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macOS: persistent home lives at /Volumes/vmix-home/<user> (no mount over /Users)

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macOS refuses to mount a volume over /Users (firmlink), and a failing fstab
entry also suppresses the automount. Point NFSHomeDirectory at the automounted
volume instead. Profile: Dock entries need tile-type/file URL; wait for the
wallpaper store before shutting down.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01XsESshRCoBoUVWV9qKURUF
This commit is contained in:
Git Sagar 2026-09-09 22:17:04 -03:00
parent 0f9373263d
commit e241364ce9
4 changed files with 23 additions and 17 deletions
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12
lib/images/macos/README.md
View file

@ -154,11 +154,13 @@ net, sound, balloon, vsock — QEMU's modern virtio-pci devices work as-is:
for every `shares.<name>` beyond the first. `vmix run --macos --share DIR`.
(9p does not automount on macOS; the Linux `-virtfs` path is not used.)
* **ephemeral OS disk + persistent home**: `generalize { persistHome = true; }`
adds `LABEL=vmix-home /Users apfs rw 0 2` to the image's fstab. The host
provides a virtio-blk disk (`macos.homeDisk` in the module, `--home FILE` in
the CLI: qcow2/raw file or zvol) that `formatVolume` formats as APFS
`vmix-home` by booting the PE for ~35 s on first use. macOS mounts it at
`/Users` before login, home directories are created there; the OS disk can run
gives the account its home directory on an APFS volume labelled `vmix-home`
(`NFSHomeDirectory = /Volumes/vmix-home/<user>`; macOS refuses mounts over
`/Users`, which is a firmlink). The host provides a virtio-blk disk
(`macos.homeDisk` in the module, `--home FILE` in the CLI: qcow2/raw file or
zvol) that `formatVolume` formats as APFS `vmix-home` by booting the PE for
~35 s on first use; diskarbitrationd mounts it before login and loginwindow
creates the home directory there on first login. The OS disk can then run
with `snapshot=on` (`disks.os.persist = false`).
* **SPICE**: `-vga vmware` (or `std`) is kept as the display device — macOS has
no QXL/virtio-gpu driver; USB redirection channels work as for other guests

18
lib/images/macos/templates/generalize.nix
View file

@ -22,9 +22,10 @@
uuid ? null,
mac ? null,
seed ? "${hostname}-${username}",
# mount an APFS volume labelled vmix-home (a virtio-blk/AHCI disk the host
# provides, formatted by the PE on first start) at /Users: ephemeral OS disk,
# persistent home directories
# keep the user's home on an APFS volume labelled vmix-home (a virtio-blk disk
# the host provides, formatted by the PE on first start). macOS refuses mounts
# over /Users (firmlink), so the volume automounts at /Volumes/<label> and the
# account's home directory lives there: ephemeral OS disk, persistent home.
persistHome ? false,
homeVolumeLabel ? "vmix-home",
# no desktop widgets for the created user (Sonoma+)
@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ in
${lib.optionalString (!delayOobeRun) ''
# --- user account (admin), created directly in the local directory node
U="${username}"; HOME_DIR="$DATA/Users/$U"
${lib.optionalString persistHome ''HOME_PATH="/Volumes/${homeVolumeLabel}/$U"''}
if ! D -read "/Local/Default/Users/$U" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
UID_NEW=$(D -list /Local/Default/Users UniqueID | awk '$2 >= 501 && $2 < 1000 && $2 > m {m = $2} END {print (m ? m + 1 : 501)}')
D -create "/Local/Default/Users/$U" || pe_fail "dscl create user"
@ -68,7 +70,7 @@ in
D -create "/Local/Default/Users/$U" RealName ${lib.escapeShellArg fullName}
D -create "/Local/Default/Users/$U" UniqueID "$UID_NEW"
D -create "/Local/Default/Users/$U" PrimaryGroupID 20
D -create "/Local/Default/Users/$U" NFSHomeDirectory "/Users/$U"
D -create "/Local/Default/Users/$U" NFSHomeDirectory "${if persistHome then "/Volumes/${homeVolumeLabel}/$U" else "/Users/$U"}"
if ! D -passwd "/Local/Default/Users/$U" ${lib.escapeShellArg password}; then
echo "vmix: WARNING: could not set the requested password, using '${tempPassword}'"
D -passwd "/Local/Default/Users/$U" "${tempPassword}" || pe_fail "dscl passwd"
@ -132,11 +134,9 @@ in
pe_plist_set "$KT" keyboardtype.1-1575-0 integer 40
${lib.optionalString persistHome ''
# --- home directories on the host-provided persistent volume (fstab by label;
# diskarbitrationd mounts it at /Users when a volume named ${homeVolumeLabel} exists)
F="$DATA/private/etc/fstab"
grep -q "LABEL=${homeVolumeLabel}" "$F" 2>/dev/null || echo "LABEL=${homeVolumeLabel} /Users apfs rw 0 2" >> "$F"
chmod 644 "$F"; chown 0:0 "$F"
# --- persistent home: the seeded home directory on the Data volume is the
# template loginwindow copies to /Volumes/${homeVolumeLabel}/$U at first login
# (the volume is automounted by diskarbitrationd before the login)
''}
# --- use the whole (possibly grown) disk

8
lib/images/macos/templates/profile/default.nix
View file

@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ rec {
{ source = desktoppr; name = "desktoppr.pkg"; }
];
bootScript = ''
set -x
[ -n "$CONSOLE_USER" ] || { echo "vmix: profile needs a logged-in user (generalize with autoLogon)"; exit 1; }
H=$(dscl . -read "/Users/$CONSOLE_USER" NFSHomeDirectory | awk '{print $2}')
D() { as_user defaults write "$@"; }
@ -39,11 +40,14 @@ rec {
mkdir -p "/Library/Desktop Pictures"; cp "$V/wallpaper".* "$W"; chmod 644 "$W"
installer -pkg "$V/desktoppr.pkg" -target / >/dev/null || echo "vmix: WARNING: desktoppr install failed"
as_user /usr/local/bin/desktoppr "$W" || echo "vmix: WARNING: could not set the wallpaper"
# the wallpaper store is written asynchronously; give it time before the shutdown
sleep 15
echo "vmix: wallpaper now: $(as_user /usr/local/bin/desktoppr 2>/dev/null)"
''}
${lib.optionalString (dockApps != null) ''
D com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array
${lib.concatMapStringsSep "\n" (a: ''
D com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add "<dict><key>tile-data</key><dict><key>file-data</key><dict><key>_CFURLString</key><string>${a}</string><key>_CFURLStringType</key><integer>0</integer></dict></dict></dict>"
D com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add "<dict><key>tile-type</key><string>file-tile</string><key>tile-data</key><dict><key>file-data</key><dict><key>_CFURLString</key><string>file://${a}/</string><key>_CFURLStringType</key><integer>15</integer></dict></dict></dict>"
'') dockApps}
''}
${lib.optionalString dockAutohide ''D com.apple.dock autohide -bool true''}
@ -52,7 +56,7 @@ rec {
then ''D -g AppleInterfaceStyle Dark''
else ''as_user defaults delete -g AppleInterfaceStyle 2>/dev/null || true'')}
as_user killall Dock Finder WindowManager 2>/dev/null || true
sleep 3
sleep 10
'';
};
}