Can't log in to new install 21.05

1

Hello,

I installed NixOS 21.05 from USB on a spare machine, following the instructions in the manual. The install boots fine but, despite having set a root password at the prompt from ‘nixos-install’, I cannot log in: the login screen says ‘Failed to start session’. I have also attempted to log in via ssh from another machine but this also fails: “Received disconnect from 192.168.0.28 port 22:2: Too many authentication failures”.

I can provide more information on request.

Thanks for any help.

sprock

2

Shameless self promotion but you might consider giving GitHub - samuela/nixos-up: The fastest NixOS install there is! 🏎️🏁 a try! It’s also much easier to debug things since I know exactly what steps that tool does, etc.

3

Many thanks for the response. Unfortunately it does not work for me:

preallocating file of 56671331 bytes: No space left on device
copying path ‘/nix/store/lc4nyfgnkz1x2mw6ir6fgfyjr0p7dc3s-cairo-1.16.0’ from ‘https://cache.nixos.org’…
copying path ‘/nix/store/6x2qh9r1cq5gxsm9xsnyc094w6s8lp0w-poppler-data-0.4.10’ from ‘https://cache.nixos.org’…
cannot build derivation ‘/nix/store/45xd95b351kkcyf3kjhb2pvfz3pgc2y7-system-path.drv’: 1 dependencies couldn’t be built
building ‘/nix/store/3mi7y2qki571y08mzcdaqjdklbrw55f5-unit-40-enp0s25.link.drv’…
cannot build derivation ‘/nix/store/c7gwxhfh8l6j1g543r44qzsji6iypnhm-nixos-system-nixos-21.05.1669.973910f5c31.drv’: 1 dependencies couldn’t be built
error: build of ‘/nix/store/c7gwxhfh8l6j1g543r44qzsji6iypnhm-nixos-system-nixos-21.05.1669.973910f5c31.drv’ failed
Exception:
CommandFailure
“nix-build ‘<nixpkgs/nixos>’ -A config.system.build.toplevel -I nixos-config=/mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix”.
Called from Stdlib__fun.protect in file “fun.ml”, line 33, characters 8-15
Re-raised at Stdlib__fun.protect in file “fun.ml”, line 38, characters 6-52
Called from Toploop.load_lambda in file “toplevel/toploop.ml”, line 212, characters 4-150

I’m installing on a system with a 160GB HD and it looks like something is hardwired to consume more space than is available. I’ll also need swap b/c the machine has only 4GB of RAM, but the script allocates the whole disk.

Thanks again,
sprock

4

Update. I added

services.xserver.displayManager.gdm.enable = true;
services.xserver.desktopManager.gnome.enable = true;

to /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix.

Now nixos-install fails thus:

copying path ‘/nix/store/q9p6pddakbaqyqyq3l5ajywsmzvkvi80-cantarell-fonts-0.301’ from ‘https://cache.nixos.org’…
getting attributes of path ‘/nix/store/q9p6pddakbaqyqyq3l5ajywsmzvkvi80-cantarell-fonts-0.301’: No such file or directory
cannot build derivation ‘/nix/store/mx1i8cwpwzjhlnjhkg80a6yc3c6zvil9-fontconfig-etc.drv’: 1 dependencies couldn’t be built
cannot build derivation ‘/nix/store/hpnr8i1wxm1l03x3d0ixsisdpr4p4zdd-etc.drv’: 1 dependencies couldn’t be built
copying path ‘/nix/store/h1hswzxsnsmbr6qf1j1fqxhx0x9nl4jk-cheese-3.38.0-man’ from ‘https://cache.nixos.org’…
cannot build derivation ‘/nix/store/v4p8dicrjpd97r133wjiaw8pzz29cqg0-nixos-system-diopside-21.05.1669.973910f5c31.drv’: 1 dependencies couldn’t be built
error: build of ‘/nix/store/v4p8dicrjpd97r133wjiaw8pzz29cqg0-nixos-system-diopside-21.05.1669.973910f5c31.drv’ failed

5

You are on the right track! Please see this issue, and apply the fix mentioned in the discussion.

2 Likes
6

Hello,

Marek Ľach via NixOS Discourse writes:

  • marek-lach
    July 26

You are on the right track! Please see this issue, and apply the fix mentioned in the discussion.

Thanks for your reply. However I decided against continuing with NixOS
for now. I may come back to it later.

Best wishes,
Roger

7

Having read through the issue discussion I have attempted to install 20.09. When I add

services.xserver.displayManager.gdm.enable = true;
services.xserver.desktopManager.gnome.enable = true;

to configuration.nix, running nixos-install generates an error:

error: The option services.xserver.desktopManager.gnome' defined in /mnt/etc/nixos/configuration.nix’ does not exist.

Where is the documentation for 20.09?

8

Not online anymore, but inside the installer you should have it, e.g. man configuration.nix (not sure if the html manual on terminal 8 got scrapped).

EDIT: but I’d probably not recommend installing 20.09 now (except temporarily or something).

9

Hello Vladimir,

Vladimír čunát via NixOS Discourse writes:

sprock:

Where is the documentation for 20.09?

Not online anymore, but inside the installer you should have it, e.g. man configuration.nix (not sure if the html manual on terminal 8 got scrapped).

EDIT: but I’d probably not recommend installing 20.09 now (except temporarily or something).

Many thanks. I have 20.09 up and running. I’ll leave the upgrade to
20.05 until tomorrow.

Best wishes,
Roger