Rename PXE installer menu entry, add vanilla NixOS minimal netboot entry #31

Merged

beatzaplenty merged 1 commits from worktree-pxe-menu-rename-and-minimal into main

2026-07-21 22:48:49 +00:00

Author	SHA1	Message	Date
beatzaplenty	e92aab617f	Rename PXE installer menu entry, add vanilla NixOS minimal netboot entry Check NixOS configurations / eval-hosts (pull_request) Successful in 10m42s Details The iPXE menu's "nixos" entry actually chain-loads this flake's own custom auto-installer image, not a stock NixOS image — rename it to "auto-installer" (label "NixOS Auto-Installer") so the menu says what it boots, and set networking.hostName on netbootSystem to match, so the generated system name (nixos-system-auto-installer-*) and staged directory (/srv/pxe/http/auto-installer) agree with the menu entry too. Add a second, genuinely vanilla NixOS minimal netboot image (netbootMinimalSystem in flake.nix — nixpkgs' netboot-minimal.nix on its own, none of modules/installer/common.nix's auto-installer wiring), built from source the same way as the auto-installer image and exposed as packages.x86_64-linux.pxe-minimal. Staged and menu-wired the same way, as "nixos-minimal" (item, hostname, and directory all matching). modules/pxe-boot/stage-installer-artifacts.nix is generalized to stage both images via a shared rule-builder instead of one hardcoded set of paths. Verified: nix eval confirms both images' config.system.name matches their menu entry/directory names, the pxe-boot host itself builds clean with the new menu.ipxe, and the new pxe-minimal image was booted directly under QEMU (kernel+initrd, no KVM) to a working login shell with hostname nixos-minimal, no hang.	2026-07-21 22:45:25 +00:00

Author

SHA1

Message

Date

beatzaplenty

e92aab617f

Rename PXE installer menu entry, add vanilla NixOS minimal netboot entry

Check NixOS configurations / eval-hosts (pull_request) Successful in 10m42s

Details

The iPXE menu's "nixos" entry actually chain-loads this flake's own
custom auto-installer image, not a stock NixOS image — rename it to
"auto-installer" (label "NixOS Auto-Installer") so the menu says what it
boots, and set networking.hostName on netbootSystem to match, so the
generated system name (nixos-system-auto-installer-*) and staged
directory (/srv/pxe/http/auto-installer) agree with the menu entry too.

Add a second, genuinely vanilla NixOS minimal netboot image
(netbootMinimalSystem in flake.nix — nixpkgs' netboot-minimal.nix on its
own, none of modules/installer/common.nix's auto-installer wiring),
built from source the same way as the auto-installer image and exposed
as packages.x86_64-linux.pxe-minimal. Staged and menu-wired the same
way, as "nixos-minimal" (item, hostname, and directory all matching).

modules/pxe-boot/stage-installer-artifacts.nix is generalized to stage
both images via a shared rule-builder instead of one hardcoded set of
paths.

Verified: nix eval confirms both images' config.system.name matches
their menu entry/directory names, the pxe-boot host itself builds
clean with the new menu.ipxe, and the new pxe-minimal image was booted
directly under QEMU (kernel+initrd, no KVM) to a working login shell
with hostname nixos-minimal, no hang.

2026-07-21 22:45:25 +00:00