Xinux ISO

Xinux is a NixOS based Linux distribution focused on beginner friendliness and ease of use. This repository contains the configuration used to build the Xinux ISO files.

Documentation

This repo uses nixos-generators project.

How to build iso

1. Clone this repository and navigate to the project directory
2. nixos-rebuild build-image --image-variant iso-installer --flake .#xinux --show-trace
3. The resulting ISO file will be linked in result/iso/xinux-<version>.iso

Other builds (on NixOS hosts)

# aarch64-linux
nixos-rebuild build-image --image-variant iso-installer --flake .#xinux-arm --show-trace

# aarch64-linux SD card image
# No installer, the default user/password is `xinux` (change after the first boot)
nixos-rebuild build-image --image-variant sd-card --flake .#xinux-pi --show-trace

# Virtualbox
nixos-rebuild build-image --image-variant virtualbox --flake .#xinux --show-trace

# Vm
nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake .#xinux --show-trace

# VMWARE
nixos-rebuild build-image --image-variant vmware --flake .#xinux --show-trace

# Offline install coming soon...
# nix build .#install-isoCnfigurations.xinux-offline.config.system.build.images.iso

Building on non-NixOS hosts (Ubuntu, Debian, etc.)

nixos-rebuild ships only with NixOS. On other Linux distributions, install the Nix package manager and use nix build against the same flake attributes.

One-time setup

Pick one of the two Nix installers below.

1. Determinate Systems installer (flakes enabled by default):

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

2. nixos.org installer (flakes must be enabled manually):

   sh <(curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon
   
   # Enable flakes and the nix command
   sudo mkdir -p /etc/nix
   echo 'experimental-features = nix-command flakes' | sudo tee -a /etc/nix/nix.conf
   sudo systemctl restart nix-daemon

Optional: enable aarch64 emulation for cross-arch builds on an x86_64 host

sudo apt install qemu-user-static binfmt-support
echo 'extra-platforms = aarch64-linux' | sudo tee -a /etc/nix/nix.conf
sudo systemctl restart nix-daemon

Build commands

# ISO installer (x86_64)
nix build .#nixosConfigurations.xinux.config.system.build.images.iso-installer --show-trace

# aarch64-linux
nix build .#nixosConfigurations.xinux-arm.config.system.build.images.iso-installer --show-trace

# aarch64-linux SD card image
# No installer, the default user/password is `xinux` (change after the first boot)
nix build .#nixosConfigurations.xinux-pi.config.system.build.images.sd-card --show-trace

# VirtualBox
nix build .#nixosConfigurations.xinux.config.system.build.images.virtualbox --show-trace

# VMware
nix build .#nixosConfigurations.xinux.config.system.build.images.vmware --show-trace

Hardware requirements

Note Only 64-bit processors are supported.

Xinux ISO (x86_64 and AArch64)

	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	8 GB	16 GB
Storage	128 GB	256 GB

Xinux Pi

The kernel-reserved CMA pool (256 MiB, placed inside the low 1 GiB DMA zone) and the GNOME desktop rule out sub-2 GB boards. Supported Raspberry Pi models:

Model	RAM
Pi 4	2 GB+
Pi 5	4 GB+
CM4	2 GB+

Development

Add a unique iso name on system/ARCHITECTURE/HOSTNAME otherwise the build command gets the first match.