nix-installer

Installs NixOS using ZFS in an opinionated way.

Background

This installs NixOS from a configuration file;

• Using a dedicated UEFI drive.
• Uses entire disk or disks for ZFS as the root filesystem with optional stripe, mirror or raidz.
• Configures common mount paths as ZFS datasets
• Configures the system to use the specified flake

Usage

1. Boot the NixOS Live ISO (be sure to boot an LTS kernel for ZFS support).

2. Setup Networking

3. Either download a release binary or run the installer using the one-shot script:

# Dry run example using a remote config
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MAHDTech/nixos-installer/trunk/scripts/yolo.sh | sudo bash -s -- -config HYPERVISOR-1

# Execute mode example using a local config
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MAHDTech/nixos-installer/trunk/scripts/yolo.sh | sudo bash -s -- -config /tmp/config.yaml -run

# Execute mode example that also installs the defined Nix flake.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MAHDTech/nixos-installer/trunk/scripts/yolo.sh | sudo bash -s -- -config HYPERVISOR-1 -run -install

Configuration Options

The installer supports two ways to specify configuration files:

Config Names (Automatic GitHub Fetch)

When you pass a simple name without path separators or file extensions:

• HYPERVISOR-1 → fetches configs/HYPERVISOR-1.yaml from GitHub
• example → fetches configs/example.yaml from GitHub

File Paths (Local Files)

When you pass a path with separators or file extensions:

• ./config.yaml → reads local file
• /tmp/my-config.yaml → reads local file
• configs/HYPERVISOR-1.yaml → reads local file (if cloned repo)