Re: no passwd command during installation

[Chris Marusich]

Marco van Hulten <address@hidden> writes:

> Chris-
>
> Op 01 nov 22:59 schreef Chris Marusich:
>> Marco van Hulten <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>> > Hello,
>> >
>> > During the installation process of GuixSD 0.13.0, I'd like to login
>> > from another system.  After setting up the network, I start the SSH
>> > server through
>> >
>> >     herd start ssh-daemon
>> >
>> > as described on
>> > https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Preparing-for-Installation.html
>> > .
>> >
>> > Then I want to set the root password.  The manual tells me to use
>> > passwd, but Bash returns "command not found".  There is also no
>> > ssh-keygen to create SSH keys.  
>> 
>> These commands are present in a recent version of the installation
>> image.  Perhaps the version you used is old enough that they are not
>> present?  Since Wayne also seems to have seen the same problem, I
>> wonder if perhaps it's an issue with an old image being hosted
>> somewhere? Where did you get the installation image?
>
> I downloaded the latests System Distribution image at
> https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guixsd-usb-install-0.13.0.x86_64-linux.xz .
> I just checked the signature, and it is in order.

I checked this image, and I can confirm that "passwd" and "ssh-keygen"
are missing in it.  I ran the following command to test this:

  $ qemu-system-x86_64 -smp cpus=1 -net user -net nic,model=virtio -enable-kvm 
-m 512 guixsd-usb-install-0.13.0.x86_64-linux

> I did find the programs at the locations (with different hash in path)
> that Wayne suggested; this issue could be solved by updating the manual
> (updating the image can wait until the next release).

Upon further inspection, it looks like we explicitly added these tools
to the installation image in the following commits:

4e854b181 2017-09-12 install: Include the whole bare-bones OS in the image.
1e8d398ab 2017-09-10 install: Add OpenSSH to the global profile.

This occurred after the 0.13.0 release, which explains why the 0.13.0
release image doesn't contain the tools.  In the next release, the tools
should be present.

>> > SSH in either direction would give me a way to copy config.scm to a
>> > system where I can e-mail from.  That would be useful, because I am
>> > having problems installing GuixSD (unionfs of 2.1G gets full during
>> > guix system init /mnt/etc/config.scm /mnt --fallback; the last
>> > option was suggested by guix when it couldn't fetch some package).  
>> 
>> That sounds frustrating!  Maybe you can try first installing the "bare
>> bones" operating system (the example file for this is located at
>> /etc/configuration/bare-bones.scm in the installation image). After
>> you've booted into that initial bare bones operating system, you could
>> run "guix system reconfigure" using the actual operating system
>> configuration file you want.  That might help if the issue is lack of
>> storage space in the installation image.
>
> That's a useful tip for when I have a similar problem again.  Doing the
> installation again results in a succesful installation (well, more or
> less).  It is very likely that I forget
>
>     herd start cow-store /mnt
>
> which makes the installation use the harddisk instead of RAM.  However,
> I always need to use --fallback.

I have also made exactly this same mistake before.  :-)

> In any case, thanks to you and Wayne for the useful tips.

You're welcome!  I'm always glad to help.

> Now for the "well, more or less".  When booting my system with a
> freshly installed GuixSD, I get this output:
>
> ```
> waiting for partition 'my-root' to appear...
> waiting for partition 'my-root' to appear...
> ...
> ERROR: In procedure scm-error:
> ERROR: failed to resolve partition "my-root"
> ```
>
> My etc/config.scm is here: http://paste.lisp.org/display/360070

Your configuration contains the following:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
  ;; Specify a mapped device for the encrypted root partition.
  ;; The UUID is that returned by 'cryptsetup luksUUID'.
  (mapped-devices
   (list (mapped-device
          (source (uuid "c0a2b51e-0c50-43e7-a56b-932061c00af8"))
          (target "my-root")
          (type luks-device-mapping))))

  (file-systems (cons (file-system
                        (device "my-root")
                        (title 'label)
                        (mount-point "/")
                        (type "ext4"))
                      %base-file-systems))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

This configuration promises to Guix that a LUKS-encrypted device exists
with the given UUID.  It says that you want to map this device to an
(unencrypted) device named "my-root", i.e., you want to map it to a
device at path "/dev/mapper/my-root".  It also promises that inside of
this newly mapped device, Guix will find an EXT4 file system with a
label that happens to also be "my-root".

If anything about this does not match reality, it could explain the
problem you're seeing.  In particular, you should double check that
there really is an EXT4 file system inside your encrypted device, and
that it really does have a label named "my-root".  You can check this by
first opening the device manually with "cryptsetup" and then using a
command such as "blkid" to inspect things.

-- 
Chris

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