From 7055bcdb97f88ee4d2f50f021dd987eb95fce860 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: beatzaplenty <wayne.bennett@live.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:38:21 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] Fix lxc-* hosts never completing first-boot user/secrets
 activation

virtualisation/proxmox-lxc.nix registers the Nix store DB via a systemd
service, never an activation script -- so neededForUsers sops secrets
(password hashes) and the user-creation step that consumes them never ran
on a real first boot, leaving /etc/shadow stuck with build-time placeholder
entries. boot.postBootCommands looked like the right hook (stage-2-init.sh
does invoke it) but switch-to-configuration behaves unreliably that early,
before systemd itself is up. Fixed with a genuine oneshot systemd service,
gated by ConditionPathExists so it only ever runs once.

Confirmed live via a from-scratch destroy+rebuild+redeploy of the
lxc-nix-cache test container: real password hashes applied automatically,
systemctl is-system-running -> running, zero failed units.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01La55Nsss8jZ7ZuzUV9mfot
---
 modules/platforms/lxc.nix | 60 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 60 insertions(+)

diff --git a/modules/platforms/lxc.nix b/modules/platforms/lxc.nix
index dca5389..0c14bd2 100644
--- a/modules/platforms/lxc.nix
+++ b/modules/platforms/lxc.nix
@@ -85,4 +85,64 @@ in
       mode = "0644";
     };
   };
+
+  # virtualisation/proxmox-lxc.nix (imported above) registers the Nix
+  # store DB via a systemd service (register-nix-paths) -- it never runs
+  # an activation script at all. Confirmed live this means neither
+  # sops-nix's "for users" secrets (password hashes -- installed by the
+  # activation script itself, not a systemd service, since they need to
+  # exist *before* user creation) nor the user-creation step that
+  # consumes them ever run on a real lxc-* boot. Regular secrets
+  # (nix-serve's key, beszel's token, etc.) work anyway because sops-nix
+  # provides its own systemd service for those.
+  #
+  # A systemd service, not boot.postBootCommands: tried that first (it's
+  # a genuine, generally-invoked hook -- nixos/modules/system/boot/stage-2-init.sh,
+  # which becomes this container's actual /sbin/init, unconditionally
+  # runs it) but switch-to-configuration behaves differently that early in
+  # boot (raw stage-2-init.sh, before systemd itself has even started) --
+  # confirmed live it silently failed to rewrite /etc/shadow from there
+  # even in "test" mode, despite the exact same command working reliably
+  # every time when run post-boot (i.e. as a normal systemd service, which
+  # is what this is). Not fully root-caused why the early context
+  # specifically breaks it; a real systemd service sidesteps needing to.
+  #
+  # /etc/shadow already has PLACEHOLDER entries for every declared user
+  # baked in at build time (part of constructing the system closure).
+  # update-users-groups.pl deliberately never overwrites an *existing*
+  # shadow entry -- a correct safety property in general (don't clobber a
+  # real user's real password on a config rebuild) -- but on a genuine
+  # first boot that only means the real hashedPasswordFile-derived hash
+  # never gets the chance to be applied either, since the placeholder is
+  # already "seen". Safe to clear here specifically: there is no real
+  # password yet to protect on a first boot.
+  #
+  # "test" mode, not "boot": confirmed live "boot" mode aborts partway
+  # through (before rewriting /etc/shadow) on a warning that "/boot" is on
+  # a different filesystem -- a real check for a host with a bootloader to
+  # update, meaningless for a container that has none
+  # (boot.loader.{grub,systemd-boot}.enable are both false above), but it
+  # still aborts the script. "test" runs every activation step without
+  # touching boot-loader state at all.
+  #
+  # ConditionPathExists (systemd-native, not a bash-level check) means
+  # this only ever runs once, on the genuine first boot -- systemd itself
+  # skips even starting it on every later boot once the marker exists.
+  # switch-to-configuration is otherwise the operator's call per this
+  # repo's own safety rules, not something to run on every boot.
+  systemd.services.nixos-lxc-first-boot-activate = {
+    description = "Complete first-boot NixOS activation (users, secrets) for this LXC container";
+    wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
+    unitConfig.ConditionPathExists = "!/var/lib/nixos-lxc-first-boot-activated";
+    serviceConfig = {
+      Type = "oneshot";
+      RemainAfterExit = true;
+    };
+    script = ''
+      rm -f /etc/shadow
+      /run/current-system/bin/switch-to-configuration test
+      mkdir -p /var/lib
+      touch /var/lib/nixos-lxc-first-boot-activated
+    '';
+  };
 }