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Morten Linderud
linderud.dev · Personal blog · on HN since 2019
Morten Linderud, an Arch Linux developer, writes about packaging, reproducible builds, TPM-backed SSH keys, and security.
What HN saysHN commenters call his 'NixOS is not reproducible' post compelling though clickbaity, and one cites his LXD packaging post as a reason to distrust LXD.
17HN people shared it
4linked it in comments
34stories submitted
436story points
8 months agolast shared
2019people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1NixOS is not reproducible6 people · 150 points · first shared 2024 · 162 comments on HN
- 2Self-hosting DNS for no fun, but a little profit4 people · 26 points · first shared 2025 · 3 comments on HN
- 3Store SSH keys inside the TPM: SSH-tpm-agent3 people · 4 points · first shared 2023 · 2 comments on HN
- 4Packaging LXD for Arch Linux2 people · 53 points · first shared 2020 · 16 comments on HN
- 5Monitoring the kernel.org Transparency Log for a year2 people · 41 points · first shared 2022 · 4 comments on HN
- 6Pam Bypass: when null(is not)ok2 people · 7 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 7Reproducible Arch Linux Packages2 people · 5 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 8Coredumpctl, delve and debug packages for Go2 people · 4 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 9Personal Infrastructure Setup 20262 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 10Store age identities inside the TPM: age-plugin-tpm2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 11Stream to Chromecast with resolved, vlc and bash1 people · 82 points · first shared 2024 · 35 comments on HN
- 12Mkinitcpio v31 and UEFI Stubs1 people · 42 points · first shared 2021 · 12 comments on HN
- 13Streaming the Steam Deck to OBS1 people · 7 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 14Easter hack: Terraform-provider-openwrt1 people · 3 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 15Improving the Secure Boot user experience1 people · 2 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
jt2190 · 2024-05-18
I’m picking this nit:
> When is a build reproducible?
> “A build is reproducible if given the same source code, build environment and build instructions, any party can recreate bit-by-bit identical copies of all specified artifacts.”
> Neither Nix or NixOS gives you these guarantees.
This really makes me question whether all of the quirkiness of Nix is worth it if it can’t actually “pay off” with true reproducibility.
[1] “NixOS is not reproducible (2022) https://linderud.dev/blog/nixos-is-not-reproducible/
[2] “non reproducible issues in NixOS” https://github.com/orgs/NixOS/projects/30
yjftsjthsd-h · 2020-12-02
I'm currently involved in an effort to rip out docker swarm at work because its overlay networks are shockingly unreliable. LXD looks interesting but https://linderud.dev/blog/packaging-lxd-for-arch-linux/ convinced me that it's another Canonical NIH special and probably best avoided (in particular, "only distributed for Ubuntu via snaps" means "forces auto-updates" which means "not going in my environment"). Need to try Nomad; I'm cautiously optimistic since the rest of HashiCorp's stuff is good.
abathur · 2024-07-10
Just writing to agree, since you are getting pushback.
@Foxboron wrote a compelling if clickbaity post a few months back to poke at the bit-for-bit interpretation of what reproducibility means in nixland: https://linderud.dev/blog/nixos-is-not-reproducible/
It didn't get much traction here (https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=linderud.dev) but there was more lively discussion on lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/jpoy4q/nixos_is_not_reproducible
(That said, the nix ecosystem does have levers and practices for working to weed out common sources of build reproducibility problems and the community is reasonably interested/active here. But there isn't any magic in it that fixes all bit-for-bit issues. People still have to catch, tag, and fix them.)
Foxboron · 2020-07-14
I did write a bit about my experience packaging LXD for Arch Linux a while back.
I got a ping from a Debian dev telling me the Debian dev working on LXD enjoyed the article, and has been trying to pick up on the work again. The linked wiki page is the outdated one.
https://linderud.dev/blog/packaging-lxd-for-arch-linux/