Completely fresh installation on macOS fails OOTB

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1

I’m new to nix, and just installed it using sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install). However, it fails from the very start. When just running nix-shell I get:

warning: Nix search path entry '/Users/ihse/.nix-defexpr/channels' does not exist, ignoring

Trying to get help does not work:

ihse@saturnus:~$ nix-shell --help
No manual entry for nix-shell

and when I tried to use nix-shell to build openconnect-sso (which was the sole reason for me to install nix to begin with), I get this weird error about setuptools:

ihse@saturnus:~/hacking/openconnect-sso$ nix-shell
warning: Nix search path entry '/Users/ihse/.nix-defexpr/channels' does not exist, ignoring
warning: Nix search path entry '/Users/ihse/.nix-defexpr/channels' does not exist, ignoring
warning: Nix search path entry '/Users/ihse/.nix-defexpr/channels' does not exist, ignoring
error:
       … while calling the 'derivationStrict' builtin
         at <nix/derivation-internal.nix>:34:12:
           33|
           34|   strict = derivationStrict drvAttrs;
             |            ^
           35|

       … while evaluating derivation 'nix-shell'
         whose name attribute is located at /nix/store/yqlf9nmfxzpy4p0pzzqd8rs1xvmmxg0s-nixpkgs/nixpkgs/pkgs/stdenv/generic/make-derivation.nix:375:7

       … while evaluating attribute 'buildInputs' of derivation 'nix-shell'
         at /nix/store/yqlf9nmfxzpy4p0pzzqd8rs1xvmmxg0s-nixpkgs/nixpkgs/pkgs/stdenv/generic/make-derivation.nix:422:7:
          421|       depsHostHost                = elemAt (elemAt dependencies 1) 0;
          422|       buildInputs                 = elemAt (elemAt dependencies 1) 1;
             |       ^
          423|       depsTargetTarget            = elemAt (elemAt dependencies 2) 0;

       (stack trace truncated; use '--show-trace' to show the full, detailed trace)

       error: function 'anonymous lambda' called with unexpected argument 'setuptools'
       at /nix/store/yqlf9nmfxzpy4p0pzzqd8rs1xvmmxg0s-nixpkgs/nixpkgs/pkgs/development/python-modules/wheel/default.nix:1:1:
            1| {
             | ^
            2|   lib,
ihse@saturnus:~/hacking/openconnect-sso$

Something seems messed up with the channels (but I don’t fully grok this nix concept yet). I tried nix-channel --list and it did not output anything at all, which seems sus.

I have found Nix programs keep saying `warning: Nix search path entry ...` · Issue #2982 · NixOS/nix · GitHub and tried the suggested workarounds:

sudo -i nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable nixpkgs
sudo -i nix-channel --update nixpkgs

and

export NIX_PATH=$HOME/.nix-defexpr/channels

but this did not help. I did not try the local repository workaround suggested in a comment since it seemed way too complex.

I’m basically stuck now. Can anyone here help me out?

2

This doesn’t work because by default, NIX_PATH points to root’s nixos channel, not its nixpkgs channel.
Though, I’m not sure exactly how this works with the installer. The “default” I’m referring to is on NixOS, I don’t know what the nix installer does.

This does nothing because your user has no channels.
Add one, and continue.

3

I’m starting to learn Nix and encountered same warnings on my macOS. I was actually able to get rid of them using your response. My thinking was that nix-channel solution you provided should be run without sudo since it is looking at your user home directory.

nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable nixpkgs
nix-channel --update

This probably still doesn’t solve error you are getting.