Let all the files in the system tarball sit in a directory served by NFS (the NFS root) like this in exportfs: /home/pcroot 192.168.1.0/24(rw,no_root_squash,no_all_squash) Run "exportfs -a" after editing /etc/exportfs, for the nfs server to be aware of the changes. Use a tftp server serving the root of boot/ (from the system tarball). In order to have PXE boot, use the boot/dhcpd.conf-example file for your dhcpd server, as it will point your PXE clients to pxelinux.0 from the tftp server. Adapt the configuration to your network. Adapt the pxelinux configuration (boot/pxelinux.cfg/default) to set the path to your nfrroot. If you use ip=dhcp in the kernel, the nfs server ip will be taken from dhcp and so you don't have to specify it. The linux in bzImage includes network drivers for some usual cards. QEMU Testing --------------- You can test qemu pxe boot without having a DHCP server adapted, but having nfsroot, like this: qemu-system-x86_64 -tftp /home/pcroot/boot -net nic -net user,bootfile=pxelinux.0 -boot n I don't know how to use NFS through the qemu '-net user' though. QEMU Testing with NFS root and bridged network ------------------------------------------------- This allows testing with qemu as any other host in your LAN. Testing with the real dhcpd server requires setting up a bridge and having a tap device. tunctl -t tap0 brctl addbr br0 brctl addif br0 eth0 brctl addif tap0 eth0 ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 up ifconfig tap0 0.0.0.0 up ifconfig br0 up # With your ip configuration Then you can run qemu: qemu-system-x86_64 -boot n -net tap,ifname=tap0,script=no -net nic,model=e1000 Using the system-tarball-pc in a chroot -------------------------------------------------- Installation: mkdir nixos-chroot && cd nixos-chroot tar xf your-system-tarball.tar.xz mkdir sys dev proc tmp root var run mount --bind /sys sys mount --bind /dev dev mount --bind /proc proc Activate the system: look for a directory in nix/store similar to: "/nix/store/y0d1lcj9fppli0hl3x0m0ba5g1ndjv2j-nixos-feb97bx-53f008" Having found it, activate that nixos system *twice*: chroot . /nix/store/SOMETHING-nixos-SOMETHING/activate chroot . /nix/store/SOMETHING-nixos-SOMETHING/activate This runs a 'hostname' command. Restore your old hostname with: hostname OLDHOSTNAME Copy your system resolv.conf to the /etc/resolv.conf inside the chroot: cp /etc/resolv.conf etc Then you can get an interactive shell in the nixos chroot. '*' means to run inside the chroot interactive shell chroot . /bin/sh * source /etc/profile Populate the nix database: that should be done in the init script if you had booted this nixos. Run: * `grep local-cmds run/current-system/init` Then you can proceed normally subscribing to a nixos channel: nix-channel --add http://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable nix-channel --update Testing: nix-env -i hello which hello hello