How to Install LXC on NixOS Latest

Introduction

LXC is an abbreviation for Linux Containers. It is a lightweight and fast operating system-level virtualization method. LXC allows you to run multiple isolated Linux environments (containers) on a single host machine. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation process of LXC on NixOS Latest.

Prerequisites

Before installing LXC on NixOS, you need to have root access to your machine.

Step 1: Update your system

It is always best practice to update your system before installing new packages. You can update your NixOS using the following command:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch

Step 2: Install LXC

LXC is not included in the default NixOS repository, but it is available as a package in the nixpkgs-unstable channel, which contains the latest packages.

You need to add the nixpkgs-unstable channel to your NixOS configuration. Open the configuration.nix file with your favorite text editor.

sudo vim /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

Add the nixpkgs-unstable channel to your NixOS configuration by appending the following lines to the file:

{ pkgs, ... }:

{
  # ...

  nixpkgs.config = {
    allowUnfree = true;
    packageOverrides = pkgs: with pkgs; {
      unstable = import <nixpkgs> {
        # Use the latest version of the nixpkgs-unstable channel
        # (substituting the current rev value from https://status.nixos.org/)
        url =
          "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/7807cf10605c1ea0657e0a875a901be18199bffa.tar.gz";
        config = {};
      };
    };
  };
}

Save and close the file.

Update your system to include the nixpkgs-unstable channel.

sudo nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable
sudo nix-channel --update

Finally, install LXC by running the following command:

sudo nix-env -iA nixpkgs.unstable.lxc

Step 3: Start and enable the LXC service

After the installation, you need to start and enable the LXC service so that you can use the LXC.

sudo systemctl start lxc.service
sudo systemctl enable lxc.service

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have installed LXC on NixOS Latest. You can now start creating and managing Linux containers using LXC.