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sda ├─sda1 ntfs Recovery # some Win7 artifact ├─sda2 vfat /boot/efi ├─sda3 vfat NIXBOOT # boot partition (esp, efi) ├─sda4 ext4 onyx # NixOS data ├─sda5 swap # Ubuntu swap │ └─cryptswap1 swap [SWAP] ├─sda6 ext4 # (Arch install) ├─sda7 ext4 / # Ubuntu install ├─sda8 swap nixswap └─sda9 ext4 home 

sda ├─sda1 ntfs Recovery # some Win7 artifact ├─sda2 vfat /boot/efi ├─sda3 vfat NIXBOOT # boot partition (esp, boot) ├─sda4 ext4 onyx # NixOS data ├─sda5 swap # Ubuntu swap │ └─cryptswap1 swap [SWAP] ├─sda6 ext4 # (Arch install) ├─sda7 ext4 / # Ubuntu install ├─sda8 swap nixswap └─sda9 ext4 home 

EDIT: I forgot to include how my partitions are set up and what I tried before successfully installing NixOS.

Partitions (mountpoints from Ubuntu):

sda ├─sda1 ntfs Recovery # some Win7 artifact ├─sda2 vfat /boot/efi ├─sda3 vfat NIXBOOT # boot partition (esp, efi) ├─sda4 ext4 onyx # NixOS data ├─sda5 swap # Ubuntu swap │ └─cryptswap1 swap [SWAP] ├─sda6 ext4 # (Arch install) ├─sda7 ext4 / # Ubuntu install ├─sda8 swap nixswap └─sda9 ext4 home 

I didn't want to mess up the Ubuntu boot partition, so I created another one (/dev/sda3). My plan was to later include a menu entry in Ubuntu's GRUB for NixOS, but for now, install, reboot and test booting NixOS from GRUB console (set root=..., linux ..., initrd ..., boot)

sudo PATH="$PATH" NIX_PATH="$NIX_PATH" `which nixos-install` --root /mnt --no-bootloader 

After reboot, I couldn't see anything on the NixOS boot partition. Went back to Ubunut, installed without --no-bootloader, remembered to add an entry for Ubuntu and reboot. (It was only after this that I realized that systemd-boot and GRUB are two completely different things...)

UPDATE: I was able to get back to Ubuntu by selecting the Ubuntu boot partition as an alternative boot device in BIOS, and the usual GRUB menu came up. I may just redo the install with the right config.

I installed NixOS 18.03 from Ubuntu on another partition following the NixOS manual's "2.4. Installing from another Linux distribution" section. Everything went fine, but I did a couple idiotic things, namely:

• Forgot to add the extra GRUB boot loader entry for the Ubuntu installation before nixos-install. Added it as an afterthought after install, and did a reboot (of course, no Ubuntu entry)

• Did not enable any networking in configuration.nix, and ended up with no network configuration commands after reboot to connect to wifi. The catch 22 is that nixos-rebuild switch requires a network connection, so I couldn't finalize any changes.

So my thinking was that I can boot from a NixOS Live CD (17.03),connect to our wifi and somehow rebuild the config of the installation.

It is more than possible that I am missing something essential, have incorrect assumptions above etc; fairly new at nix and NixOS.

I installed NixOS 18.03 from Ubuntu on another partition following the NixOS manual's "2.4. Installing from another Linux distribution" section. Everything went fine, but I did a couple idiotic things [?], namely:

• Forgot to add the extra GRUB boot loader entry for the Ubuntu installation before nixos-install. Added it as an afterthought after install, and did a reboot (of course, no Ubuntu entry)

• Did not enable any networking in configuration.nix, and ended up with no network configuration commands after reboot to connect to wifi. The catch 22 is that nixos-rebuild switch requires a network connection, so I couldn't finalize any changes.

So my thinking was that I can boot from a NixOS Live CD (17.03),connect to our wifi and somehow rebuild the config of the installation.

It is more than possible that I am missing something essential, have incorrect assumptions above etc; fairly new at nix and NixOS.