Guix and GuixSD

On a multi-tenant GNU Guix system like the Dam, unprivileged users can trigger the download and installation of software in the store, the read-only part of the filesystem where all the software is.

Given the direction that the Nix project is going, I suspect that many of you Nix users reading along here are currently considering alternatives, and among them Guix.

Personally I've only been using Nix for a few weeks, so my investment is not that big, but how about you? For a technical comparison, you could start with these two articles. If you're on IRC, I'd also suggest to join #guix just in case or look at the other communication options they endorse on their website.

What gives me the most thoughts is the availability of recent-ish software on Guix; but given Guix's FSF-level copyleft culture there's at least the certainty that whatever efforts I might put in to build and package things myself would have the lowest-possible likelihood of suffering corporate/fashtech capture. And we may be picking up momentum to collectively alleviate those problems.

GGG (Guile Glyph Generator) v0.4.6

Now also packaged via Podman/Docker, and a new version is in a PR to Guix, containing many improvements, specially to CLI experience and flexibility, as well as a cleaner badge definition DSL

https://codeberg.org/jjba23/ggg

Through SVG generation from Lisp (Guile Scheme) we leverage a beautiful DSL (Domain-Specific Language) and apply some mathematical knowledge to build pixel perfect badges.

The SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) can then be easily converted without quality loss to any desired format. Create your badges programatically with a polished aesthetic!

Maak: The infinitely extensible command runner, control plane and project automator à la Make (written in Guile Scheme - Lisp)

https://codeberg.org/jjba23/maak

Free yourself of repetitive, lacking, weird and arcane Makefile. After some weeks working on this project, I am upstreaming it to Guix so soon you all can enjoy.

https://codeberg.org/guix/guix/pulls/2132

Also, see here an advanced example of a Maak file: https://codeberg.org/jjba23/sss/src/branch/trunk/maak.scm

With the full power of Scheme (Guile) directly in your command runner/control plane, easily define functions, data, lists, loop through them, macros, etc.

Maak has as core mission being your control center or command plane, and act as a command runner, not necessarily a build system, so it avoids much of Make's complexity. No need for .PHONY recipes here.

Maak replaces the arcane syntax of Make with the power and elegance of a full-featured programming language: GNU Guile Scheme λ.

Instead of learning a limited DSL, you can leverage your existing Lisp skills to define tasks, manage data, and automate your workflows with ease. Define functions, manipulate lists, use conditional, create macros—the entire language is at your disposal.

You can also easily call external shell commands and integrate with your existing scripts and tools.

SSS (Supreme Sexp System) releases a polished v3.3.22 after 9 months of continuous development ✨

https://codeberg.org/jjba23/sss

• #dracula palette has been added as shown in the #screenshot
• experimental help center 🧪 for SSS, tailor made #gtk4 #rust application
• many improvements and quality of life added to this #gnu #linux quasi - #distro on top of #guix
• much more ...

SSS is a #rice 🖥️ 🍙 worthy of #unixporn and uses #guile #scheme #emacs #hyprland and more

In 23 easy steps!

I'm trying to get guix installed on an Ubuntu 24.10 (work) machine.

I tried running guix home container, but got this error.

error: mount: mount "none" on "/tmp/guix-directory.V6IzTc": Permission denied

I fixed it by creating a file at /etc/apparmor.d/guix with this content.

# This profile allows everything and only exists to give the
# application a name instead of having the label "unconfined"

abi <abi/4.0>,
include <tunables/global>

profile guix /{usr/bin/guix,gnu/store/*-guix-command,gnu/store/*/bin/guix,gnu/store/*/libexec/guix/guile,gnu/store/*/bin/guile} flags=(unconfined) {
  userns,

  # Site-specific additions and overrides. See local/README for details.
  include if exists <local/guix>
}

Seems to have fixed that error now! Woo.

guix shell sees to it that all of the dependencies (listed in the inputs and native-inputs sections) are available within the shell session it creates by downloading (or building, if necessary) the entire dependency tree.

Should you want/need more isolation from the host system, guix shell has you covered. The --pure flag will clear out most existing environments variables, such as $PATH, so that the resulting environment does not contain pointers to places like /usr. For more Docker-like isolation, the --container flag can be used, which will run the new shell session within a set of Linux namespaces so that the host system is inaccessible.

Using the Grid'5000 infrastructure,a study of the effect of nine different CPU models using two software packaging systems (#docker and #guix), and comparison of the resulting hardware variability to numerical variability measured with random rounding.