Introduction
Linode does not officially support NixOS out of the box, but they do have a relatively comprehensive guide for installing it from scratch.
I found the instructions pretty easy to follow, but there were a few nuances that tripped me up here and there. What follows is a re-hash of that guide with specific emphasis on parts that I struggled with. As with anything else, your mileage will vary.
Configuring the disk images
This was the core stumbling block for me. The instructions tell you to create three disk images - one for the installer, one for the OS, and one for swap.
I made the mistake of trying to reuse the OS disk image that comes with the default distribution. This lead to issues booting later on.
I also discovered that the guide’s sizing recommendation for the installer disk was out of date. Instead of the 1208 MB size recommended, I used 5000 MB to accomodate the NixOS minimal iso.
Here’s what the disk image setup looked like when I had it setup correctly.
Wrapping up
Once the disk images were correctly setup, the rest of the install went smoothly!