From ac96f2c8369c13dd7d27878ad9426fcda140ef3a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Maxim Cournoyer Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2020 22:43:14 -0500 Subject: doc: Detail which bootloader get used with disk-image or vm-image. * doc/guix.texi (Invoking guix system): Extend doc. --- doc/guix.texi | 31 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 26 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) (limited to 'doc') diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi index 2f3a474866..104e771562 100644 --- a/doc/guix.texi +++ b/doc/guix.texi @@ -31027,11 +31027,25 @@ a value. Docker images are built to contain exactly what they need, so the @option{--image-size} option is ignored in the case of @code{docker-image}. +@cindex disk-image, creating disk images The @code{disk-image} command can produce various image types. The image type can be selected using the @command{--image-type} option. It -defaults to @code{raw}. When its value is @code{iso9660}, the +defaults to @code{raw}. When its value is @code{iso9660}, the @option{--label} option can be used to specify a volume ID with -@code{disk-image}. +@code{disk-image}. When using @code{disk-image}, the bootloader +installed on the generated image is taken from the provided +@code{operating-system} definition. The following example demonstrates +how to generate an image that uses the @code{grub-efi-bootloader} +bootloader and boot it with QEMU: + +@example +image=$(guix system disk-image --image-type=qcow2 \ + gnu/system/examples/lightweight-desktop.tmpl) +cp $image /tmp/my-image.qcow2 +chmod +w /tmp/my-image.qcow2 +qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -hda /tmp/my-image.qcow2 -m 1000 + -bios $(guix build ovmf)/share/firmware/ovmf_x64.bin +@end example When using the @code{raw} image type, a raw disk image is produced; it can be copied as is to a USB stick, for instance. Assuming @@ -31045,10 +31059,17 @@ the image to it using the following command: The @code{--list-image-types} command lists all the available image types. +@cindex vm-image, creating virtual machine images When using @code{vm-image}, the returned image is in qcow2 format, which -the QEMU emulator can efficiently use. @xref{Running Guix in a VM}, -for more information on how to run the image in a virtual machine. - +the QEMU emulator can efficiently use. @xref{Running Guix in a VM}, for +more information on how to run the image in a virtual machine. The +@code{grub-bootloader} bootloader is always used independently of what +is declared in the @code{operating-system} file passed as argument. +This is to make it easier to work with QEMU, which uses the SeaBIOS BIOS +by default, expecting a bootloader to be installed in the Master Boot +Record (MBR). + +@cindex docker-image, creating docker images When using @code{docker-image}, a Docker image is produced. Guix builds the image from scratch, not from a pre-existing Docker base image. As a result, it contains @emph{exactly} what you define in the operating -- cgit v1.2.3