Merge pull request #47697 from samueldr/fix/47602-new-partitioning-steps

Manual: reviews partitioning steps

3 files changed, 420 insertions, 337 deletions

diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/Makefile b/nixos/doc/manual/Makefile
index 2e9adf70c396..b251a1f5e2c3 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/Makefile
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/Makefile
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ all: manual-combined.xml format
 .PHONY: debug
 debug: generated manual-combined.xml
 
-manual-combined.xml: generated *.xml
+manual-combined.xml: generated *.xml **/*.xml
 	rm -f ./manual-combined.xml
 	nix-shell --packages xmloscopy \
 		--run "xmloscopy --docbook5 ./manual.xml ./manual-combined.xml"
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml
index c5934111749c..0b311189430c 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml
@@ -9,13 +9,12 @@
   For systems without CD drive, the NixOS live CD can be booted from a USB
   stick. You can use the <command>dd</command> utility to write the image:
   <command>dd if=<replaceable>path-to-image</replaceable>
-  of=<replaceable>/dev/sdb</replaceable></command>. Be careful about specifying
+  of=<replaceable>/dev/sdX</replaceable></command>. Be careful about specifying
   the correct drive; you can use the <command>lsblk</command> command to get a
   list of block devices.
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  On macOS:
+  <note>
+   <title>On macOS</title>
+   <para>
 <programlisting>
 $ diskutil list
 [..]
@@ -26,43 +25,16 @@ $ diskutil unmountDisk diskN
 Unmount of all volumes on diskN was successful
 $ sudo dd bs=1m if=nix.iso of=/dev/rdiskN
 </programlisting>
-  Using the 'raw' <command>rdiskN</command> device instead of
-  <command>diskN</command> completes in minutes instead of hours. After
-  <command>dd</command> completes, a GUI dialog "The disk you inserted was not
-  readable by this computer" will pop up, which can be ignored.
+    Using the 'raw' <command>rdiskN</command> device instead of
+    <command>diskN</command> completes in minutes instead of hours. After
+    <command>dd</command> completes, a GUI dialog "The disk you inserted was
+    not readable by this computer" will pop up, which can be ignored.
+   </para>
+  </note>
  </para>
 
  <para>
   The <command>dd</command> utility will write the image verbatim to the drive,
   making it the recommended option for both UEFI and non-UEFI installations.
-  For non-UEFI installations, you can alternatively use
-  <link xlink:href="http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/">unetbootin</link>. If
-  you cannot use <command>dd</command> for a UEFI installation, you can also
-  mount the ISO, copy its contents verbatim to your drive, then either:
-  <itemizedlist>
-   <listitem>
-    <para>
-     Change the label of the disk partition to the label of the ISO (visible
-     with the blkid command), or
-    </para>
-   </listitem>
-   <listitem>
-    <para>
-     Edit <filename>loader/entries/nixos-livecd.conf</filename> on the drive
-     and change the <literal>root=</literal> field in the
-     <literal>options</literal> line to point to your drive (see the
-     documentation on <literal>root=</literal> in
-     <link xlink:href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt">
-     the kernel documentation</link> for more details).
-    </para>
-   </listitem>
-   <listitem>
-    <para>
-     If you want to load the contents of the ISO to ram after bootin (So you
-     can remove the stick after bootup) you can append the parameter
-     <literal>copytoram</literal> to the <literal>options</literal> field.
-    </para>
-   </listitem>
-  </itemizedlist>
  </para>
 </section>
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing.xml
index 1366e8f93596..2b68def95b70 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing.xml
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing.xml
@@ -4,60 +4,46 @@
             version="5.0"
             xml:id="sec-installation">
  <title>Installing NixOS</title>
- <para>
-  NixOS can be installed on BIOS or UEFI systems. The procedure for a UEFI
-  installation is by and large the same as a BIOS installation. The differences
-  are mentioned in the steps that follow.
- </para>
- <orderedlist>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    Boot from the CD.
-   </para>
-   <variablelist>
-    <varlistentry>
-     <term>
-      UEFI systems
-     </term>
-     <listitem>
-      <para>
-       You should boot the live CD in UEFI mode (consult your specific
-       hardware's documentation for instructions). You may find the
-       <link xlink:href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind">rEFInd boot
-       manager</link> useful.
-      </para>
-     </listitem>
-    </varlistentry>
-   </variablelist>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    The CD contains a basic NixOS installation. (It also contains Memtest86+,
-    useful if you want to test new hardware). When it’s finished booting, it
-    should have detected most of your hardware.
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    The NixOS manual is available on virtual console 8 (press Alt+F8 to access)
-    or by running <command>nixos-help</command>.
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    You get logged in as <literal>root</literal> (with empty password).
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    If you downloaded the graphical ISO image, you can run <command>systemctl
-    start display-manager</command> to start KDE. If you want to continue on
-    the terminal, you can use <command>loadkeys</command> to switch to your
-    preferred keyboard layout. (We even provide neo2 via <command>loadkeys de
-    neo</command>!)
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
+ <section xml:id="sec-installation-booting">
+  <title>Booting the system</title>
+
+  <para>
+   NixOS can be installed on BIOS or UEFI systems. The procedure for a UEFI
+   installation is by and large the same as a BIOS installation. The
+   differences are mentioned in the steps that follow.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   The installation media can be burned to a CD, or now more commonly, "burned"
+   to a USB drive (see <xref linkend="sec-booting-from-usb"/>).
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   The installation media contains a basic NixOS installation. When it’s
+   finished booting, it should have detected most of your hardware.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   The NixOS manual is available on virtual console 8 (press Alt+F8 to access)
+   or by running <command>nixos-help</command>.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   You are logged-in automatically as <literal>root</literal>. (The
+   <literal>root</literal> user account has an empty password.)
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   If you downloaded the graphical ISO image, you can run <command>systemctl
+   start display-manager</command> to start KDE. If you want to continue on the
+   terminal, you can use <command>loadkeys</command> to switch to your
+   preferred keyboard layout. (We even provide neo2 via <command>loadkeys de
+   neo</command>!)
+  </para>
+
+  <section xml:id="sec-installation-booting-networking">
+   <title>Networking in the installer</title>
+
    <para>
     The boot process should have brought up networking (check <command>ip
     a</command>). Networking is necessary for the installer, since it will
@@ -65,60 +51,167 @@
     binaries). It’s best if you have a DHCP server on your network. Otherwise
     configure networking manually using <command>ifconfig</command>.
    </para>
+
    <para>
     To manually configure the network on the graphical installer, first disable
     network-manager with <command>systemctl stop network-manager</command>.
    </para>
+
    <para>
     To manually configure the wifi on the minimal installer, run
     <command>wpa_supplicant -B -i interface -c &lt;(wpa_passphrase 'SSID'
     'key')</command>.
    </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
+
    <para>
     If you would like to continue the installation from a different machine you
     need to activate the SSH daemon via <literal>systemctl start
     sshd</literal>. In order to be able to login you also need to set a
     password for <literal>root</literal> using <literal>passwd</literal>.
    </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
+  </section>
+ </section>
+ <section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning">
+  <title>Partitioning and formatting</title>
+
+  <para>
+   The NixOS installer doesn’t do any partitioning or formatting, so you need
+   to do that yourself.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   The NixOS installer ships with multiple partitioning tools. The examples
+   below use <command>parted</command>, but also provides
+   <command>fdisk</command>, <command>gdisk</command>,
+   <command>cfdisk</command>, and <command>cgdisk</command>.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+   The recommended partition scheme differs depending if the computer uses
+   <emphasis>Legacy Boot</emphasis> or <emphasis>UEFI</emphasis>.
+  </para>
+
+  <section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-UEFI">
+   <title>UEFI (GPT)</title>
+
    <para>
-    The NixOS installer doesn’t do any partitioning or formatting yet, so you
-    need to do that yourself. Use the following commands:
-    <itemizedlist>
+    Here's an example partition scheme for UEFI, using
+    <filename>/dev/sda</filename> as the device.
+    <note>
+     <para>
+      You can safely ignore <command>parted</command>'s informational message
+      about needing to update /etc/fstab.
+     </para>
+    </note>
+   </para>
+
+   <para>
+    <orderedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
-       For partitioning: <command>fdisk</command>.
-<screen>
-# fdisk /dev/sda # <lineannotation>(or whatever device you want to install on)</lineannotation>
--- for UEFI systems only
-> n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /boot)</lineannotation>
-> 3      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 3)</lineannotation>
->        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation>
-> +512M  # <lineannotation>(the size of the UEFI boot partition)</lineannotation>
-> t      # <lineannotation>(change the partition type ...)</lineannotation>
-> 3      # <lineannotation>(... of the boot partition ...)</lineannotation>
-> 1      # <lineannotation>(... to 'UEFI System')</lineannotation>
--- for BIOS or UEFI systems
-> n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /swap)</lineannotation>
-> 2      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 2)</lineannotation>
->        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation>
-> +8G    # <lineannotation>(the size of the swap partition, set to whatever you like)</lineannotation>
-> n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /)</lineannotation>
-> 1      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 1)</lineannotation>
->        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation>
->        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default and use the rest of the remaining space)</lineannotation>
-> a      # <lineannotation>(make the partition bootable)</lineannotation>
-> x      # <lineannotation>(enter expert mode)</lineannotation>
-> f      # <lineannotation>(fix up the partition ordering)</lineannotation>
-> r      # <lineannotation>(exit expert mode)</lineannotation>
-> w      # <lineannotation>(write the partition table to disk and exit)</lineannotation></screen>
+       Create a <emphasis>GPT</emphasis> partition table.
+<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt</screen>
       </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
       <para>
+       Add a <emphasis>swap</emphasis> partition. The size required will vary
+       according to needs, here a 8GiB one is created. The space left in front
+       (512MiB) will be used by the boot partition.
+<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap 512MiB 8.5GiB</screen>
+       <note>
+        <para>
+         The swap partition size rules are no different than for other Linux
+         distributions.
+        </para>
+       </note>
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
+       Next, add the <emphasis>root</emphasis> partition. This will fill the
+       remainder ending part of the disk.
+<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 8.5GiB -1MiB</screen>
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
+       Finally, the <emphasis>boot</emphasis> partition. NixOS by default uses
+       the ESP (EFI system partition) as its <emphasis>/boot</emphasis>
+       partition. It uses the initially reserved 512MiB at the start of the
+       disk.
+<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1M 512MiB
+# parted /dev/sda -- set 3 boot on</screen>
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+    </orderedlist>
+   </para>
+
+   <para>
+    Once complete, you can follow with
+    <xref linkend="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting"/>.
+   </para>
+  </section>
+
+  <section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-MBR">
+   <title>Legacy Boot (MBR)</title>
+
+   <para>
+    Here's an example partition scheme for Legacy Boot, using
+    <filename>/dev/sda</filename> as the device.
+    <note>
+     <para>
+      You can safely ignore <command>parted</command>'s informational message
+      about needing to update /etc/fstab.
+     </para>
+    </note>
+   </para>
+
+   <para>
+    <orderedlist>
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
+       Create a <emphasis>MBR</emphasis> partition table.
+<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mklabel msdos</screen>
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
+       Add a <emphasis>swap</emphasis> partition. The size required will vary
+       according to needs, here a 8GiB one is created.
+<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap 1M 8GiB</screen>
+       <note>
+        <para>
+         The swap partition size rules are no different than for other Linux
+         distributions.
+        </para>
+       </note>
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
+       Finally, add the <emphasis>root</emphasis> partition. This will fill the
+       remainder of the disk.
+<screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 8GiB -1s</screen>
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+    </orderedlist>
+   </para>
+
+   <para>
+    Once complete, you can follow with
+    <xref linkend="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting"/>.
+   </para>
+  </section>
+
+  <section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting">
+   <title>Formatting</title>
+
+   <para>
+    Use the following commands:
+    <itemizedlist>
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
        For initialising Ext4 partitions: <command>mkfs.ext4</command>. It is
        recommended that you assign a unique symbolic label to the file system
        using the option <option>-L <replaceable>label</replaceable></option>,
@@ -169,242 +262,249 @@
      </listitem>
     </itemizedlist>
    </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    Mount the target file system on which NixOS should be installed on
-    <filename>/mnt</filename>, e.g.
+  </section>
+ </section>
+ <section xml:id="sec-installation-installing">
+  <title>Installing</title>
+
+  <orderedlist>
+   <listitem>
+    <para>
+     Mount the target file system on which NixOS should be installed on
+     <filename>/mnt</filename>, e.g.
 <screen>
 # mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
 </screen>
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <variablelist>
-    <varlistentry>
-     <term>
-      UEFI systems
-     </term>
-     <listitem>
-      <para>
-       Mount the boot file system on <filename>/mnt/boot</filename>, e.g.
+    </para>
+   </listitem>
+   <listitem>
+    <variablelist>
+     <varlistentry>
+      <term>
+       UEFI systems
+      </term>
+      <listitem>
+       <para>
+        Mount the boot file system on <filename>/mnt/boot</filename>, e.g.
 <screen>
 # mkdir -p /mnt/boot
 # mount /dev/disk/by-label/boot /mnt/boot
 </screen>
-      </para>
-     </listitem>
-    </varlistentry>
-   </variablelist>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    If your machine has a limited amount of memory, you may want to activate
-    swap devices now (<command>swapon
-    <replaceable>device</replaceable></command>). The installer (or rather, the
-    build actions that it may spawn) may need quite a bit of RAM, depending on
-    your configuration.
+       </para>
+      </listitem>
+     </varlistentry>
+    </variablelist>
+   </listitem>
+   <listitem>
+    <para>
+     If your machine has a limited amount of memory, you may want to activate
+     swap devices now (<command>swapon
+     <replaceable>device</replaceable></command>). The installer (or rather,
+     the build actions that it may spawn) may need quite a bit of RAM,
+     depending on your configuration.
 <screen>
 # swapon /dev/sda2</screen>
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    You now need to create a file
-    <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> that specifies the
-    intended configuration of the system. This is because NixOS has a
-    <emphasis>declarative</emphasis> configuration model: you create or edit a
-    description of the desired configuration of your system, and then NixOS
-    takes care of making it happen. The syntax of the NixOS configuration file
-    is described in <xref linkend="sec-configuration-syntax"/>, while a list of
-    available configuration options appears in
-    <xref
+    </para>
+   </listitem>
+   <listitem>
+    <para>
+     You now need to create a file
+     <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> that specifies the
+     intended configuration of the system. This is because NixOS has a
+     <emphasis>declarative</emphasis> configuration model: you create or edit a
+     description of the desired configuration of your system, and then NixOS
+     takes care of making it happen. The syntax of the NixOS configuration file
+     is described in <xref linkend="sec-configuration-syntax"/>, while a list
+     of available configuration options appears in
+     <xref
     linkend="ch-options"/>. A minimal example is shown in
-    <xref
+     <xref
     linkend="ex-config"/>.
-   </para>
-   <para>
-    The command <command>nixos-generate-config</command> can generate an
-    initial configuration file for you:
+    </para>
+    <para>
+     The command <command>nixos-generate-config</command> can generate an
+     initial configuration file for you:
 <screen>
 # nixos-generate-config --root /mnt</screen>
-    You should then edit <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename>
-    to suit your needs:
+     You should then edit <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename>
+     to suit your needs:
 <screen>
 # nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
 </screen>
-    If you’re using the graphical ISO image, other editors may be available
-    (such as <command>vim</command>). If you have network access, you can also
-    install other editors — for instance, you can install Emacs by running
-    <literal>nix-env -i emacs</literal>.
-   </para>
-   <variablelist>
-    <varlistentry>
-     <term>
-      BIOS systems
-     </term>
-     <listitem>
-      <para>
-       You <emphasis>must</emphasis> set the option
-       <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.grub.device"/> to specify on which disk
-       the GRUB boot loader is to be installed. Without it, NixOS cannot boot.
-      </para>
-     </listitem>
-    </varlistentry>
-    <varlistentry>
-     <term>
-      UEFI systems
-     </term>
-     <listitem>
-      <para>
-       You <emphasis>must</emphasis> set the option
-       <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable"/> to
-       <literal>true</literal>. <command>nixos-generate-config</command> should
-       do this automatically for new configurations when booted in UEFI mode.
-      </para>
-      <para>
-       You may want to look at the options starting with
-       <option><link linkend="opt-boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables">boot.loader.efi</link></option>
-       and
-       <option><link linkend="opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable">boot.loader.systemd</link></option>
-       as well.
-      </para>
-     </listitem>
-    </varlistentry>
-   </variablelist>
-   <para>
-    If there are other operating systems running on the machine before
-    installing NixOS, the <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.grub.useOSProber"/>
-    option can be set to <literal>true</literal> to automatically add them to
-    the grub menu.
-   </para>
-   <para>
-    Another critical option is <option>fileSystems</option>, specifying the
-    file systems that need to be mounted by NixOS. However, you typically
-    don’t need to set it yourself, because
-    <command>nixos-generate-config</command> sets it automatically in
-    <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix</filename> from your
-    currently mounted file systems. (The configuration file
-    <filename>hardware-configuration.nix</filename> is included from
-    <filename>configuration.nix</filename> and will be overwritten by future
-    invocations of <command>nixos-generate-config</command>; thus, you
-    generally should not modify it.)
-   </para>
-   <note>
+     If you’re using the graphical ISO image, other editors may be available
+     (such as <command>vim</command>). If you have network access, you can also
+     install other editors — for instance, you can install Emacs by running
+     <literal>nix-env -i emacs</literal>.
+    </para>
+    <variablelist>
+     <varlistentry>
+      <term>
+       BIOS systems
+      </term>
+      <listitem>
+       <para>
+        You <emphasis>must</emphasis> set the option
+        <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.grub.device"/> to specify on which disk
+        the GRUB boot loader is to be installed. Without it, NixOS cannot boot.
+       </para>
+      </listitem>
+     </varlistentry>
+     <varlistentry>
+      <term>
+       UEFI systems
+      </term>
+      <listitem>
+       <para>
+        You <emphasis>must</emphasis> set the option
+        <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable"/> to
+        <literal>true</literal>. <command>nixos-generate-config</command>
+        should do this automatically for new configurations when booted in UEFI
+        mode.
+       </para>
+       <para>
+        You may want to look at the options starting with
+        <option><link linkend="opt-boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables">boot.loader.efi</link></option>
+        and
+        <option><link linkend="opt-boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable">boot.loader.systemd</link></option>
+        as well.
+       </para>
+      </listitem>
+     </varlistentry>
+    </variablelist>
     <para>
-     Depending on your hardware configuration or type of file system, you may
-     need to set the option <option>boot.initrd.kernelModules</option> to
-     include the kernel modules that are necessary for mounting the root file
-     system, otherwise the installed system will not be able to boot. (If this
-     happens, boot from the CD again, mount the target file system on
-     <filename>/mnt</filename>, fix
-     <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> and rerun
-     <filename>nixos-install</filename>.) In most cases,
-     <command>nixos-generate-config</command> will figure out the required
-     modules.
+     If there are other operating systems running on the machine before
+     installing NixOS, the <xref linkend="opt-boot.loader.grub.useOSProber"/>
+     option can be set to <literal>true</literal> to automatically add them to
+     the grub menu.
     </para>
-   </note>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    Do the installation:
+    <para>
+     Another critical option is <option>fileSystems</option>, specifying the
+     file systems that need to be mounted by NixOS. However, you typically
+     don’t need to set it yourself, because
+     <command>nixos-generate-config</command> sets it automatically in
+     <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/hardware-configuration.nix</filename> from your
+     currently mounted file systems. (The configuration file
+     <filename>hardware-configuration.nix</filename> is included from
+     <filename>configuration.nix</filename> and will be overwritten by future
+     invocations of <command>nixos-generate-config</command>; thus, you
+     generally should not modify it.)
+    </para>
+    <note>
+     <para>
+      Depending on your hardware configuration or type of file system, you may
+      need to set the option <option>boot.initrd.kernelModules</option> to
+      include the kernel modules that are necessary for mounting the root file
+      system, otherwise the installed system will not be able to boot. (If this
+      happens, boot from the installation media again, mount the target file
+      system on <filename>/mnt</filename>, fix
+      <filename>/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename> and rerun
+      <filename>nixos-install</filename>.) In most cases,
+      <command>nixos-generate-config</command> will figure out the required
+      modules.
+     </para>
+    </note>
+   </listitem>
+   <listitem>
+    <para>
+     Do the installation:
 <screen>
 # nixos-install</screen>
-    Cross fingers. If this fails due to a temporary problem (such as a network
-    issue while downloading binaries from the NixOS binary cache), you can just
-    re-run <command>nixos-install</command>. Otherwise, fix your
-    <filename>configuration.nix</filename> and then re-run
-    <command>nixos-install</command>.
-   </para>
-   <para>
-    As the last step, <command>nixos-install</command> will ask you to set the
-    password for the <literal>root</literal> user, e.g.
+     Cross fingers. If this fails due to a temporary problem (such as a network
+     issue while downloading binaries from the NixOS binary cache), you can
+     just re-run <command>nixos-install</command>. Otherwise, fix your
+     <filename>configuration.nix</filename> and then re-run
+     <command>nixos-install</command>.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+     As the last step, <command>nixos-install</command> will ask you to set the
+     password for the <literal>root</literal> user, e.g.
 <screen>
 setting root password...
 Enter new UNIX password: ***
-Retype new UNIX password: ***
-    </screen>
-    <note>
-     <para>
-      For unattended installations, it is possible to use
-      <command>nixos-install --no-root-passwd</command> in order to disable the
-      password prompt entirely.
-     </para>
-    </note>
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    If everything went well:
+Retype new UNIX password: ***</screen>
+     <note>
+      <para>
+       For unattended installations, it is possible to use
+       <command>nixos-install --no-root-passwd</command> in order to disable
+       the password prompt entirely.
+      </para>
+     </note>
+    </para>
+   </listitem>
+   <listitem>
+    <para>
+     If everything went well:
 <screen>
-        # reboot</screen>
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
-  <listitem>
-   <para>
-    You should now be able to boot into the installed NixOS. The GRUB boot menu
-    shows a list of <emphasis>available configurations</emphasis> (initially
-    just one). Every time you change the NixOS configuration (see
-    <link
+# reboot</screen>
+    </para>
+   </listitem>
+   <listitem>
+    <para>
+     You should now be able to boot into the installed NixOS. The GRUB boot
+     menu shows a list of <emphasis>available configurations</emphasis>
+     (initially just one). Every time you change the NixOS configuration (see
+     <link
         linkend="sec-changing-config">Changing Configuration</link>
-    ), a new item is added to the menu. This allows you to easily roll back to
-    a previous configuration if something goes wrong.
-   </para>
-   <para>
-    You should log in and change the <literal>root</literal> password with
-    <command>passwd</command>.
-   </para>
-   <para>
-    You’ll probably want to create some user accounts as well, which can be
-    done with <command>useradd</command>:
+     ), a new item is added to the menu. This allows you to easily roll back to
+     a previous configuration if something goes wrong.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+     You should log in and change the <literal>root</literal> password with
+     <command>passwd</command>.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+     You’ll probably want to create some user accounts as well, which can be
+     done with <command>useradd</command>:
 <screen>
 $ useradd -c 'Eelco Dolstra' -m eelco
 $ passwd eelco</screen>
-   </para>
-   <para>
-    You may also want to install some software. For instance,
+    </para>
+    <para>
+     You may also want to install some software. For instance,
 <screen>
 $ nix-env -qa \*</screen>
-    shows what packages are available, and
+     shows what packages are available, and
 <screen>
 $ nix-env -i w3m</screen>
-    install the <literal>w3m</literal> browser.
-   </para>
-  </listitem>
- </orderedlist>
- <para>
-  To summarise, <xref linkend="ex-install-sequence" /> shows a typical sequence
-  of commands for installing NixOS on an empty hard drive (here
-  <filename>/dev/sda</filename>). <xref linkend="ex-config"
+     install the <literal>w3m</literal> browser.
+    </para>
+   </listitem>
+  </orderedlist>
+ </section>
+ <section xml:id="sec-installation-summary">
+  <title>Installation summary</title>
+
+  <para>
+   To summarise, <xref linkend="ex-install-sequence" /> shows a typical
+   sequence of commands for installing NixOS on an empty hard drive (here
+   <filename>/dev/sda</filename>). <xref linkend="ex-config"
 /> shows a
-  corresponding configuration Nix expression.
- </para>
- <example xml:id='ex-install-sequence'>
-  <title>Commands for Installing NixOS on <filename>/dev/sda</filename></title>
-<screen>
-# fdisk /dev/sda # <lineannotation>(or whatever device you want to install on)</lineannotation>
--- for UEFI systems only
-> n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /boot)</lineannotation>
-> 3      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 3)</lineannotation>
->        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation>
-> +512M  # <lineannotation>(the size of the UEFI boot partition)</lineannotation>
-> t      # <lineannotation>(change the partition type ...)</lineannotation>
-> 3      # <lineannotation>(... of the boot partition ...)</lineannotation>
-> 1      # <lineannotation>(... to 'UEFI System')</lineannotation>
--- for BIOS or UEFI systems
-> n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /swap)</lineannotation>
-> 2      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 2)</lineannotation>
->        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation>
-> +8G    # <lineannotation>(the size of the swap partition)</lineannotation>
-> n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /)</lineannotation>
-> 1      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 1)</lineannotation>
->        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation>
->        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default and use the rest of the remaining space)</lineannotation>
-> a      # <lineannotation>(make the partition bootable)</lineannotation>
-> x      # <lineannotation>(enter expert mode)</lineannotation>
-> f      # <lineannotation>(fix up the partition ordering)</lineannotation>
-> r      # <lineannotation>(exit expert mode)</lineannotation>
-> w      # <lineannotation>(write the partition table to disk and exit)</lineannotation>
+   corresponding configuration Nix expression.
+  </para>
+
+  <example xml:id="ex-partition-scheme-MBR">
+   <title>Example partition schemes for NixOS on <filename>/dev/sda</filename> (MBR)</title>
+<screen language="commands">
+# parted /dev/sda -- mklabel msdos
+# parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap 1M 8GiB
+# parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 8GiB -1s</screen>
+  </example>
+
+  <example xml:id="ex-partition-scheme-UEFI">
+   <title>Example partition schemes for NixOS on <filename>/dev/sda</filename> (UEFI)</title>
+<screen language="commands">
+# parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt
+# parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap 512MiB 8.5GiB
+# parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 8.5GiB -1MiB
+# parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1M 512MiB
+# parted /dev/sda -- set 3 boot on</screen>
+  </example>
+
+  <example xml:id="ex-install-sequence">
+   <title>Commands for Installing NixOS on <filename>/dev/sda</filename></title>
+   <para>
+    With a partitioned disk.
+<screen language="commands">
 # mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1
 # mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2
 # swapon /dev/sda2
@@ -416,9 +516,11 @@ $ nix-env -i w3m</screen>
 # nano /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
 # nixos-install
 # reboot</screen>
- </example>
- <example xml:id='ex-config'>
-  <title>NixOS Configuration</title>
+   </para>
+  </example>
+
+  <example xml:id='ex-config'>
+   <title>NixOS Configuration</title>
 <screen>
 { config, pkgs, ... }: {
   imports = [
@@ -438,10 +540,19 @@ $ nix-env -i w3m</screen>
   services.sshd.enable = true;
 }
   </screen>
- </example>
- <xi:include href="installing-usb.xml" />
- <xi:include href="installing-pxe.xml" />
- <xi:include href="installing-virtualbox-guest.xml" />
- <xi:include href="installing-from-other-distro.xml" />
- <xi:include href="installing-behind-a-proxy.xml" />
+  </example>
+ </section>
+ <section xml:id="sec-installation-additional-notes">
+  <title>Additional installation notes</title>
+
+  <xi:include href="installing-usb.xml" />
+
+  <xi:include href="installing-pxe.xml" />
+
+  <xi:include href="installing-virtualbox-guest.xml" />
+
+  <xi:include href="installing-from-other-distro.xml" />
+
+  <xi:include href="installing-behind-a-proxy.xml" />
+ </section>
 </chapter>