#!/usr/bin/env bash # Write a NixOS installer ISO to a USB stick (raw dd). # # The script self-elevates via sudo if not already running as root, so # you can run it as your normal user. # # After booting the resulting USB on the target machine, fetch this repo # over the network with `git clone ` from the installer shell. set -euo pipefail if [[ -t 1 ]]; then GREEN=$'\e[32m'; YELLOW=$'\e[33m'; RED=$'\e[31m'; BLUE=$'\e[34m' BOLD=$'\e[1m'; RESET=$'\e[0m' else GREEN=""; YELLOW=""; RED=""; BLUE=""; BOLD=""; RESET="" fi log() { printf '%s[+]%s %s\n' "$GREEN" "$RESET" "$*"; } warn() { printf '%s[!]%s %s\n' "$YELLOW" "$RESET" "$*" >&2; } err() { printf '%s[-]%s %s\n' "$RED" "$RESET" "$*" >&2; } info() { printf '%s[i]%s %s\n' "$BLUE" "$RESET" "$*"; } die() { err "$1"; exit "${2:-1}"; } ISO_PATH="" DEVICE="" ALLOW_INTERNAL=0 ASSUME_YES=0 # Save original args before the parser shifts them away; needed if we # later re-exec under sudo. ORIG_ARGS=("$@") while (($#)); do case "$1" in --iso) ISO_PATH="${2:?missing path}"; shift 2 ;; --device|--dev) DEVICE="${2:?missing path}"; shift 2 ;; --allow-internal) ALLOW_INTERNAL=1; shift ;; --yes|-y) ASSUME_YES=1; shift ;; -h|--help) awk '/^#!/ {next} /^[^#]/ {exit} {sub(/^# ?/, ""); print}' "$0" exit 0 ;; *) die "unknown arg: $1" 2 ;; esac done # Self-elevate via sudo if not already root. We re-exec rather than tell # the user to prefix the command, so `just make-usb` and `./scripts/make-usb.sh` # both Just Work. if (( EUID != 0 )); then if ! command -v sudo >/dev/null 2>&1; then die "must run as root and sudo is not installed" 1 fi # ORIG_ARGS may be empty; ${ORIG_ARGS[@]+"${ORIG_ARGS[@]}"} expands # safely under set -u even when the array is unset. exec sudo --preserve-env=PATH -- "$0" ${ORIG_ARGS[@]+"${ORIG_ARGS[@]}"} fi # Require an interactive tty for any prompt we still need. need_tty=0 [[ -z "$DEVICE" || -z "$ISO_PATH" ]] && need_tty=1 (( ASSUME_YES )) || need_tty=1 if (( need_tty )) && ! [[ -t 0 ]]; then die "stdin is not a tty; pass --iso, --device, and --yes for non-interactive use" 2 fi # Required commands. REQUIRED=(lsblk dd sync wipefs blockdev mount umount awk) missing=() for cmd in "${REQUIRED[@]}"; do command -v "$cmd" >/dev/null 2>&1 || missing+=("$cmd") done if ((${#missing[@]})); then err "missing tools: ${missing[*]}" cat >&2 <<'EOF' On NixOS / with Nix installed, re-run inside a shell that has them: nix shell nixpkgs#util-linux nixpkgs#coreutils -c sudo ./scripts/make-usb.sh On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install util-linux coreutils EOF exit 3 fi human() { numfmt --to=iec --suffix=B "$1" 2>/dev/null || echo "$1"; } is_removable() { # /sys/block//removable: 1 = removable (USB stick, SD via USB reader), # 0 = fixed (internal disk, many "USB" enclosures lie though). local name; name="$(basename "$1")" [[ "$(cat "/sys/block/$name/removable" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)" == "1" ]] } contains_root_or_boot() { # Refuse if any partition on this disk holds /, /boot, or active swap. local dev="$1" lsblk -lnpo MOUNTPOINT,NAME "$dev" | awk -v d="$dev" ' $1=="/" || $1=="/boot" || $1=="[SWAP]" { found=1 } END { exit !found } ' } select_device() { log "Available whole disks:" printf ' %-3s %-14s %-8s %-6s %-16s %s\n' "Idx" "Device" "Size" "Bus" "Removable" "Model" # Use lsblk's pairs mode for robust parsing (handles spaces in MODEL). # lsblk -P emits lines of KEY="value" KEY="value" ... we sanity-check # the line matches that strict shape before eval'ing it. local -a CANDS=() local line NAME SIZE MODEL TRAN RM TYPE while IFS= read -r line; do [[ "$line" =~ ^([A-Z]+=\"[^\"]*\"[[:space:]]*)+$ ]] || continue NAME=""; SIZE=""; MODEL=""; TRAN=""; RM=""; TYPE="" eval "$line" [[ "${TYPE:-}" == "disk" ]] || continue # Skip optical, loop, ram, zram, dm. case "$NAME" in /dev/sr*|/dev/loop*|/dev/ram*|/dev/zram*|/dev/dm-*) continue ;; esac CANDS+=("$NAME"$'\t'"${SIZE:-?}"$'\t'"${TRAN:-?}"$'\t'"${RM:-0}"$'\t'"${MODEL:-?}") done < <(lsblk -dpP -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TRAN,RM,TYPE) ((${#CANDS[@]})) || die "no candidate disks found" 4 local i=1 for c in "${CANDS[@]}"; do IFS=$'\t' read -r n s t r m <<<"$c" local marker="" if [[ "$r" == "1" ]]; then marker="${GREEN}yes${RESET}"; else marker="${YELLOW}no${RESET}"; fi if contains_root_or_boot "$n"; then marker="${RED}SYSTEM DISK${RESET}" fi printf ' %-3s %-14s %-8s %-6s %-16b %s\n' "$i" "$n" "$s" "$t" "$marker" "$m" ((i++)) done echo echo "Enter 0 to abort." echo local idx while :; do read -r -p "Select device [1-${#CANDS[@]}]: " idx [[ "$idx" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] || { warn "not a number"; continue; } (( idx == 0 )) && die "aborted by user" 1 (( idx >= 1 && idx <= ${#CANDS[@]} )) || { warn "out of range"; continue; } IFS=$'\t' read -r n _ _ r _ <<<"${CANDS[idx-1]}" if contains_root_or_boot "$n"; then err "$n is the running system disk — refusing"; continue fi if [[ "$r" != "1" ]] && (( ! ALLOW_INTERNAL )); then err "$n is not removable; pass --allow-internal if you really mean it" continue fi DEVICE="$n" return 0 done } if [[ -z "$DEVICE" ]]; then select_device else [[ -b "$DEVICE" ]] || die "$DEVICE is not a block device" 2 # Reject partitions. We want whole disks only. if [[ "$(lsblk -dno TYPE "$DEVICE" 2>/dev/null)" != "disk" ]]; then die "$DEVICE is not a whole disk (partition or other type)" 4 fi if contains_root_or_boot "$DEVICE"; then die "$DEVICE holds /, /boot, or active swap — refusing" 4 fi if ! is_removable "$DEVICE" && (( ! ALLOW_INTERNAL )); then die "$DEVICE is not removable; pass --allow-internal to override" 4 fi fi DEV_BYTES="$(blockdev --getsize64 "$DEVICE")" log "Target: $DEVICE ($(human "$DEV_BYTES"))" if [[ -z "$ISO_PATH" ]]; then while :; do read -r -e -p "Path to NixOS ISO: " ISO_PATH ISO_PATH="${ISO_PATH/#\~/$HOME}" [[ -f "$ISO_PATH" ]] && break warn "not a file: $ISO_PATH" done fi [[ -f "$ISO_PATH" ]] || die "ISO not found: $ISO_PATH" 2 ISO_BYTES="$(stat -c '%s' "$ISO_PATH")" log "ISO: $ISO_PATH ($(human "$ISO_BYTES"))" # Sanity: file should look like an ISO 9660 image. if command -v file >/dev/null 2>&1; then if ! file -b "$ISO_PATH" | grep -qiE 'iso 9660|udf'; then warn "$(file -b "$ISO_PATH")" warn "file(1) doesn't recognise this as ISO 9660. Continuing anyway." fi fi # Sanity: ISO must fit on disk. if (( ISO_BYTES > DEV_BYTES )); then die "ISO is larger than the disk" 4 fi # Optional sha256 sidecar verification. # Resolve through symlinks so `make-usb --iso iso/latest-...iso` finds # the sidecar that lives next to the real file. ISO_REAL="$(readlink -f "$ISO_PATH")" if [[ -f "$ISO_REAL.sha256" ]]; then log "Verifying $ISO_REAL.sha256..." ( cd "$(dirname "$ISO_REAL")" && sha256sum -c "$(basename "$ISO_REAL").sha256" ) \ || die "sha256 verification failed" 5 elif [[ -f "$ISO_PATH.sha256" ]]; then log "Verifying $ISO_PATH.sha256..." ( cd "$(dirname "$ISO_PATH")" && sha256sum -c "$(basename "$ISO_PATH").sha256" ) \ || die "sha256 verification failed" 5 fi cat </dev/null || umount -l "$part" 2>/dev/null || warn "could not umount $part" done < <(lsblk -lnpo NAME,MOUNTPOINT "$DEVICE" | awk '$2!=""') log "Wiping signatures..." wipefs -a "$DEVICE" >/dev/null log "Writing ISO with dd (this can take a few minutes)..." if ! dd if="$ISO_PATH" of="$DEVICE" bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync oflag=direct; then err "dd failed." # Surface the most recent kernel complaints about this device so the # user can distinguish bad-block / hardware failure ("Medium Error", # "Hardware Error") from cable/port flakiness ("usb ... reset", # "Communication failure") without having to dig through dmesg. dev_short="$(basename "$DEVICE")" if dmesg_out="$(dmesg 2>/dev/null | grep -E "(${dev_short}|usb [0-9]+-[0-9]+)" | tail -10)" \ && [[ -n "$dmesg_out" ]]; then warn "Recent kernel messages mentioning ${dev_short} or USB events:" printf '%s\n' "$dmesg_out" | sed 's/^/ /' >&2 warn "Look for 'Medium Error' / 'Hardware Error' (bad flash → replace stick)," warn "or 'reset' / 'Communication failure' (cable/port → try a different one)." else warn "Run \`sudo dmesg | tail -30\` to see why the kernel rejected the write." fi exit 5 fi log "Final sync (flushing kernel buffers; may take a moment)..." sync blockdev --flushbufs "$DEVICE" 2>/dev/null || true echo log "${BOLD}Done.${RESET} You can unplug $DEVICE now." echo info "Boot the new machine from this USB. Once at the installer shell:" info " - Connect to the network (Ethernet, or 'sudo systemctl start wpa_supplicant' + 'wpa_cli', or 'nmtui' on the graphical ISO)." info " - Clone your repo: git clone /tmp/notfiles" info " - Partition the target disk, mount at /mnt, then:" info " nixos-install --flake /tmp/notfiles#" echo