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When it comes to installing Guix System for the first time on a new
machine, you can basically proceed in three different ways. The first
one is to use an existing operating system on the machine to run the
guix system init command (see Invoking guix system). The
second one, is to produce an installation image (see Building the Installation Image). This is a bootable system which role is to
eventually run guix system init. Finally, the third option
would be to produce an image that is a direct instantiation of the
system you wish to run. That image can then be copied on a bootable
device such as an USB drive or a memory card. The target machine would
then directly boot from it, without any kind of installation procedure.
The guix system image command is able to turn an operating
system definition into a bootable image. This command supports
different image types, such as mbr-hybrid-raw, iso9660 and
docker. Any modern x86_64 machine will probably be able
to boot from an iso9660 image. However, there are a few machines
out there that require specific image types. Those machines, in general
using ARM processors, may expect specific partitions at specific
offsets.
This chapter explains how to define customized system images and how to turn them into actual bootable images.