void-install

void-install is a set of instructions to install Void Linux on a ZFS root.

Voidlive ISO

Grab an ISO that has the ZFS dkms embedded, in this case I will be using hrmpf-x86_64-4.14.10_1-20180102.iso you can grab the latest iso here.
Make a bootable usb key.

Substitute for sdX as appropriate:

dd bs=512K if=./hrmpf-x86_64-4.14.10_1-20180102.iso of=/dev/sdX; sync

Partitioning the destination drive(s)

Using GRUB on a BIOS (or UEFI machine in legacy boot mode) machine but using a GPT partition table:

Part     Size   Type
----     ----   -------------------------
1     XXXG   Solaris Root (bf00)
2       2M   BIOS boot partition (ef02)

For a single drive zpool:


# gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Partition table scan: MBR: not present BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: not present

Creating new GPT entries.

Command (? for help): n Partition number (1-128, default 1): 2 First sector (34-1465149134, default = 2048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Last sector (2048-1465149134, default = 1465149134) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +2M Current type is 'Linux filesystem' Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): ef02 Changed type of partition to 'BIOS boot partition'

Command (? for help): n Partition number (1-128, default 1): First sector (34-1465149134, default = 6144) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Last sector (268288-1465149134, default = 1465149134) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Current type is 'Linux filesystem' Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): bf00 Changed type of partition to 'Solaris root'

Command (? for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 1465149168 sectors, 698.6 GiB Logical sector size: 512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): AC45081A-160B-4DFC-BA93-58953FD6D80D Partition table holds up to 128 entries First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1465149134 Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries Total free space is 526302 sectors (257.0 MiB)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 268288 1464886990 698.4 GiB BF00 Solaris root 2 2048 6143 2.0 MiB EF02 BIOS boot partition

Command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): Y OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda. The operation has completed successfully.

**For a mirrored zpool:**

When the above step has been completed on the first drive of your mirror, clone the table onto our second device, sdb.

sgdisk -b sda-part.table /dev/sda

The operation has completed successfully.

sgdisk -l sda-part.table /dev/sdb

Creating new GPT entries. The operation has completed successfully.

Being an exact copy, we now have two drives with identical GUID’s.

Let’s give sdb a new GUID and confirm that sda and sdb are indeed unique:

sgdisk -G /dev/sdb

The operation has completed successfully.

sgdisk -p /dev/sdb | grep -i guid

Disk identifier (GUID): 0FCC8550-ED78-407D-BEEA-D43FB73C7257

sgdisk -p /dev/sda | grep -i guid

Disk identifier (GUID): 169BB909-2184-4BFF-9A41-107740B0F043

## Setup the ZFS filesystem
- Boot using the previously created bootable usb key.
- Build and load ZFS modules:

xbps-reconfigure -a

modprobe zfs

ZFS pools use hostid as a precaution to keep pools from inadvertenly being imported by the wrong system.

When running ZFS on root, the machine's hostid will not be available at the time of mounting the root filesystem.
Voidlinux, being a true FOSS project, has no need to set a hostid and falls back to a default of 00000000.

To remedy this we will create `/etc/hostid` basing it on the MAC address of the first ethernet device:

ip link sh | grep ether

link/ether f4:6d:04:1e:58:12 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

- Create `/etc/hostid` ensuring to strip out the colons:

echo "f46d041e5812" > /etc/hostid

hostid

64363466

## Create the ZFS pool:
**For a single drive zpool:**

zpool create -f -o ashift=12 -m none nerv /dev/disk/by-id/id-to-partition-part1

**For a mirrored zpool:**

zpool create -f -o ashift=12 -m none nerv mirror /dev/disk/by-id/id-to-partition-part1 /dev/disk/by-id/id-to-partition-part1

## ZFS tuning

zfs set relatime=on nerv zfs set compression=on nerv

## Create datasets

zfs create -o mountpoint=none nerv/ROOT

zfs create -o mountpoint=/ nerv/ROOT/void

## Configure the root filesystem
- Export the pool:

zpool export nerv

- Re-import the pool:

zpool import -d /dev/disk/by-id -R /mnt nerv

If this command fails and you are asked to import your pool via its numeric ID, run `zpool import` to find out the ID of your pool then use a command such as: `zpool import 9876543212345678910 -R /mnt nerv`
## Install Void Linux
- Install the base system:

xbps-install -S -R https://alpha.de.repo.voidlinux.org/current -r /mnt base-system grub intel-ucode zfs

- Copy the hostid file we created above:

cp /etc/hostid /mnt/etc

- Mount and chroot:

mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc

mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys

mount -B /dev /mnt/dev

mount -t devpts pts /mnt/dev/pts

pwd

/root

env -i HOME=/root TERM=$TERM chroot /mnt bash -l

pwd

- Set the keyboard layout:

echo "KEYMAP=\"us\"" >> /etc/rc.conf

- Set the time zone:

echo "TIMEZONE=\"Australia/Melbourne\"" >> /etc/rc.conf

- Set the hardware clock:

echo "HARDWARECLOCK=\"UTC\"" >> /etc/rc.conf

- Configure your locale:

cp /etc/default/libc-locales /etc/default/libc-locales.dist

echo "en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8" > /etc/default/libc-locales

echo "en_AU ISO-8859-1" >> /etc/default/libc-locales

xbps-reconfigure -f glibc-locales

- Configure a hostname for the box:

echo nerv > /etc/hostname

- Confirm the ZFS modules are loaded:

lsmod | grep zfs

zfs 2629632 7 zunicode 331776 1 zfs zavl 16384 1 zfs zcommon 36864 1 zfs znvpair 57344 2 zfs,zcommon spl 73728 3 zfs,zcommon,znvpair

- Set your ZFS cachefile

zpool set cachefile=/etc/zfs/zpool.cache nerv

- Let GRUB know which dataset to boot from:

zpool set bootfs=nerv/ROOT/void nerv

## Install and configure the bootloader (GRUB)
- Configure /etc/default/grub based on your preferences

cat /etc/default/grub

Configuration file for GRUB.

# GRUB_DEFAULT=0

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false

GRUB_TIMEOUT=5 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Void" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=4 elevator=noop"

Uncomment to use basic console

GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT="console"

Uncomment to disable graphical terminal

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

GRUB_BACKGROUND=/usr/share/void-artwork/splash.png

GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080x32

GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=true

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true

The Linux kernel attempts to optimize disk I/O via the use of various "elevator" schemes. We want to let ZFS handle it’s own I/O optimizations so we’ll use the noop elevator, which is basically a FIFO queue sans any extra logic.
- Check that GRUB can recognise that we're using ZFS, because we're utilising /dev/disk/by-id paths we need to set the environment variable `ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1`:

ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1 grub-probe /

zfs

- Install GRUB:

**For a single drive zpool:**

ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1 grub-install /dev/sda

Installing for i386-pc platform. Installation finished. No error reported.

**For a mirrored zpool:**

ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1 grub-install /dev/sda

Installing for i386-pc platform. Installation finished. No error reported.

ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1 grub-install /dev/sdb

Installing for i386-pc platform. Installation finished. No error reported.

- Configure Dracut:

echo "hostonly=\"yes\"" > /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf

echo "nofsck=\"yes\"" >> /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf

echo "add_dracutmodules+=\" zfs \"" >> /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf

echo "omit_dracutmodules+=\" btrfs resume \"" >> /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf

Setting "hostonly" tells dracut to skip all the extraneous needful things bundled into a generic kernel and generate an initramfs trimmed for booting our host’s particular hardware.
- Regenerate the kernel and initramfs. As of writing this, Voidlinux is on 4.14 kernel:

xbps-reconfigure -f linux4.14

linux4.6: configuring ... Executing post-install kernel hook: 10-dracut ... Executing post-install kernel hook: 20-dkms ... Available DKMS module: spl-0.7.5 Available DKMS module: zfs-0.7.5 Building DKMS module: spl-0.7.5 done. Building DKMS module: zfs-0.7.5 done. Executing post-install kernel hook: 50-grub ... Generating grub configuration file ... Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.10_1 Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-4.14.10_1.img done linux4.14: configured successfully.

## Sanity checks

lsinitrd -m

Image: /boot/initramfs-4.14.11_1.img: 11M

Version:

dracut modules: bash dash i18n drm kernel-modules zfs rootfs-block terminfo udev-rules usrmount base fs-lib shutdown

Our initramfs does include the ZFS dkms.

lsinitrd | grep zpool.cache

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1360 Jan 4 11:48 etc/zfs/zpool.cache

Our initramfs also includes the reference to the zpool cache.
- Set a root password before leaving the chroot environment:

passwd root

New password: Retype new password: passwd: password updated successfully

exit

pwd

/root

- Unmount the chroot environment:

umount -n /mnt/{dev/pts,dev,sys,proc}

mount | grep void

nerv/ROOT/void on / type zfs (rw,relatime,xattr,noacl)

- Export our pool:

zpool export nerv

- Reboot

reboot

- Enable basic networking and ssh:

ln -s /etc/sv/dhcpcd /var/service/

ln -s /etc/sv/sshd /var/service/

- Create user:

useradd -m -s /bin/bash -U -G wheel,audio,video,cdrom,input amir

- Snaphot your fresh install:

zfs snapshot nerv/ROOT/void@04012018-fresh

zfs list -t snapshot

NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT nerv/ROOT/void@04012018-fresh 0 - 316M -

## Install and configure additional packages

xbps-install autofs avahi borg cronie docker docker-compose fortune-mod git google-authenticator-libpam gvim-huge hddtemp intel-ucode lm_sensors mailx net-tools netcat nfs-utils ntp postfix rsync rxvt-unicode rxvt-unicode-terminfo samba smartmontools socklog-void tftp-hpa the_silver_searcher unzip wget zsh

- Configure additional permissions:

usermod -aG docker,socklog amir

- Configure Samba:

groupadd -r -g 1050 samba

useradd -r -u 1050 -g 1050 -s /usr/bin/nologin samba

smbpasswd -a samba

smbpasswd -a amir

usermod -aG samba amir



## Credits/Sources
- [Steppin' Into the Void](http://www.teamcool.net/posts/zol-voidlinux.html)
- [Installing Arch Linux on ZFS](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installing_Arch_Linux_on_ZFS)
## Version
- **20/01/18:** Updated samba configuration steps and included zfs zed config
- **14/01/18:** Updated with additional configuration and updated application configs for Void
- **04/01/18:** Initial Release

nightah / void-install

readme

void-install

Voidlive ISO

Partitioning the destination drive(s)

sgdisk -b sda-part.table /dev/sda

sgdisk -l sda-part.table /dev/sdb

sgdisk -G /dev/sdb

sgdisk -p /dev/sdb | grep -i guid

sgdisk -p /dev/sda | grep -i guid

xbps-reconfigure -a

modprobe zfs

ip link sh | grep ether

echo "f46d041e5812" > /etc/hostid

hostid

zpool create -f -o ashift=12 -m none nerv /dev/disk/by-id/id-to-partition-part1

zpool create -f -o ashift=12 -m none nerv mirror /dev/disk/by-id/id-to-partition-part1 /dev/disk/by-id/id-to-partition-part1

zfs create -o mountpoint=none nerv/ROOT

zfs create -o mountpoint=/ nerv/ROOT/void

zpool export nerv

zpool import -d /dev/disk/by-id -R /mnt nerv

xbps-install -S -R https://alpha.de.repo.voidlinux.org/current -r /mnt base-system grub intel-ucode zfs

cp /etc/hostid /mnt/etc

mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc

mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys

mount -B /dev /mnt/dev

mount -t devpts pts /mnt/dev/pts

pwd

env -i HOME=/root TERM=$TERM chroot /mnt bash -l

pwd

echo "KEYMAP=\"us\"" >> /etc/rc.conf

echo "TIMEZONE=\"Australia/Melbourne\"" >> /etc/rc.conf

echo "HARDWARECLOCK=\"UTC\"" >> /etc/rc.conf

cp /etc/default/libc-locales /etc/default/libc-locales.dist

echo "en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8" > /etc/default/libc-locales

echo "en_AU ISO-8859-1" >> /etc/default/libc-locales

xbps-reconfigure -f glibc-locales

echo nerv > /etc/hostname

lsmod | grep zfs

zpool set cachefile=/etc/zfs/zpool.cache nerv

zpool set bootfs=nerv/ROOT/void nerv

cat /etc/default/grub

Configuration file for GRUB.

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false

Uncomment to use basic console

GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT="console"

Uncomment to disable graphical terminal

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080x32

GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=true

ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1 grub-probe /

ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1 grub-install /dev/sda

ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1 grub-install /dev/sda

ZPOOL_VDEV_NAME_PATH=1 grub-install /dev/sdb

echo "hostonly=\"yes\"" > /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf

echo "nofsck=\"yes\"" >> /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf

echo "add_dracutmodules+=\" zfs \"" >> /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf

echo "omit_dracutmodules+=\" btrfs resume \"" >> /etc/dracut.conf.d/zol.conf

xbps-reconfigure -f linux4.14

lsinitrd -m

Image: /boot/initramfs-4.14.11_1.img: 11M

dracut modules: bash dash i18n drm kernel-modules zfs rootfs-block terminfo udev-rules usrmount base fs-lib shutdown

lsinitrd | grep zpool.cache

passwd root

exit

pwd

umount -n /mnt/{dev/pts,dev,sys,proc}

mount | grep void

zpool export nerv

reboot

ln -s /etc/sv/dhcpcd /var/service/

ln -s /etc/sv/sshd /var/service/

zfs snapshot nerv/ROOT/void@04012018-fresh

zfs list -t snapshot

usermod -aG docker,socklog amir

groupadd -r -g 1050 samba

useradd -r -u 1050 -g 1050 -s /usr/bin/nologin samba

smbpasswd -a samba