The goal of the GNU Guix1 package manager is to promote software freedom. As we integrate with technology, we extend our bodies with hardware, and our minds with software. Put simply, our bodies can never be free if our minds are not free. Freeing our hardware is a noble goal, but for that "we need future fabrication technology"2. At the boundry between hardware and software, there is firmware: software which is meant to run on a peripheral device such as a wifi chip. Firmware that never changes is functionally no different than hardware, but once you start upgrading and replacing firmware, it becomes functionally software.
In keeping with that goal, Guix follows the GNU Free Software Distribution Guidelines (FSDG)3. From the GNU FSDG guidelines:
What would be unacceptable is for the documentation to give people instructions for installing a nonfree program on the system, or mention conveniences they might gain by doing so. For a borderline case, a clear and serious exhortation not to use the nonfree program would move it to the acceptable side of the line.
While this is the correct stance to take, when coupled with manufacturer's insistance on creating devices which require nonfree firmware at boot, this means booting a clean Guix installation is often not possible. Classically, the main piece of hardware to require such nonfree firmware is the wifi chip. However, if you are trying to install Guix on such a system, then the required nonfree firmware has already been installed as part of the operating system currently running on the system. In the following, in the interest of moving as many as possible away from nonfree systems into the freedom provided by Guix, I will explain how to move that nonfree wifi firmware into a Guix installation.
Before I provide the instructions, I want to make one more point as to why you might not want to do this: The devices available on the market are decided by what people are willing to spend money on. If you spend money on a device that requires nonfree firmware, then you further prepetuate that cycle. If you are able, I suggest you buy hardware which is capable of running GNU Guix without such firmware. However, some cannot afford such a device, or are not familiar enough with free systems to want to buy such a device. For those of you looking here for an entry-point into free systems, don't let this become a long-term solution.
<instructions here for installing from nonguix>