Change:
binaries). It’s best if you have a DHCP server on your network. Otherwise configure networking manually using <command>ifconfig</command>. </para> <para> To manually configure the network on the graphical installer, first disable network-manager with <command>systemctl stop network-manager</command>. </para> <para> To manually configure the wifi on the minimal installer, run <command>wpa_supplicant -B -i interface -c &lt;(wpa_passphrase 'SSID' 'key')</command>. </para> <del> </listitem> <listitem> </del> <para> If you would like to continue the installation from a different machine you need to activate the SSH daemon via <literal>systemctl start sshd</literal>. In order to be able to login you also need to set a password for <literal>root</literal> using <literal>passwd</literal>. </para> <del> </listitem> <listitem> </del> <ins> </section> </section> <section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning"> <title>Partitioning and formatting</title> <para> The NixOS installer doesn’t do any partitioning or formatting, so you need to do that yourself. </para> <para> The NixOS installer ships with multiple partitioning tools. The examples below use <command>parted</command>, but also provides <command>fdisk</command>, <command>gdisk</command>, <command>cfdisk</command>, and <command>cgdisk</command>. </para> <para> The recommended partition scheme differs depending if the computer uses <emphasis>Legacy Boot</emphasis> or <emphasis>UEFI</emphasis>. </para> <section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-UEFI"> <title>UEFI (GPT)</title> </ins> <para> <del> The NixOS installer doesn’t do any partitioning or formatting yet, so you need to do that yourself. Use the following commands: <itemizedlist> </del> <ins> Here's an example partition scheme for UEFI, using <filename>/dev/sda</filename> as the device. <note> <para> You can safely ignore <command>parted</command>'s informational message about needing to update /etc/fstab. </para> </note> </para> <para> <orderedlist> </ins> <listitem> <para> <del> For partitioning: <command>fdisk</command>. <screen> # fdisk /dev/sda # <lineannotation>(or whatever device you want to install on)</lineannotation> -- for UEFI systems only > n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /boot)</lineannotation> > 3      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 3)</lineannotation> >        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation> > +512M  # <lineannotation>(the size of the UEFI boot partition)</lineannotation> > t      # <lineannotation>(change the partition type ...)</lineannotation> > 3      # <lineannotation>(... of the boot partition ...)</lineannotation> > 1      # <lineannotation>(... to 'UEFI System')</lineannotation> -- for BIOS or UEFI systems > n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /swap)</lineannotation> > 2      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 2)</lineannotation> >        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation> > +8G    # <lineannotation>(the size of the swap partition, set to whatever you like)</lineannotation> > n      # <lineannotation>(create a new partition for /)</lineannotation> > 1      # <lineannotation>(make it a partition number 1)</lineannotation> >        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default)</lineannotation> >        # <lineannotation>(press enter to accept the default and use the rest of the remaining space)</lineannotation> > a      # <lineannotation>(make the partition bootable)</lineannotation> > x      # <lineannotation>(enter expert mode)</lineannotation> > f      # <lineannotation>(fix up the partition ordering)</lineannotation> > r      # <lineannotation>(exit expert mode)</lineannotation> > w      # <lineannotation>(write the partition table to disk and exit)</lineannotation></screen> </del> <ins> Create a <emphasis>GPT</emphasis> partition table. <screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mklabel gpt</screen> </ins> </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> <ins> Add a <emphasis>swap</emphasis> partition. The size required will vary according to needs, here a 8GiB one is created. The space left in front (512MiB) will be used by the boot partition. <screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap 512MiB 8.5GiB</screen> <note> <para> The swap partition size rules are no different than for other Linux distributions. </para> </note> </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Next, add the <emphasis>root</emphasis> partition. This will fill the remainder ending part of the disk. <screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 8.5GiB -1MiB</screen> </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Finally, the <emphasis>boot</emphasis> partition. NixOS by default uses the ESP (EFI system partition) as its <emphasis>/boot</emphasis> partition. It uses the initially reserved 512MiB at the start of the disk. <screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1M 512MiB # parted /dev/sda -- set 3 boot on</screen> </para> </listitem> </orderedlist> </para> <para> Once complete, you can follow with <xref linkend="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting"/>. </para> </section> <section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-MBR"> <title>Legacy Boot (MBR)</title> <para> Here's an example partition scheme for Legacy Boot, using <filename>/dev/sda</filename> as the device. <note> <para> You can safely ignore <command>parted</command>'s informational message about needing to update /etc/fstab. </para> </note> </para> <para> <orderedlist> <listitem> <para> Create a <emphasis>MBR</emphasis> partition table. <screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mklabel msdos</screen> </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Add a <emphasis>swap</emphasis> partition. The size required will vary according to needs, here a 8GiB one is created. <screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap 1M 8GiB</screen> <note> <para> The swap partition size rules are no different than for other Linux distributions. </para> </note> </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Finally, add the <emphasis>root</emphasis> partition. This will fill the remainder of the disk. <screen language="commands"># parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 8GiB -1s</screen> </para> </listitem> </orderedlist> </para> <para> Once complete, you can follow with <xref linkend="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting"/>. </para> </section> <section xml:id="sec-installation-partitioning-formatting"> <title>Formatting</title> <para> Use the following commands: <itemizedlist> <listitem> <para> </ins> For initialising Ext4 partitions: <command>mkfs.ext4</command>. It is recommended that you assign a unique symbolic label to the file system using the option <option>-L <replaceable>label</replaceable></option>,

Discussion:
This is a tracking issue created only to track the different issues and pull requests related to the partitioning instructions in the manual. They may show more than one issue, the ordering of the partition may not match the expected ones for the following installation instructions, and the bootable flag might not be set properly. ; ; This issue is meant to track the problem and ask for help in finding a proper resolution. Not asking for others to write up, but asking to see if there would be issues in recommending things other than . I, myself, am extremely reluctant into fixing this using other incantations. They pretty much look like a self-selecting filter by obscurity. I would lean much more towards using commands, . (Though, not using ). Interfaces like are probably easier to reason about than single-letter commands which's meaning may change again in the future. They would also reduce the verbosity of the steps; it would be a set number of instructions, one per actual action, instead of a list of commands. (One for the disk format, one for setting the boot flag, and one per partition.)
# is twice in the list &ndash; that means you meant to link another fourth issue?
BTW, a couple weeks ago I successfully installed 18.09 (beta) on a machine for Hydra, and I followed our manual for partitioning via . It was a simple setup, though, so I most likely missed any corner cases. EDIT: to be clear, I do not at all oppose migrating the instructions to ...
is already in the closure so we should probably just switch to that anyway, then we don't need to have janky comments describing what the terse commands do.
I think people who have a preference among these tools need only a line «if you prefer fdisk, it is also available» and maybe an internal link to instructions for installing extra tools in case someone wants sfdisk. Parted probably has the lowest risk of instructions doing something but not the expected thing. (and partitioning — or tools with single-letter commands — is not something needed for NixOS use after installation, so the obscurity filter does not even select for people who would be happier NixOS users)

The bullet points under Chapter 2, section 8 (the fdisk process) don't match up with what the real partitions are after write. The last four lines of fdisk setup are relevant: Earlier in the fdisk process, we create the partitions with the following numbering: I believe the re-numbers the partitions based on their location within the partition label. Since the boot partition is at the front of the disk and our partition is at the end, fdisk reorders the partitions as follows: The problem is when making the file systems. The manual still uses the initial partition numbers instead of the new, ordered numbers. Thus: Creates an ext4 partition that is 512M big and is supposed to be boot. And: Creates a FAT32 partiton that's supposed to be our root labeled . Swap isn't affected being in the middle.
Hi! Closing this issue since the partitioning instructions are now re-written for 18.09. (See ) As far as the ordering of partitions is concerned, the newly re-written partitioning instructions were written to ensure it wouldn't be an issue.