thra11:nixpkgs:aarch64-graphical-iso` from https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/compare/master...Thra11:nixpkgs:aarch64-graphical-iso

$ nix-build -A config.system.build.isoImage -I nixos-config=modules/installer/cd-dvd/installation-cd-graphical-gnome.nix default.nix

From there, I was able to run the live image using Mac OS virtualization (i.e. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/running_gui_linux_in_a_virtual_machine_on_a_mac)

The one curious thing is that I don't think I see the installer auto-launching, which I think it does for amd64.

[RaitoBezarius]

Can you fix conflicts?

[Thra11]

Haven't had time to test it yet, but it looks like @mweinelt's commit which is causing the conflicts basically does the same thing as this PR, so we can probably abandon this one now?

[mweinelt]

Oh, sorry. Apparently I reviewed this, forgot this and then did it again myself. 🤦

[RaitoBezarius]

Haven't had time to test it yet, but it looks like @mweinelt's commit which is causing the conflicts basically does the same thing as this PR, so we can probably abandon this one now?

Ahem, sorry but thank you for your PR! We can close it then. Is there any reason why we don't need the vmware/virtualbox stuff anymore?

[mweinelt]

It does not support anything but x86-64-linux.

[Thra11]

Is there any reason why we don't need the vmware/virtualbox stuff anymore?

For clarity, the changes in this PR to only enable them on x86 were required, but Martin has also made those changes in 8f366cb and 373c1a8.