Fix PXE netboot installer hanging at boot (ISO/netboot module conflict) #30

Merged

beatzaplenty merged 1 commits from worktree-fix-pxe-netboot-hang into main

2026-07-21 22:20:04 +00:00

Author	SHA1	Message	Date
beatzaplenty	453c7b5513	Fix PXE netboot installer hanging at boot (ISO/netboot module conflict) Check NixOS configurations / eval-hosts (pull_request) Successful in 11m1s Details The netboot build composed ./modules/installer/iso.nix (which pulls in nixpkgs' installation-cd-minimal.nix) together with nixpkgs' netboot-minimal.nix. Both installation-cd-base.nix and netboot.nix set fileSystems."/" via the identical lib.mkImageMediaOverride (mkOverride 60) priority - genuinely conflicting root-filesystem strategies (ISO-by-label vs. netboot-tmpfs) at the same priority, and the ISO one was winning. Every netboot boot hung waiting for a device that can never exist outside a real CD/USB: A start job is running for /dev/disk/by-label/nixos-minimal-... Reproduced live: deployed a scratch lxc-pxe-boot on pve-test, pulled its built kernel/initrd, and booted them directly with QEMU to confirm the hang and capture full console output. netboot-minimal.nix's own chain (netboot-base.nix) already imports profiles/installation-device.nix independently, so common.nix's initialHashedPassword override still applies correctly with iso.nix removed from this composition. Rebuilt and re-booted the same way after the fix - full boot to a working shell with SSH up, no hang.	2026-07-21 22:15:44 +00:00

Author

SHA1

Message

Date

beatzaplenty

453c7b5513

Fix PXE netboot installer hanging at boot (ISO/netboot module conflict)

Check NixOS configurations / eval-hosts (pull_request) Successful in 11m1s

Details

The netboot build composed ./modules/installer/iso.nix (which pulls in
nixpkgs' installation-cd-minimal.nix) together with nixpkgs'
netboot-minimal.nix. Both installation-cd-base.nix and netboot.nix set
fileSystems."/" via the identical lib.mkImageMediaOverride (mkOverride
60) priority - genuinely conflicting root-filesystem strategies
(ISO-by-label vs. netboot-tmpfs) at the same priority, and the ISO one
was winning. Every netboot boot hung waiting for a device that can
never exist outside a real CD/USB:

  A start job is running for /dev/disk/by-label/nixos-minimal-...

Reproduced live: deployed a scratch lxc-pxe-boot on pve-test, pulled its
built kernel/initrd, and booted them directly with QEMU to confirm the
hang and capture full console output. netboot-minimal.nix's own chain
(netboot-base.nix) already imports profiles/installation-device.nix
independently, so common.nix's initialHashedPassword override still
applies correctly with iso.nix removed from this composition. Rebuilt
and re-booted the same way after the fix - full boot to a working shell
with SSH up, no hang.

2026-07-21 22:15:44 +00:00