NixOS Images

Custom NixOS images built from a single configuration and exported to 26 different formats — ISOs, cloud images, VM images, containers, and netboot. Every image ships with flakes enabled, a pre-configured Neovim, SSH access, and essential tools.

Repository: github.com/ItzEmoji/nixos-images (GitHub only, not mirrored)

Quick Start

Download the installer ISO

wget https://github.com/ItzEmoji/nixos-images/releases/latest/download/nixos-installer.iso

Flash it to a USB drive:

dd if=nixos-installer.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress

Netboot via iPXE

Boot into any iPXE environment and chain-load the netboot script:

chain https://github.com/ItzEmoji/nixos-images/releases/latest/download/netboot.ipxe

Or use it with a custom netboot menu (replace ItzEmoji with your GitHub username if you forked the repo):

chain https://github.com/ItzEmoji/nixos-images/releases/latest/download/netboot.ipxe

The iPXE script fetches the kernel (bzImage) and initrd directly from the GitHub release, then boots into the NixOS installer environment. No USB drive needed.

How Netboot Works

The netboot image consists of three artifacts published to every GitHub release:

File	Description
netboot.ipxe	iPXE script that loads the kernel and initrd
bzImage	Linux kernel
initrd	Initial ramdisk containing the NixOS system

When an iPXE client chain-loads netboot.ipxe, the script:

1. Frees any previously loaded images (imgfree)
2. Downloads the kernel from the GitHub release URL
3. Downloads the initrd from the GitHub release URL
4. Boots with the appropriate init parameters

The iPXE script URLs are automatically patched during CI to point at the correct GitHub release download URLs, so the raw netboot.ipxe file works out of the box without any manual editing.

Using with a custom netboot menu

If you run your own iPXE/netboot menu, add an entry that chain-loads the script:

:nixos-installer
chain https://github.com/ItzEmoji/nixos-images/releases/latest/download/netboot.ipxe

To use your own fork, replace ItzEmoji with your GitHub username:

chain https://github.com/<your-username>/nixos-images/releases/latest/download/netboot.ipxe

What's in the Image

Every image — ISO, netboot, cloud, VM — boots the same NixOS configuration:

Feature	Details
Auto-login	Root user via kmscon (no password prompt)
Root password	Empty (for local access)
SSH	Enabled, root login permitted, ed25519 key pre-authorized
Keyboard	Swiss German (ch)
Console font	JetBrains Mono Nerd Font
Nix	Flakes and nix-command enabled
Network	NetworkManager
Editor	Custom Neovim (from github:ItzEmoji/nvim)
Tools	git, util-linux, curl, wget, fastfetch
State version	25.05

Available Image Formats

All 26 formats are built from the same NixOS configuration and exposed as flake packages. Build any of them with:

nix build github:ItzEmoji/nixos-images#<format>

ISOs

Package	Description
iso	Basic NixOS live ISO
iso-installer	Installer ISO

Network Boot

Package	Description
netboot	iPXE netboot (bzImage + initrd + netboot.ipxe)
kexec	Kexec tarball (for kexec-based remote installs)

Cloud Images

Package	Provider
azure	Microsoft Azure (VHD)
cloudstack	Apache CloudStack (QCOW2)
digital-ocean	DigitalOcean
google-compute	Google Compute Engine
linode	Linode
openstack	OpenStack (QCOW2)
openstack-zfs	OpenStack with ZFS (QCOW2)
oci	OCI container image

Virtual Machine Images

Package	Hypervisor
hyperv	Hyper-V (VHDX)
proxmox	Proxmox VE (VMA)
proxmox-lxc	Proxmox LXC container
qemu	QEMU (QCOW2, BIOS)
qemu-efi	QEMU (QCOW2, EFI)
vagrant-virtualbox	Vagrant + VirtualBox (.box)
virtualbox	VirtualBox (OVA)
vmware	VMware (VMDK)
kubevirt	KubeVirt

Container Images

Package	Format
lxc	LXC rootfs tarball
lxc-metadata	LXC metadata tarball

Raw Disk Images

Package	Description
raw	Raw disk image (BIOS)
raw-efi	Raw disk image (EFI)
sd-card	SD card image (for SBCs)

Repository Structure

nixos-images/
├── flake.nix                    # Flake definition (flake-parts + import-tree)
└── modules/
    ├── configuration.nix        # nixosConfigurations.nixos-installer (composes all modules)
    ├── images.nix               # Exposes all 26 image formats as flake packages
    ├── kmscon.nix               # Virtual console with JetBrains Mono + root autologin
    ├── nix-config.nix           # Flakes enabled, stateVersion
    ├── packages.nix             # System packages (git, curl, wget, etc.)
    ├── root-user.nix            # Root user with empty password + SSH key
    ├── ssh-server.nix           # OpenSSH with root login
    ├── xkb.nix                  # Swiss German keyboard layout
    └── format.nix               # treefmt-nix (nixfmt)

The same flake-parts + import-tree pattern is used here as in the dotfiles. Every .nix file under modules/ is automatically discovered and loaded.

CI/CD

On every push to main, GitHub Actions:

1. Builds the netboot image (nix build .#netboot)
2. Builds the installer ISO (nix build .#iso-installer)
3. Patches netboot.ipxe to use GitHub release download URLs
4. Creates a new GitHub release with four artifacts:
   • nixos-installer.iso
   • netboot.ipxe
   • bzImage
   • initrd

Releases are tagged v1.0.<run_number> and the latest release is always accessible via the /releases/latest/download/ URL.

Forking

To create your own custom NixOS images:

1. Fork ItzEmoji/nixos-images
2. Edit the modules under modules/ to customize your image (packages, SSH keys, keyboard layout, etc.)
3. Push to main — CI will build and publish your images automatically
4. Download your ISO or chain-load your netboot script using your own GitHub username in the URL

TIP

Make sure to create an initial release tagged latest if GitHub Actions fails on the first run. The workflow requires the releases feature to be enabled on your fork.