NixOS

Download

Nix

Current version

2.3.8

Quick install

The quickest way to install Nix is to open a terminal and run the following command (as a user other than root with sudo permission): 

$ curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh

Make sure to follow the instructions output by the script.

The installation script requires that you have sudo access to root.

Verify installation

You may want to verify the integrity of the installation script using GPG:

$ curl -o install-nix-2.3.8 https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.3.8/install
$ curl -o install-nix-2.3.8.asc https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.3.8/install.asc
$ gpg2 --recv-keys B541D55301270E0BCF15CA5D8170B4726D7198DE
$ gpg2 --verify ./install-nix-2.3.8.asc
$ sh ./install-nix-2.3.8

The signing key has fingerprint B541 D553 0127 0E0B CF15 CA5D 8170 B472 6D71 98DE. It is also available on GitHub.

Uninstall

You can uninstall Nix simply by running rm -rf /nix.

NixOS

Current version

20.09

ISO image

You can install NixOS on physical hardware by burning one of the CD images onto a blank CD/DVD disk, or by copying it onto a USB stick. For installation instructions, please see the manual.

Graphical ISO image

The graphical installation ISO image contains NixOS installer as well as Desktop Environment and several applications. It’s a live CD, so it allows you to get an impression of NixOS (and the Nix package manager) without installing it.

Minimal ISO image

The minimal installation ISO image does not contain the graphical user interface, and is therefore a lot smaller. You have to run the installer from the console. It contains a number of rescue tools.

VirtualBox

VirtualBox image includes the Plasma Desktop (was KDE) as well as the VirtualBox guest additions.

To use it

  • Download the OVA file using the button above.
  • Open VirtualBox.
  • Run File → Import Appliance from the menu.
  • Select previously downloaded OVA file.
  • Click Import.
  • You can then start the virtual machine.
  • You can log in as user demo, password demo.
  • To obtain a root shell, run sudo -i in the terminal (konsole).

Amazon EC2

NixOS can be deployed to Amazon EC2 with a pre-generated AMI image that you can select bellow.

Via AWS Management Console

You can create an instance using the AWS Management Console by selecting the region and clicking the Launch button.

Choose region:
Root storage Virtualisation AMI

Via Command Line

You can also create an instance from the command line. For example, to create an instance in region eu-west-1 using the EC2 API tools, just run:

$ nix-shell -p ec2_api_tools
(nix-shell) $ ec2-run-instances  --region eu-west-1 -k my-key-pair