void-installer — XPS 17 (xps9700)

Auto-installing Void Linux ISO targeted at a Dell XPS 17 9700 dual-booting Windows. Final installed system ships with: Cinnamon, Docker, VS Code, your SSH config, NVIDIA PRIME render-offload, and Nix for Spotify/Discord/LocalSend.

⚠️ Destructive. This installer wipes one partition. Read the Safety section before running on real hardware.

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Layout produced

What	Where
Void root (btrfs @)	/dev/nvme0n1p5 (replaces Mint)
/home, /.snapshots, etc.	btrfs subvolumes on the same device
EFI System Partition	/dev/nvme0n1p1 (shared, untouched)
GRUB target	\EFI\Void\ (Windows entry preserved)
Windows	/dev/nvme0n1p3 (left alone)

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Repo layout

config/install.conf      # all knobs (hostname, locale, kbd, GPU, etc.)
config/packages.target.list  # xbps packages installed into target
config/packages.live.list    # extra packages added to the LIVE iso
secrets.env              # USER_PASSWORD / ROOT_PASSWORD (gitignored)
installer/
  install.sh             # main entrypoint, runs in the live env
  lib/                   # tui, partition, bootstrap, grub, postinstall
iso/
  build-iso.sh           # host-side: stages overlay, then runs mklive in docker
  _inner-build.sh        # invoked inside the docker container as root
  Dockerfile             # debian:stable-slim + mtools/xorriso/squashfs-tools
  patches/               # patches applied to upstream void-mklive
tests/
  make-test-disk.sh      # builds a qcow2 mimicking the XPS 17 partition table
  run-qemu-test.sh       # automated headless install + smoke tests
  interactive-qemu.sh    # GUI QEMU for manual exploration
  lib/make-test-overlay.sh
Makefile                 # build / test entrypoints

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Quick start

Build dependencies (host)

Any Linux with bash, git, curl, docker (and qemu + ovmf if you want to run make test / make qemu). The mklive build runs inside a Debian container, so you don't need mtools, xorriso, squashfs-tools, etc. on the host.

• Void: xbps-install -S git curl docker qemu ovmf
• Debian/Ubuntu/Mint: apt install git curl docker.io qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils ovmf
• Arch: pacman -S git curl docker qemu-full edk2-ovmf

Make sure your user is in the docker group (sudo usermod -aG docker $USER, then log out / back in) so the build runs without sudo.

1. Provide secrets

secrets.env is gitignored and pre-populated for you with the values from the chat. Edit if you want different passwords.

2. Build the ISO

make iso
# -> out/void-install-xps9700-YYYYMMDD.iso

3. Test in QEMU (recommended before flashing!)

make test           # full headless install + smoke tests (~15-30 min)
# or
make qemu           # interactive QEMU window with the ISO booted

4. Flash to USB and boot the XPS 17

sudo dd if=out/void-install-xps9700-*.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

Boot the XPS from the USB (F12 boot menu). The TUI shows detected partitions with [WINDOWS] and [EFI] markers. Pick /dev/nvme0n1p5, type the device path verbatim to confirm, and let it run.

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Safety

• The installer refuses to wipe any NTFS partition.
• A TUI confirmation step requires you to type the full device path before any destructive action.
• The shared EFI partition is mounted read-write but never reformatted; Windows boot files under EFI/Microsoft/ are preserved.
• All passwords come from /etc/installer-secrets.env baked into the ISO at build time (mode 0600). They are not on the network and not in argv.

If you want to be paranoid, run make test first — the smoke test asserts that EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi survives the install on a simulated disk with the same layout as the XPS.

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Configuration

Everything tunable lives in config/install.conf:

• locale en_US.UTF-8, keymap ch-fr_nodeadkeys, timezone Europe/Zurich
• hostname xps9700, user moze in wheel,docker,video,audio,...
• btrfs subvolumes @, @home, @snapshots, @var_log, @var_cache
• GPU mode prime-offload (Intel UHD primary, NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti via prime-run)
• zram swap at 50% RAM (zramen)
• nonfree + multilib + multilib-nonfree repos enabled

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What's installed

xbps: base-system, linux, intel-ucode, NetworkManager, cinnamon, lightdm, docker, docker-compose, vscode (Microsoft), firefox, vlc, obs, flameshot, nvidia + nvidia-libs-32bit, pipewire, sudo, git, curl, vim, tlp, nix, … (full list in config/packages.target.list)

nix profile (first boot, as moze): spotify, discord, localsend. The first-boot service runs once after nix-daemon is up, then exits.

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Post-install

After first reboot:

1. Log in as moze (password: void).
2. The Cinnamon greeter appears (LightDM).
3. The first-boot Nix service installs Spotify/Discord/LocalSend in the background (~5–15 min depending on connection). Watch with journalctl -fu first-boot-nix is replaced by tail -f /var/log/socklog/everything/current on Void's runit; or just check nix profile list later.
4. Run NVIDIA-accelerated apps with prime-run <app>.

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Test harness

tests/run-qemu-test.sh runs end-to-end:

1. Builds a TEST ISO variant (overlay forces UNATTENDED=1 TEST_MODE=1 and bakes a one-off ssh keypair for the harness).
2. Builds a fresh out/test-disk.qcow2 with the same partition layout as the XPS (EFI + MSR + NTFS "Windows" placeholder + btrfs "Mint").
3. Boots the ISO under QEMU/OVMF; installer runs unattended; VM powers off.
4. Boots the installed disk; ssh's in as moze; runs ~20 smoke assertions.

make test                       # default
TIMEOUT_INSTALL=5400 make test  # slower hosts
ACCEL=tcg make test             # no KVM (e.g., nested virt without)

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Files of interest while debugging

File on installed system	Purpose
/var/log/void-installer.log	full installer log
/etc/sv/first-boot-nix/run	one-shot nix profile installer
/usr/local/bin/prime-run	NVIDIA PRIME offload wrapper
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf	NVIDIA display config
/etc/runit/runsvdir/default/	enabled services

File on the live ISO	Purpose
/usr/local/share/installer/	installer scripts + config + packages
/etc/installer-secrets.env	passwords (mode 0600)
/etc/installer-ssh/	snapshot of build-host ~/.ssh/

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Caveats

• 150 MB shared EFI is tight (was 91 % full before install). Void puts only \EFI\Void\grubx64.efi (~150 KB) there; kernels live on btrfs /boot.
• Secure Boot is off (per the input). NVIDIA proprietary modules won't load with SB on without manual MOK enrollment.
• The installer assumes /dev/nvme0n1p5 is currently Linux Mint (btrfs). If that ever changes, the TUI default will be wrong but the listing is always live, and the confirmation step prevents accidents.