NixOS ISO Installer Error => Not Enough Drive Space and Not Enough Memory

Incus
1

I am following the instructions here to install NixOS with gnome in a VM.

I am using incus 0.6.

Here are the commands used:

  • sudo apt update
  • sudo apt install virt-viewer
  • incus init nixos-vm-01 --empty --vm -c security.secureboot=false
  • incus storage volume import default /home/xx/Downloads/nixos-gnome-23.11.5474.fa9f817df522-x86_64-linux.iso iso-nixos-volume --type=iso
  • incus config device add nixos-vm-01 iso-nixos-volume disk pool=default source=iso-nixos-volume boot.priority=10
  • incus start nixos-vm-01 --console
    • followed by “ctrl+q a”
  • incus console nixos-vm-01 --type=vga

I works as expected until I get the main installer page where I get to the following errors/blockers.

Screenshot from 2024-03-20 20-37-33
Screenshot from 2024-03-20 20-37-331331×712 67.1 KB

I believe this is related to the “incus init nixos-vm-01 --empty --vm”; however, I cannot find a way to ensure it has enough disk (or access to the default pool) and enough memory.

Can anyone shed light on next steps to debug this situation?

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration, Chuck

2

If you do not specify the disk space, you get 10GB by default for the VM.

See How to run a Windows virtual machine on Incus on Linux – Mi blog lah! on how to properly allocate CPU cores (see the Bonus Material #4) and the disk space. You can also create a profile so that you keep those settings together.

3

incus init nixos-vm-01 --empty --vm -c limits.memory=4GiB -c limits.cpu=4 -d root,size=50GiB should do the trick to give you 4 CPUs, 4GiB of RAM and 50GiB of storage.

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4

Thanks guys - that worked!

Here is the working commands for future reference:

  • sudo apt update
  • sudo apt install virt-viewer
  • incus storage volume import default /home/xx/Downloads/nixos-gnome-23.11.5474.fa9f817df522-x86_64-linux.iso iso-nixos-volume --type=iso
    • Note: “default” is the name of the default pool
  • incus init nixos-vm-01 --empty --vm -c security.secureboot=false -c limits.memory=4GiB -c limits.cpu=4 -d root,size=30GiB
    • Note: secureboot false needed because the iso is not signed
    • reference
  • incus config device add nixos-vm-01 iso-nixos-volume disk pool=default source=iso-nixos-volume boot.priority=10
  • incus start nixos-vm-01 --console
    • followed by “ctrl+a q”
  • incus console nixos-vm-01 --type=vga
  • Note: complete the installation steps
  • Note: stop the instance (do not simply reboot) so that you can detach the ISO
  • incus storage volume detach default iso-nixos-volume nixos-vm-01
  • Note: start the instance
  • incus console nixos-vm-01 --type=vga

Is it possible to update the documentation to offer @stgraber 's -c and -d options as hints?

Thanks!
Chuck

Chuck

5
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