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disko

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disko - declarative disk partitioning - https://github.com/nix-community/disko97 Servers

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2 Mar 2026
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@indium114:matrix.orgindium114I already have NixOS installed on my system, can I set up Disko without reinstalling or formatting my drive in the process?13:36:32
@magic_rb:matrix.redalder.orgmagic_rbdisko doesnt handle post installation anything, so there isnt much point13:45:58
@magic_rb:matrix.redalder.orgmagic_rbbut you could, just need to match your disko config to your on disk layout, rename the partitions correctly since disko mounts by partition name and not UUID and it'll work (ive donet this in the past)13:46:30
@indium114:matrix.orgindium114I mainly want to do it for the sake of easier reproducibility, and also not needing the graphical installer anymore (since I'm terrible at disk formatting with the CLI). Also, I have been considering reinstalling on btrfs. Can disko manage btrfs subvolumes, and how would I go about doing so?13:56:50
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3 Mar 2026
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@focu5:rhakotis.xyzfocu5with respect to zfs, disko will create zfs datasets and volumes after installation 06:23:43
@focu5:rhakotis.xyzfocu5my workflow with new apps/servers is to update the disko config with a new app specific dataset and then rerun disko with format mode06:24:38
@focu5:rhakotis.xyzfocu5it doesn't reformat non zfs partitions (it seems to fail running the tools to partition) but it will create if not exists new zfs datasets/volumes and since it's linked to nixos via the disko nixos module also update the mounting to match06:26:46
@focu5:rhakotis.xyzfocu5 indium114 though i've never used btrfs or disko with btrfs, https://github.com/nix-community/disko/blob/5af7af10f14706e4095bd6bc0d9373eb097283c6/lib/types/btrfs.nix#L175 implies that subvolumes are created if it doesn't exist which suggests you could rerun disko and create new subvolumes as you expand your disko config (have not tested this) 06:36:51
@magic_rb:matrix.redalder.orgmagic_rbhttps://github.com/numtide/disko-zfs is safer :)10:54:08
@focu5:rhakotis.xyzfocu5til thanks11:02:08
@magic_rb:matrix.redalder.orgmagic_rbIf you run into anything ping me, im the guy who wrote it11:03:52
@magic_rb:matrix.redalder.orgmagic_rb(if you happen to run into a physical wall, call the ambulance, not me please)11:04:20
25 Apr 2024
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26 Apr 2024
@raj-magesh:matrix.orgRaj

Couple of questions about NixOS live USBs:

I want to partition my 64 GB USB flash drive into two partitions (FAT32 live USB + ext4 storage), so I used the following disko config:

let
  usb = "/dev/disk/by-id/usb-USB_SanDisk_3.2Gen1_0401a943ae4197a38a6f9070194e9ea2b3fb8dbb7997e05ed1b197c0e28946be4b8f000000000000000000001cf4be6800926418a955810751ab6336-0:0";
in {
  disko.devices = {
    disk = {
      live = {
        type = "disk";
        device = usb;
        content = {
          type = "gpt";
          partitions = {
            ESP = {
              type = "EF00";
              device = "${usb}-part1";
              priority = 0;
              size = "8192M";
              content = {
                type = "filesystem";
                format = "vfat";
              };
            };
            storage = {
              device = "${usb}-part2";
              priority = 1;
              size = "100%";
              content = {
                type = "filesystem";
                format = "ext4";
              };
            };
          };
        };
      };
    };
  };
}

I then copied over the files from the (minimal, non-graphical) NixOS live ISO into partition 1, hoping that the instructions on the Arch wiki would generalize to NixOS, but then my live ISO gets stuck with the following error message:

[...]
Timed out waiting for device /dev/root, trying to mount anyway
mounting /dev/root on /iso...
mount: mounting /dev/root on /mnt-root/iso failed: No such file or directory

An error occurred [...]

How can I use my USB flash drive as both a live USB and as a storage device? I found this relevant Discourse link but there was no resolution to the problem there.

I realize this might not be the best place to ask this, but I figured that folks here would have expertise configuring boot partitions correctly.

02:02:16
@raj-magesh:matrix.orgRaj *

Couple of questions about NixOS live USBs:

I want to partition my 64 GB USB flash drive into two partitions (FAT32 live USB + ext4 storage), so I used the following disko config:

let
  usb = "/dev/disk/by-id/usb-USB_SanDisk_3.2Gen1_0401a943ae4197a38a6f9070194e9ea2b3fb8dbb7997e05ed1b197c0e28946be4b8f000000000000000000001cf4be6800926418a955810751ab6336-0:0";
in {
  disko.devices = {
    disk = {
      live = {
        type = "disk";
        device = usb;
        content = {
          type = "gpt";
          partitions = {
            ESP = {
              type = "EF00";
              device = "${usb}-part1";
              priority = 0;
              size = "8192M";
              content = {
                type = "filesystem";
                format = "vfat";
              };
            };
            storage = {
              device = "${usb}-part2";
              priority = 1;
              size = "100%";
              content = {
                type = "filesystem";
                format = "ext4";
              };
            };
          };
        };
      };
    };
  };
}

I then copied over the files from the (minimal, non-graphical) NixOS live ISO into partition 1, hoping that the instructions on the Arch wiki would generalize to NixOS, but then my live ISO gets stuck with the following error message:

[...]
Timed out waiting for device /dev/root, trying to mount anyway
mounting /dev/root on /iso...
mount: mounting /dev/root on /mnt-root/iso failed: No such file or directory

An error occurred [...]

How can I use my USB flash drive as both a live USB and as a storage device? I found this relevant Discourse link but there was no resolution to the problem there.

I realize this might not be the best place to ask this, but I figured that folks here would have expertise configuring boot partitions correctly.

For reference, the NixOS manual says I should dd the ISO to the disk directly: sudo dd if=<path-to-image> of=/dev/sdX bs=4M conv=fsync

02:12:28
@tim92:matrix.orgtimI don't think that this will work since you need to unmount the live USB to format it as storage device07:16:00
@raj-magesh:matrix.orgRaj
In reply to @tim92:matrix.org
I don't think that this will work since you need to unmount the live USB to format it as storage device
Not sure what you mean, exactly. To clarify, I'm not trying to format the USB while it's live; I'm running this from an existing NixOS install.

If the"live USB" bit uses only ~1 GiB, there should be some way to make use of the remaining space, hopefully.
07:57:47
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@vartroc:matrix.org@vartroc:matrix.org

Soooo,
I have decided to just try it.
After debugging some syntax issues, I have encountered this bug:

error:
       … while evaluating the attribute 'diskoScript'

         at /nix/store/3mlzsgflq3z4wsk2arffhd999h1hj17g-disko/share/disko/lib/default.nix:418:15:

          417|
          418|               diskoScript = (diskoLib.writeCheckedBash { inherit pkgs checked; }) "disko" ''
             |               ^
          419|                 export PATH=${lib.makeBinPath ((cfg.config._packages pkgs) ++ [ pkgs.bash ])}:$PATH

       … in the condition of the assert statement

         at /nix/store/y11h0vfmjaf8j1796x0n2454hqldnbbr-0vyi8f8l8cya10dmgfrj0df2iqxlhiyi-source/pkgs/build-support/writers/scripts.nix:32:5:

           31|     assert (types.path.check nameOrPath) || (builtins.match "([0-9A-Za-z._])[0-9A-Za-z._-]*" nameOrPath != null);
           32|     assert (types.path.check content) || (types.str.check content);
             |     ^
           33|     let

       (stack trace truncated; use '--show-trace' to show the full trace)

       error: The option `disko.devices.disk.lvm_vg.root_vg' does not exist. Definition values:
       - In `<unknown-file>':
           {
             lvs = {
               games = {
                 content = {
                   extraArgs = [
           ...

Does anybody have any idea how I can fix this?

Here's my disko.nix:

{
disko.devices = {
	disk = {
		disk0 = {
			type = "disk";
			device = "/dev/nvme1n1";
			content = {
				type = "gpt";
				partitions = {
					esp = {
						name = "ESP";
						size = "500M";
						type = "EF00";
						content = {
							type = "filesystem";
							format = "vfat";
							mountpoint = "/boot";
						};
					};

					root = {
						name = "root0";
						size = "100%";
						content = {
							type = "lvm_pv";
							vg = "root_vg";
						};
					};
				};
			};
		};
		disk1 = {
			type = "disk";
			device = "/dev/nvme0n1";
			content = {
				type = "gpt";
				partitions = {
					root = {
						name = "root1";
						size = "100%";
						content = {
							type = "lvm_pv";
							vg = "root_vg";
						};
					};
				};
			};
		};

		lvm_vg = {
			root_vg = {
				type = "lvm_vg";
				lvs = {
					root = {
						size = "25%FREE";
						content = {
							type = "btrfs";
							extraArgs = ["-f"];
							subvolumes = {
								"/root" = {
							 	 mountpoint = "/";
								};

								"/persist" = {
								mountOptions = ["subvol=persist" "noatime"];
								mountpoint = "/persist";
								};

								"/nix" = {
								mountOptions = ["subvol=nix" "noatime"];
								mountpoint = "/nix";
								};
							};
						};
					};

					games = {
						size = "100%FREE";
						content = {
							type = "btrfs";
							extraArgs = ["-f"];
							subvolumes = {
								"/games" = {
								mountOptions = ["subvol=games" "noatime"];
								mountpoint = "/games";
								};
							};
						};
					};
				};
			};
		};
	};
};
}
15:33:36
@vartroc:matrix.org@vartroc:matrix.orgI couldn't find anything remotely connected with this bug15:34:34
@vartroc:matrix.org@vartroc:matrix.orgIf you need anything else from me, please ask18:58:57

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