Here's a useful reference I kept handy during this process.
After re-initializing the server and changing the disk driver from SCSI to IDE in the control panel, I logged in and ran the following:
# apt update
# apt upgrade
# apt install gnupg2
# wget https://sv.gnu.org/people/viewgpg.php?user_id=15145 -qO - | gpg --import -
# wget https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/plain/etc/guix-install.sh
# sh guix-install.sh
# guix pull
# export PATH="/root/.config/guix/current/bin${PATH:+:}$PATH"
# hash guix
# guix package -i glibc-locales vim
# cat <<END >>.profile
PATH="/root/.config/guix/current/bin${PATH:+:}$PATH"
GUIX_PROFILE="/root/.guix-profile"
. "$GUIX_PROFILE/etc/profile"
END
I also verified that the guix-daemon was running.
Here's the disk layout of the Debian system:
# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
sda 254:0 0 60G 0 disk
├─sda1 254:1 0 2M 0 part
├─sda2 254:2 0 1G 0 part /boot
└─sda3 254:3 0 59G 0 part /
Config file:
(use-modules (gnu))
(use-modules (gnu packages linux))
(use-modules (gnu services certbot))
(use-service-modules networking ssh)
(use-package-modules admin)
(operating-system
(host-name "rakuli")
(timezone "Europe/Amsterdam")
(locale "en_US.UTF-8")
(kernel linux-libre-4.14)
(bootloader
(bootloader-configuration
(bootloader grub-bootloader)
(target "/dev/sda")))
(file-systems (append
(list (file-system
(device (uuid "..."))
(mount-point "/")
(type "ext4"))
(file-system
(device (uuid "...")
(mount-point "/boot")
(type "ext4")))
%base-file-systems))
;; This is where user accounts are specified. The "root"
;; account is implicit, and is initially created with the
;; empty password.
(users (cons (user-account
(name "jboy")
(group "users")
;; Adding the account to the "wheel" group
;; makes it a sudoer.
(supplementary-groups '("wheel"))
(home-directory "/home/jboy"))
%base-user-accounts))
;; Globally-installed packages.
(packages (cons tcpdump %base-packages))
(services (append
(list (service dhcp-client-service-type)
(service openssh-service-type
(openssh-configuration
(permit-root-login 'without-password)
(authorized-keys
`(("root" ,(local-file "jboy.pub"))
("jboy" ,(local-file "jboy.pub"))))))
(service certbot-service-type
(certbot-configuration
(email "jboy+letsencrypt@bius.moe")
(certificates
(list
(certificate-configuration
(domains '("rakuli.example"))))))))
%base-services)))I added a file jboy.pub with the contents of ~/.ssh/id_edsa.pub from home machine, then I ran:
# guix system build rakuli-config.scm
# guix system init rakuli-config.scm /
Everything looked good, so I ran:
# mv /etc /etc.old
# reboot
At this point I opened the VNC screen to watch what was going on during reboot. Everything went well and I was even able to log in as root via ssh using my private key.
I then ran guix package -i vim and things started running their course, until suddenly I got this error:
error: executing `/gnu/store/23q7cbgqj7afvmnmrvy8npi26vc72y7f-guix-1.0.1-9.f63e493/bin/guix substitute': No such file or directory
guix package: error: unexpected EOF reading a line
Then everything was seemingly broken. On my VNC session I could see that sshd from /gnu/store could no longer be found ("No such file or directory").
I booted from a recovery disk and mounted /dev/sda3 to find that all files were still, in fact, there. fsck said the device was clean. Running ldd and file on binaries in the /gnu/store didn't turn up anything unusual either.
The IRC channel had a few suggestions that I believe I've exhausted.