How To Install NixOS Minimum from USB drive

You can make the USB drive by downloading the image off of nixos.org and then use Etcher, dd, or your favorite iso to USB drive utility.

The minimum version of NixOS does not come with a GUI installer.

https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/#ch-installation

The manual contains all the info needed. For a minimum install, there are a couple of steps that you need to perform, before you can install.

  1. Format hard disk
  2. Create config file
  3. Install

Format Hard Disk

We’ll assume that /dev/sda is our target disk. This will overwrite the disk. Make sure you don’t need anything on it.

parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart root ext4 512MB -8GB
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart swap linux-swap -8GB 100%
parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1MB 512MB
parted /dev/sda -- set 3 esp on

Format the partitions

mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1
mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2
mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/sda3
mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount /dev/disk/by-label/boot /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/sda2

Create a basic config file

nixos-generate-config --root /mnt

You can edit the config to make any changes you need. You may want to uncomment the user lines to setup a new user.

nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

Install NixOS

nixos-install

Last step is to setup the root and user password.

passwd

Reboot the machine once the password is set.

After you log in, set the user password.

passwd username

Install Chia Blockchain on Ubuntu

Chia is a new kinda of Crypto Currency that instead of using PoW (Proof of Work) it uses Proof of Space and Time which ends up using hard drive space to “mine” farm.

Install Chia Blockchain

You can copy and paste all of these commands in a terminal.

sudo apt update -y
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y git
git clone https://github.com/Chia-Network/chia-blockchain.git -b latest --recurse-submodules

cd chia-blockchain
sh install.sh
. ./activate
chia init

The . ./activate command is needed to be able to run the chia commands. I believe it sources into the current shell so the commands work correctly.

Install Chia Blockchain Gui

After you have run the above commands, do the following to install the Chia Gui

chmod +x ./install-gui.sh
./install-gui.sh
cd chia-blockchain-gui
npm run electron &

Launching Gui after it is installed

In the future for launching the Gui you should be able to copy and paste the following commands in.

cd chia-blockchain 
. ./activate
cd chia-blockchain-gui
npm run electron &

You can also put all of the above commands into a bash shell script and then just run the script instead of having to run the commands all over again every time you want to launch the gui.

Installing a specific package version on Ubuntu

On Ubuntu and potentially other Debian based distributions, you can check the available versions of a package with the apt show command

apt show -a

Example showing firefox versions

~$ apt show -a firefox
Package: firefox
Version: 87.0+build3-0ubuntu0.20.04.2
Priority: optional
Section: web
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Mozilla Team <ubuntu-mozillateam@lists.ubuntu.com>
..................
 More information
..................

Package: firefox
Version: 75.0+build3-0ubuntu1
Priority: optional
Section: web
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Mozilla Team <ubuntu-mozillateam@lists.ubuntu.com>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
..................

To install a specific version, use the version number

sudo apt install firefox=75.0+build3-0ubuntu1

Install Element (Matrix Client) on Ubuntu

https://element.io/get-started

Installing the Matrix client Element is fairly straight forward on Ubuntu. You should be able to copy and paste the following commands in a terminal.

sudo wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/riot-im-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.riot.im/debian/riot-im-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/riot-im-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.riot.im/debian/ default main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/riot-im.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install element-desktop

Installing Discord on Fedora 33

For some reason a lot of applications out there do not have a built RPM package. Fortunately, there are a bunch of applications built into snap, so we can install snap and then install Discord.

You can also use the copr repo. Visit the following link for instructions.

Install Snap Store

sudo dnf install snapd

https://snapcraft.io/docs/installing-snap-on-fedora

Install Discord

snap install discord

You may need to try signing out and back in or restarting your computer for the applications to show up in your application menu.

You can also manually run the application with

snap run discord

Installing UniFi controller in Docker Container

Instructions followed from here. Some changes were made
Commands work on Ubuntu 16.04

Install Docker

sudo apt install -y docker docker.io
systemctl enable docker
systemctl start docker

Install UniFi

sudo docker pull jacobalberty/unifi:latest

Setup Docker Image

The following command sets up a container which we can later manipulate to start and stop the “service”
You can specify where you want the UniFi files to reside if desired.

sudo docker run -d --init --restart=unless-stopped --name=unifi-controller --net=host --volume=/docker/unifi:/var/lib/unifi -p 8080:8080/tcp -p 8081:8081/tcp -p 8443:8443/tcp -p 8843:8843/tcp -p 8880:8880/tcp -p 8883:8883/tcp -p 3478:3478/udp jacobalberty/unifi:latest

Docker commands

List docker containers

sudo docker container list
367c7a1465ec        jacobalberty/unifi:latest   "/usr/loca/bin/dock…" 15 minutes ago      Up 14 minutes (healthy) unifi-controller

List docker images on system

sudo docker images
jacobalberty/unifi latest baebbe301633 9 days ago 711MB

Stop container. Also stops the UniFi service. Change the ID to your container ID.

sudo docker stop 367c7a1465ec

Other notes

When setting up the Docker image, the directory specified was “/docker/unifi” so all the UniFi files are in there and it looks like if you manipulate the files, it makes the changes fine. At least for setting up the SSL certificates.

Update FreeBSD 7.2

The freebsd-update command can be used to update a FreeBSD system

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html

freebsd-update 
usage: freebsd-update [options] command … [path] 
Options:
   -b basedir   -- Operate on a system mounted at basedir
                   (default: /)
   -d workdir   -- Store working files in workdir
                   (default: /var/db/freebsd-update/)
   -f conffile  -- Read configuration options from conffile
                   (default: /etc/freebsd-update.conf)
   -k KEY       -- Trust an RSA key with SHA256 hash of KEY
   -r release   -- Target for upgrade (e.g., 6.2-RELEASE)
   -s server    -- Server from which to fetch updates
                   (default: update.FreeBSD.org)
   -t address   -- Mail output of cron command, if any, to address
                   (default: root)
Commands:
   fetch        -- Fetch updates from server
   cron         -- Sleep rand(3600) seconds, fetch updates, and send an
                   email if updates were found
   upgrade      -- Fetch upgrades to FreeBSD version specified via -r option
   install      -- Install downloaded updates or upgrades
   rollback     -- Uninstall most recently installed updates
   IDS          -- Compare the system against an index of "known good" files.

To get the updates do

freebsd-update fetch

Let it run and download the updates, then run

freebsd-update install

Should say it is installing updates. Then done.