system partition) as its */boot* partition. It uses the initially
    reserved 512MiB at the start of the disk.

    ```ShellSession
    # parted /dev/sda -- mkpart ESP fat32 1MB 512MB
    # parted /dev/sda -- set 3 esp on
    ```
    ::: {.note}
    In case you decided to not create a swap partition, replace `3` by `2`. To be sure of the id number of ESP, run `parted --list`.
    :::

Once complete, you can follow with
[](#sec-installation-manual-partitioning-formatting).

#### Legacy Boot (MBR) {#sec-installation-manual-partitioning-MBR}
[]{#sec-installation-partitioning-MBR} <!-- legacy anchor -->

Here's an example partition scheme for Legacy Boot, using `/dev/sda` as
the device.

::: {.note}
You can safely ignore `parted`'s informational message about needing to
update /etc/fstab.
:::

1.  Create a *MBR* partition table.

    ```ShellSession
    # parted /dev/sda -- mklabel msdos
    ```

2.  Add the *root* partition. This will fill the the disk except for the
    end part, where the swap will live.

    ```ShellSession
    # parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary 1MB -8GB
    ```

3.  Set the root partition's boot flag to on. This allows the disk to be booted from.

    ```ShellSession
    # parted /dev/sda -- set 1 boot on
    ```

4.  Finally, add a *swap* partition. The size required will vary
    according to needs, here a 8GB one is created.

    ```ShellSession
    # parted /dev/sda -- mkpart primary linux-swap -8GB 100%
    ```

    ::: {.note}
    The swap partition size rules are no different than for other Linux
    distributions.
    :::

Once complete, you can follow with
[](#sec-installation-manual-partitioning-formatting).

#### Formatting {#sec-installation-manual-partitioning-formatting}
[]{#sec-installation-partitioning-formatting} <!-- legacy anchor -->

Use the following commands:

-   For initialising Ext4 partitions: `mkfs.ext4`. It is recommended
    that you assign a unique symbolic label to the file system using the
    option `-L label`, since this makes the file system configuration
    independent from device changes. For example:

    ```ShellSession
    # mkfs.ext4 -L nixos /dev/sda1
    ```

-   For creating swap partitions: `mkswap`. Again it's recommended to
    assign a label to the swap partition: `-L label`. For example:

    ```ShellSession
    # mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2
    ```

-   **UEFI systems**

    For creating boot partitions: `mkfs.fat`. Again it's recommended
    to assign a label to the boot partition: `-n label`. For
    example:

    ```ShellSession
    # mkfs.fat -F 32 -n boot /dev/sda3
    ```

-   For creating LVM volumes, the LVM commands, e.g., `pvcreate`,
    `vgcreate`, and `lvcreate`.

-   For creating software RAID devices, use `mdadm`.

### Installing {#sec-installation-manual-installing}
[]{#sec-installation-installing} <!-- legacy anchor -->

1.  Mount the target file system on which NixOS should be installed on
    `/mnt`, e.g.

    ```ShellSession
    # mount /dev/disk/by-label/nixos /mnt
    ```

2.  **UEFI systems**

    Mount the boot file system on `/mnt/boot`, e.g.

    ```ShellSession
    # mkdir -p /mnt/boot
    # mount -o umask=077 /dev/disk/by-label/boot /mnt/boot
    ```

3.  If your machine has a limited amount of memory, you may want to
    activate swap devices now (`swapon device`).
    The installer (or rather, the build actions that it
    may spawn) may need quite a bit of RAM, depending on your
    configuration.

    ```ShellSession
    # swapon /dev/sda2
    ```

4.  You now need to create a file `/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix`
    that specifies the intended configuration of the system. This is
    because NixOS has a *declarative* configuration model: you create or
    edit a description of the desired configuration of your system, and
    then NixOS takes care of making it happen. The syntax of the NixOS
    configuration file is described in [](#sec-configuration-syntax),
    while a list of available configuration options appears in