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+[[!meta title="Bytemark server with GuixSD"]]
+
+[[!img bytemark.svg link="https://www.bytemark.co.uk/r/cbaines" align="middle" ]]
+
+I've been using [[Bytemark|https://www.bytemark.co.uk/r/cbaines]] for a while
+now, both personally and professionally, and one thing that has got me
+excited recently is running GuixSD on Bytemark VMs.
+
+A while back, I installed GuixSD on a Bytemark VM first by creating a
+VM on Bytemark using Debian as the operating system, then installing
+Guix within Debian, then using that installation of Guix to install
+GuixSD over the top of Debian.
+
+[[!img guix.svg link="https://www.gnu.org/s/guix" align="right" ]]
+
+This "over the top" approach works surprisingly well, you just have to
+remove a few key files from Debian before rebooting, to ensure GuixSD
+is able to boot. It does have several disadvantages though, its quite
+slow to install GuixSD this way, and you have to manually clean out
+the Debian related files.
+
+Bytemark do support inserting ISO images in to the VMs, which can be
+used to install operating systems. Up until recently, Guix didn't have
+an ISO installer, but now, with the 0.14.0 release, there is one
+available.
+
+In case you're interested, here is a quick description of what this
+involves. You might want to follow along with the full
+[[system installation documentation|https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/System-Installation.html]]
+at the same time.
+
+# Step 1: Create a new cloud server
+
+I selected mostly the defaults: 1 core, 1 GiB of RAM, 25 GiB of SSD
+storage. For installing GuixSD, select None for the operating system.
+
+[[!img add-cloud-server-operating-system.png ]]
+
+# Step 2: Insert the GuixSD installer ISO
+
+Open up the server details, and click the yellow "Insert CD" button on
+the left.
+
+Pop in a URL for the installation image. It needs to be decompressed,
+unlike the image you can download from the Guix website.
+
+To make this easier, I've provided a link to a decompressed image
+below. Obviously using this involves trusting me, so you might want to
+decompress the image yourself and upload it somewhere.
+
+    https://www.cbaines.net/posts/bytemark_server_with_guixsd/guixsd-install-0.14.0.x86_64-linux.iso
+
+# Step 3: Boot in to the installer
+
+After that is done, click the VNC button for the server to the top
+right, and once the window for that opens up, click the red "Ctrl +
+Alt + Delete" button to trigger the system to restart. This should get
+it to boot in to the installation image.
+
+[[!img installer-boot.png ]]
+
+# Step 4: Setup networking
+
+Run the following commands to bring up the network interface, and get
+an IP address.
+
+    ifconfig eth0 up
+    dhclient eth0
+
+# Step 5: (Optional) Start the SSH daemon
+
+If you're happy using the web based console, the you can continue
+doing that. However, the installer includes a ssh-daemon service which
+can be used to continue the installation process over SSH.
+
+If you want to use this, use the passwd command to set a password for
+the root user, and then start the ssh-daemon service.
+
+    passwd
+    herd start ssh-daemon
+
+After doing this, you can find out the IP address, either from the
+Bytemark panel, or by running:
+
+    ip addr
+
+Once you have the IP address, login to the machine through SSH and
+continue with the installation process.
+
+# Step 6: Partition the disk
+
+Select the default partitioning type, gpt.
+
+Create a "2M" BIOS Boot partition, and then a 25GB Linux filesystem.
+
+After that select the "[ Write ]" option, and then the "[ Quit ]"
+option.
+
+[[!img cfdisk-1.png ]]
+[[!img cfdisk-2.png ]]
+[[!img cfdisk-3.png ]]
+
+# Step 7: Create and mount the root filesystem
+
+    mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/vda1
+    mount LABEL=root /mnt
+
+# Step 8: Write the configuration
+
+    mkdir /mnt/etc
+    cp /etc/configuration/bare-bones.scm /mnt/etc/config.scm
+
+I then edited this file with nano, mostly as using zile with C-n for
+move down kept opening new browser windows.
+
+ - Changed the hostname and timezone
+ - Set the bootloader target to "/dev/vda"
+ - Changed the filesystem device to root
+ - Set the name of the user
+ - Change the home directory
+
+# Step 9: Start the cow-store service
+
+    herd start cow-store /mnt
+
+# Step 10: Run guix system init
+
+    guix system init /mnt/etc/config.scm /mnt
+    ...
+    Installation finished. No error reported.
+
+If this works succesfully, you should see the above message at the
+end.
+
+# Finish: Reboot in to GuixSD
+
+Reboot, and then remove the CD from the system using the Bytemark
+panel.
+
+    reboot
+
+If you run in to any trouble, there is a IRC channel (#guix on
+Freenode) and a
+[[mailing list|https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/contact/]] where you
+can ask for [[help|https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/help/]].
+
+Also, while this guide may go out of date, if you do have any
+suggestions or corrections, you can email me about them.