Create a directory and download the template.

$ mkdir myskarabox
$ cd myskarabox
$ nix run github:ibizaman/skarabox?ref=v1.6.0#init

The #init command accepts arguments. Use the -h argument to print them. Don’t forget the double dash -- like so:

$ nix run github:ibizaman/skarabox?ref=v1.6.0#init -- -h

The #init command by default asks for the password you want for the admin user and will generate all other secrets. The hostname will be myskarabox and the files located under the ./myskarabox folder.

All the files at the root of this new repository are common to all hosts.

It will finally ask you to fill out options in the main ./flake.nix file and in the ./myskarabox/configuration.nix file. Detailed instructions are shown in Step B.

Continue with Step B.

Assuming the ./myskarabox/configuration.nix file is left untouched, you can now test the installation process on a VM. To do that, first we tweak some options for more sensible defaults for a VM:

skarabox.hosts.<name> = {
  system = "x86_64-linux";
  ip = "127.0.0.1";
};

Then, start the VM using the following command which will create a graphical window:

$ nix run .#myskarabox-beacon-vm &

If you would rather get the dmesg output in your terminal and use the VM from there, you can too but you will need to dedicate a terminal window for it as the VM will not be able to run in the background, like above.

$ nix run .#myskarabox-beacon-vm -- -nographic

For info, this VM has 4 hard drives:

Now, skip to step C.

This guide assumes you know how to boot your server on a USB stick. Usually this involves opening your computer’s BIOS and selecting the USB stick.

The beacon can either connect to the local network and/or setup its own WiFi hotspot with SSID Skarabox. Connecting to the beacon will thus depend on the chosen method.

No need for the beacon here. You just need to start the instance and enable ssh access. The easiest is usually to boot in rescue mode.

Retrieve the IP of the server, then update the values in the flake.nix file:

skarabox.hosts.<name> = {
  system = "x86_64-linux";
  ip = "12.34.56.78";
}

Update the beacon options to be able to ssh into the instance, with the values given by your cloud provider:

skarabox.hosts.<name>.beacon = {
  username = "<given by cloud provider>";
  sshPort = "<given by cloud provider>";
  sshPrivateKeyPath = "<given by cloud provider>";
  sshPublicKeyPath = "<given by cloud provider>";
}

Get your external IP Address by connecting to your home network and going to https://api.ipify.org/.

To check if this setup works, you will first need to go through the step below too.

These items should happen on your router. Usually, connecting to it is done by entering one of the following IP addresses in your browser: 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254.

To check if this setup works, you can connect to another network (like using the tethered connection from your phone or connecting to another WiFi network) and then ssh into your server like shown in the Normal Operations section, but instead of using the IP address, use the domain name in skarabox.hosts.<name>.ip.

I do recommend using the sibling project SelfHostBlocks to setup services like Vaultwarden, Nextcloud and others.

The flake template is wired to use SelfHostBlocks already.