What options do I have besides switching to another client?
Package it yourself as part of your NixOS config, which would effectively make you the maintainer of said package (and youād be responsible for updating it and fixing breakages with it).
Personally my recommendation in situations like these is to look for another avenue. In this case, it looks like Betterbird is available via Flatpak. You can set up Flatpak via your NixOS configuration then use it normally.
If you want to declaratively install Flatpak applications, there is nix-flatpak. See the project page and discussion.
Of course, this has a number of trade-offs and might not be the right choice for you. If you would prefer lifting the derivation into your configuration instead, we can probably help you figure that out. However, if itās much like the Firefox build process, without the benefit of Hydra caching, this will probably not be a great experience.
If the developers provide an executable binary, you can create a Nix package for that. Youād likely need to use autoPatchelfHook (or buildFHSEnv) to get it to run, but the build would be much faster than trying to build such a large application from source.
That is only half the story. People put pressure on me to both support stable (I have no graphical system on stable) and unstable. Building betterbird even on good hardware, usually takes like 20 minutes and when it fails at the linking stage it is a bit annoying and can take a few tries to update. I usually did it on weekends when I usually have a lot of time but sometimes it feel through. Also I sometimes get the feeling that people get overzealous about packages other maintainers packages when they lack the security updates late.
If someone wants to help me maintain it, I think we could bring it back especially if people have the need for it.
5 Likes
Thanks for the suggestion. I feel like if Iām going to go that route, I might as well just switch to blendos or use distrobox.
I appreciate all of the maintainers but that just isnāt me anymore. I used to run gentoo on everything a decade ago but I guess Iām too old for this $#!+ā¦?
I donāt think itās so dire to be honest. I use Flatpak apps on all of my NixOS machines (mainly The GIMP nightly releases.) It does have some potential caveats but in my experience it is a perfectly reasonable escape hatch.
Of course, itās all up to you. Distrobox and blendOS are also perfectly fine choices if you think those would fit your needs better.
1 Like
Here is an updated Betterbird package built from source based on Thunderbird 140 ESR, if anyone is interested.
It includes globamenu support.
Iām starting to understand why the original maintainer gave up on this, every build takes ~25 minutes to complete, so it takes a quite while to fix and test any error. 
# To enable traysupport,set mail.biff.show_tray_icon_always to true in about:config
# To enable globalmenu: set widget.gtk.global-menu.wayland.enabled to true in about:config, and enable 'use system title bar'
{
pkgs,
lib,
buildMozillaMach,
cacert,
fetchFromGitHub,
fetchurl,
git,
libdbusmenu-gtk3,
runtimeShell,
thunderbirdPackages,
}: let
thunderbird-unwrapped = thunderbirdPackages.thunderbird-140;
# Globalmenu in kde/gnome, https://github.com/Lexi-Ewald/unity-menubar
unityMenubar = fetchurl {
url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lexi-Ewald/unity-menubar/e8dbaf63201165631edb12aac679d45eb970edf7/unity-menubar.patch";
sha256 = "sha256-GQdsV+WQRnVsU1+rvh5Irhk8XBJeQk1/uMFATMXErDc=";
};
version = "140.2.1esr";
majVer = lib.versions.major version;
betterbird-patches = fetchFromGitHub {
owner = "Betterbird";
repo = "thunderbird-patches";
rev = "${version}-bb10";
hash = "sha256-9eQYptHMtkUe6h54i1khLQ2VFS8sdbf0YP/QC9GYbpk=";
postFetch = ''
echo "Retrieving external patches"
echo "#!${runtimeShell}" > external.sh
# if no external patches need to be downloaded, don't fail
{ grep " # " $out/${majVer}/series-moz || true ; } >> external.sh
{ grep " # " $out/${majVer}/series || true ; } >> external.sh
sed -i -e '/^#/d' external.sh
sed -i -e 's/\/rev\//\/raw-rev\//' external.sh
sed -i -e 's|\(.*\) # \(.*\)|curl -L \2 -o $out/${majVer}/external/\1|' external.sh
chmod 700 external.sh
mkdir $out/${majVer}/external
SSL_CERT_FILE=${cacert}/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
cp ${unityMenubar} "$out/${majVer}/features/unity-menubar-142.patch"
echo 'unity-menubar-142.patch' >> $out/${majVer}/series-moz
. ./external.sh
'';
};
in
(
(buildMozillaMach {
pname = "betterbird";
inherit version;
applicationName = "Betterbird";
binaryName = "betterbird";
branding = "comm/mail/branding/betterbird";
inherit (thunderbird-unwrapped) extraPatches;
src = fetchurl {
# https://download.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/thunderbird/releases/
url = "mirror://mozilla/thunderbird/releases/${version}/source/thunderbird-${version}.source.tar.xz";
hash = "sha256-yeS5j3LbPpCE3Hq+XwzPCb/D4vMncGNx26TC7goUwps=";
};
extraPostPatch =
# bash
''
set -euo pipefail
PATH=$PATH:${lib.makeBinPath [git]}
patches=$(mktemp -d)
for dir in branding bugs external features misc; do
cp -f ${betterbird-patches}/${majVer}/$dir/*.patch "$patches/" 2>/dev/null || true
done
cp -f ${betterbird-patches}/${majVer}/series* "$patches/" 2>/dev/null || true
chmod -R u+w "$patches"
# Fix include paths in systray patch
if [ -f "$patches/12-feature-linux-systray.patch" ]; then
substituteInPlace "$patches/12-feature-linux-systray.patch" \
--replace-fail "/usr/include/libdbusmenu-glib-0.4/" "${lib.getDev libdbusmenu-gtk3}/include/libdbusmenu-glib-0.4/" \
--replace-fail "/usr/include/libdbusmenu-gtk3-0.4/" "${lib.getDev libdbusmenu-gtk3}/include/libdbusmenu-gtk3-0.4/"
fi
# Normalize series lines: (Don't know if this is needed, but some branding patches kept getting skipped)
normalize_series() {
sed -E 's/#.*$//; s/^[[:space:]]+//; s/[[:space:]]+$//' "$1" | sed '/^$/d'
}
# Patches to skip
skip_patch() {
case "$1" in
14-feature-regexp-searchterm.patch|\
14-feature-regexp-searchterm-m-c.patch|\
feature-506064-match-diacritics.patch)
return 0 ;;
*) return 1 ;;
esac
}
apply_patch_root() {
echo ">> applying (m-c) $1"
test -f "$patches/$1" || { echo "!! missing patch: $1" >&2; exit 1; }
git apply -p1 -v < "$patches/$1"
}
apply_patch_comm() {
echo ">> applying (c-c) $1"
test -f "$patches/$1" || { echo "!! missing patch: $1" >&2; exit 1; }
git apply -p1 -v --directory=comm < "$patches/$1"
}
# Apply m-c patches first
if [ -f "$patches/series-moz" ]; then
normalize_series "$patches/series-moz" | while IFS= read -r p; do
if skip_patch "$p"; then
echo ">> skipping $p"
continue
fi
apply_patch_root "$p"
done
fi
# Then c-c patches
if [ -f "$patches/series" ]; then
normalize_series "$patches/series" | while IFS= read -r p; do
if skip_patch "$p"; then
echo ">> skipping $p"
continue
fi
apply_patch_comm "$p"
done
# copy Betterbird mozconfig
cp -f ${betterbird-patches}/${majVer}/mozconfig-Linux mozconfig
fi
'';
extraBuildInputs = [
libdbusmenu-gtk3
];
meta = with lib; {
description = "Betterbird is a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird, Thunderbird on steroids, if you will";
homepage = "https://www.betterbird.eu/";
mainProgram = "betterbird";
maintainers = with maintainers; [dp];
inherit (thunderbird-unwrapped.meta) platforms broken license;
};
}).override
{
crashreporterSupport = false; # not supported
geolocationSupport = false;
webrtcSupport = false;
pgoSupport = false; # console.warn: feeds: "downloadFeed: network connection unavailable"
inherit (thunderbird-unwrapped.passthru) icu77;
}
).overrideAttrs
(oldAttrs: {
# let betterbird mozconfig handle configure, only add libclang
configureFlags =
[]
++ [
"--with-libclang-path=${lib.getLib pkgs.llvmPackages.libclang}/lib"
"--with-distribution-id=org.nixos"
"--disable-updater"
];
# show build errors
MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS = "-j$NIX_BUILD_CORES V=1";
# prevent nounset crash
dontWrapGApps = true;
nativeBuildInputs = let
base = oldAttrs.nativeBuildInputs or [];
in
(builtins.filter (x: x != pkgs.wrapGAppsHook && x != pkgs.makeBinaryWrapper) base)
++ [pkgs.makeWrapper];
postInstall =
oldAttrs.postInstall or ""
+ ''
if file "$out/lib/betterbird/betterbird" | grep -q ELF; then
mv "$out/lib/betterbird/betterbird" "$out/lib/betterbird/betterbird-bin"
fi
mv $out/lib/thunderbird/* $out/lib/betterbird
rmdir $out/lib/thunderbird/
rm $out/bin/thunderbird
# Desktop file
mkdir -p "$out/share/applications"
cat > "$out/share/applications/eu.betterbird.Betterbird.desktop" <<'EOF'
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Betterbird
Comment=Fine-tuned Thunderbird
Exec=betterbird %u
Icon=betterbird
Terminal=false
Categories=Network;Email;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/mailto;x-scheme-handler/webcal;text/calendar;
StartupWMClass=eu.betterbird.Betterbird
EOF
# Icons
for s in 64 128; do
if [ -f "comm/mail/branding/betterbird/content/icon"''${s}".png" ]; then
install -Dm644 "comm/mail/branding/betterbird/content/icon"''${s}".png" \
"$out/share/icons/hicolor/"''${s}"x"''${s}"/apps/betterbird.png"
fi
done
'';
# 4) Wrap manually, cant get the GApps magic working
postFixup =
(oldAttrs.postFixup or "")
+ ''
# Build runtime lib path
LD_PATH="${
lib.makeLibraryPath [
pkgs.libglvnd
pkgs.libdrm
pkgs.pciutils
pkgs.wayland
pkgs.libxkbcommon
pkgs.xorg.libX11
pkgs.xorg.libXcursor
pkgs.xorg.libXrandr
pkgs.xorg.libXdamage
pkgs.xorg.libXcomposite
pkgs.gtk3
pkgs.glib
pkgs.pango
pkgs.cairo
pkgs.freetype
pkgs.fontconfig
pkgs.nss
pkgs.nspr
pkgs.dbus
pkgs.glib-networking
pkgs.libdbusmenu-gtk3
]
}"
XDG_DIRS="$out/share:${pkgs.gsettings-desktop-schemas}/share:${pkgs.gtk3}/share:${pkgs.adwaita-icon-theme}/share:${pkgs.hicolor-icon-theme}/share"
makeWrapper "$out/lib/betterbird/betterbird-bin" "$out/bin/betterbird" \
--set MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND 1 \
--set GTK_USE_PORTAL 1 \
--set MOZ_DBUS_REMOTE 1 \
--set GTK_MODULES appmenu-gtk-module \
--prefix GTK_PATH : "${pkgs.appmenu-gtk3-module}/lib/gtk-3.0" \
--set GIO_EXTRA_MODULES "${pkgs.glib-networking}/lib/gio/modules" \
--prefix XDG_DATA_DIRS : "$XDG_DIRS" \
--prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH : "$LD_PATH"
'';
doInstallCheck = false;
passthru =
oldAttrs.passthru
// {
inherit betterbird-patches;
};
})
1 Like
I suggest checking out https://nur.nix-community.org and keeping your derivations built via github actions and uitilise cachix. Also you can monitor for any breakages to your packages due to updates from nixpkgs.
These kind of packages are a perfect fit for nur.
1 Like
Here is a gist that works for installing betterbird-bin for x86_64-linux: pkgs/by-name/be/betterbird-bin/package.nix Ā· GitHub
I cannot run it correctly at the moment because Iām using Thunderbird managed by Home-Manager, but I will do that in a couple of days. In the meantime, feel free to test it and let me know how it goes.
Edit: got it working successfully !
I am trying to maintain betterbird in my nur repo github.com/mio-19/nurpkgs Thanks to shelvacuās works to fix various problems
1 Like
Iād like to use ābetterbird-binā version in my NixOS installation (I donāt want to do 20 minute builds whenever thereās a new release..)
Iām a newbie when it comes to NixOS.. Iāve got a working nix + home-manager setup, and Iām not sure where I need to put / reference the betterbird-bin/package.nix linked above by @drupol. Please help!
UPDATE: currently reading Packaging/Binaries - NixOS Wiki - I think Iāll try to that into /etc/nixos/applications/betterbird-bin/default.nix and add this line to my /etc/nixos/configuration.nix:
betterbird-bin = callPackage applications/betterbird-bin {};
is that correct? Iāll try that now..
UPDATE2: Iām currently trying to see if I can add āNURā to my system so I could include betterbird from nurpkgs/pkgs/betterbird/default.nix at main Ā· mio-19/nurpkgs Ā· GitHub
UPDATE3: haha, 20 minutes, I wish! It feels like this build job has been running for over an hour now. I didnāt clock it but Iām 100% certain Iām well past 20 minutes.. I think Iāll go sleep now and leave my laptop running over nightā¦
Wrong wiki, use wiki.nixos.org if you must, or better, use Package parameters and overrides with callPackage ā nix.dev documentation to understand what callPackage does.
1 Like
thanks for your reply! Since that callPackage seemed terribly complex to me Iāve tried the NUR package path instead, but even though the build took hours, it sadly failed in the end 
error: Cannot build '/nix/store/vchi9bbc4xgmvs6c5aal37cry3mkw9qi-betterbird-unwrapped-140.6.0esr-bb15-build2-with-metadata.drv'.
Reason: builder failed with exit code 2.
Output paths:
/nix/store/d4xfml64vrkpybx55w0jr2gad6j0almf-betterbird-unwrapped-140.6.0esr-bb15-build2-with-metadata-debug
/nix/store/xiqfc0gg0rq5fyh913vyw2i11ja7251j-betterbird-unwrapped-140.6.0esr-bb15-build2-with-metadata
Last 25 log lines:
> toolkit/library/build/libxul.so
> rm -f ../../../dist/bin/libxul.so
> /nix/store/h8rf3hxmmzazaag0jsqa95xaqvf9iv9j-clang-wrapper-21.1.2/bin/clang++ -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -fstrict-flex-arrays=1 -fno-rtti -pthread -fno-sized-deallocation -fno-aligned-new -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-math-errno -fno-exceptions -fPIC -gdwarf-4 -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -funwind-tables -shared -Wl,-z,defs -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,-h,libxul.so -o ../../../dist/bin/libxul.so -Wl,@/build/mozillaDir/objdir/toolkit/library/build/libxul_so.list -B /build/mozillaDir/objdir/build/unix/elfhack -Wl,--real-linker,/nix/store/njlgx99l0x48mz0y2s2zw208apiqsnyl-llvm-binutils-wrapper-21.1.2/bin/ld.lld -flto -Wl,-plugin-opt=-import-instr-limit=10 -Wl,-plugin-opt=-import-hot-multiplier=30 -Wl,--icf=safe -Wl,--build-id=sha1 -Wl,-z,noexecstack -Wl,-z,text -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now -Wl,-z,nocopyreloc -fuse-ld=lld -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -Wl,-rpath-link,/build/mozillaDir/objdir/dist/bin ../../../js/src/build/libjs_static.a ../../../build/pure_virtual/libpure_virtual.a ../../../x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/libgkrust.a ../../../dist/bin/libmozsandbox.so ../../../dist/bin/libgkcodecs.so ../../../dist/bin/liblgpllibs.so ../../../dist/bin/libmozsqlite3.so ../../../dist/bin/libmozgtk.so ../../../dist/bin/libmozwayland.so -Wl,--version-script,libxul.so.symbols -L/nix/store/r73vph55zdvgc2jzjy0q0ix5n9d97b15-icu4c-77.1/lib -licuuc -licui18n -lresolv -ldl -lasound -lpthread -lc -L/nix/store/8hm6kz26gq7cfaw07lg8vs5632abrmdm-nspr-4.38.2/lib -lplds4 -lplc4 -lnspr4 -L/nix/store/b9p0zpa93hwvh4d0r1rmgc2500yx2ldn-libffi-3.5.2/lib/../lib64 -lffi -L/nix/store/l7xwm1f6f3zj2x8jwdbi8gdyfbx07sh7-zlib-1.3.1/lib -lz -lm -L/nix/store/3qix2clbn8ic79pl0z6y8w08c7a1yg0s-nss-3.112.2/lib64 -lssl3 -lsmime3 -lnss3 -lnssutil3 -L/nix/store/b6rhgkvrwzq0bzfpaw79b60i1bfbhk3w-freetype-2.13.3/lib -lfreetype -L/nix/store/5l5wsn4qxkw90h6sxxz43gbnar7w5x8s-fontconfig-2.17.1-lib/lib -lfontconfig -L/nix/store/cs86fhm7hsgxm20m826cl5qqc4nyg33s-gtk+3-3.24.51/lib -L/nix/store/ildy6f9q59c8c4imgwcbdbf3xc9dnc5j-at-spi2-core-2.58.1/lib -L/nix/store/5qdsnc26nv61j5rrw492f19xav2rz45v-glib-2.86.1/lib -L/nix/store/0ci3da6db19gckz0i5j3br992cspvlz1-cairo-1.18.4/lib -L/nix/store/cfnas28yx8ni9izjmk3f9hgwzin798nl-gdk-pixbuf-2.44.4/lib -L/nix/store/2ryq506h3bjvkrbydqjrr5b4id9m63a3-pango-1.57.0/lib -L/nix/store/8mk1lafnnrx0a6lvjh69afm8w3i4pvqx-harfbuzz-12.1.0/lib -lgtk-3 -lgdk-3 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lpango-1.0 -lharfbuzz -latk-1.0 -lcairo-gobject -lcairo -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lgio-2.0 -lgobject-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lrt -ljpeg -L/nix/store/s8md611ry6w14m4awmgivld52ym8s3b2-libpng-apng-1.6.50/lib -lpng16 -L/nix/store/bcv98jffnvqxvyncf1bayz50r9wj7g3q-libwebp-1.6.0/lib -lwebp -lwebpdemux -L/nix/store/58lnfa43dm43r4wy8mppqxh6n5xgwqpc-libevent-2.1.12/lib -levent -L/nix/store/j5hnqcfd65g73rn6yd3zv2vapw31237c-libvpx-1.15.2/lib -lvpx -L/nix/store/pw03xfrnb6a7nz6ivq6jijsx0n52afnp-pixman-0.46.4/lib -lpixman-1 -L/nix/store/ibgwqf5qna1cy3gc30w27dcjvij60ick-dbus-1.14.10-lib/lib -ldbus-1 -L/nix/store/55071y2xjibw8f317scvlg788w31k7k8-libxext-1.3.6/lib -L/nix/store/ja09m2gfni7pqk4bsrhjb8y9cq74rspp-libx11-1.8.12/lib -L/nix/store/9babi8y8p9crps6l8sz5gr5xm5fljw1h-libxcb-1.17.0/lib -L/nix/store/llr8wn0a3q8vfrg6i7vr2l2k66izm56a-libxrandr-1.5.4/lib -lxcb-shm -lX11-xcb -lX11 -lxcb -lXext -lXrandr
> clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-Wa,--compress-debug-sections' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]
> clang++: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-Wa,--compress-debug-sections' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]
> /build/mozbuild/srcdirs/mozillaDir-dec127ac7afa/_virtualenvs/build/bin/python -m mozbuild.action.check_binary ../../../dist/bin/libmozavutil.so
> chmod +x ../../../dist/bin/libmozavutil.so
> make[3]: Leaving directory '/build/mozillaDir/objdir/media/ffvpx/libavutil'
> make[3]: Entering directory '/build/mozillaDir/objdir/media/ffvpx/libavcodec'
> media/ffvpx/libavcodec/libmozavcodec.so
> rm -f ../../../dist/bin/libmozavcodec.so
> /nix/store/h8rf3hxmmzazaag0jsqa95xaqvf9iv9j-clang-wrapper-21.1.2/bin/clang++ -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -fstrict-flex-arrays=1 -fno-rtti -pthread -fno-sized-deallocation -fno-aligned-new -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-math-errno -fno-exceptions -fPIC -gdwarf-4 -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -funwind-tables -shared -Wl,-z,defs -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,-h,libmozavcodec.so -o ../../../dist/bin/libmozavcodec.so -Wl,@/build/mozillaDir/objdir/media/ffvpx/libavcodec/libmozavcodec_so.list -B /build/mozillaDir/objdir/build/unix/elfhack -Wl,--real-linker,/nix/store/njlgx99l0x48mz0y2s2zw208apiqsnyl-llvm-binutils-wrapper-21.1.2/bin/ld.lld -flto -Wl,-plugin-opt=-import-instr-limit=10 -Wl,-plugin-opt=-import-hot-multiplier=30 -Wl,--icf=safe -Wl,--build-id=sha1 -Wl,-z,noexecstack -Wl,-z,text -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now -Wl,-z,nocopyreloc -fuse-ld=lld -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -Wl,-rpath-link,/build/mozillaDir/objdir/dist/bin ../../../build/pure_virtual/libpure_virtual.a ../../../dist/bin/libgkcodecs.so ../../../dist/bin/libmozavutil.so -Wl,--version-script,libmozavcodec.so.symbols -ldl -L/nix/store/j5hnqcfd65g73rn6yd3zv2vapw31237c-libvpx-1.15.2/lib -lvpx -lm
> clang++: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-Wa,--compress-debug-sections' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]
> /build/mozbuild/srcdirs/mozillaDir-dec127ac7afa/_virtualenvs/build/bin/python -m mozbuild.action.check_binary ../../../dist/bin/libmozavcodec.so
> chmod +x ../../../dist/bin/libmozavcodec.so
> make[3]: Leaving directory '/build/mozillaDir/objdir/media/ffvpx/libavcodec'
> /nix/store/njlgx99l0x48mz0y2s2zw208apiqsnyl-llvm-binutils-wrapper-21.1.2/bin/ld.lld: line 273: 31141 Killed /nix/store/hyciwxlqj1kf8x8b4asjgsjc554i7li9-llvm-binutils-21.1.2/bin/ld.lld ${extraBefore+"${extraBefore[@]}"} ${params+"${params[@]}"} ${extraAfter+"${extraAfter[@]}"}
> clang++: error: linker command failed with exit code 137 (use -v to see invocation)
> make[3]: *** [/build/mozillaDir/config/rules.mk:539: ../../../dist/bin/libxul.so] Error 1
> make[3]: Leaving directory '/build/mozillaDir/objdir/toolkit/library/build'
> make[2]: *** [/build/mozillaDir/config/recurse.mk:72: toolkit/library/build/target] Error 2
> make[2]: Leaving directory '/build/mozillaDir/objdir'
> make[1]: *** [/build/mozillaDir/config/recurse.mk:34: compile] Error 2
> make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/mozillaDir/objdir'
> make: *** [/build/mozillaDir/config/rules.mk:359: default] Error 2
For full logs, run:
nix log /nix/store/vchi9bbc4xgmvs6c5aal37cry3mkw9qi-betterbird-unwrapped-140.6.0esr-bb15-build2-with-metadata.drv
error: Cannot build '/nix/store/p2vsmcg42vbbi1vfz9cvhv0g6skrz3vc-betterbird-140.6.0esr-bb15-build2-with-metadata.drv'.
Reason: 1 dependency failed.
Output paths:
/nix/store/ffn01gq98chnn11i5vffa52isip6a37c-betterbird-140.6.0esr-bb15-build2-with-metadata
error: Cannot build '/nix/store/7xac6l40643470lhs8hbsfm5gcm4qjn1-home-manager-path.drv'.
Reason: 1 dependency failed.
Output paths:
/nix/store/phmg4fd0bjhrj11dsgv5ngny3y1ydz5m-home-manager-path
error: Cannot build '/nix/store/23slgz8q089g5bxw0383hywdavl3jbf4-home-manager-generation.drv'.
Reason: 1 dependency failed.
Output paths:
/nix/store/k3qb1dwivhj8kh4148m8mjqjnfmyqi90-home-manager-generation
error: Cannot build '/nix/store/jf6yksaac1ppj3rkcdzhmzyibzmiwfnh-user-environment.drv'.
Reason: 1 dependency failed.
Output paths:
/nix/store/r7lhm6la9lz0pfja86ysf5f8mkbpxy95-user-environment
error: Cannot build '/nix/store/vvijxampcb0ksgplrzakv2qxm1i5il2b-etc.drv'.
Reason: 1 dependency failed.
Output paths:
/nix/store/z8qlf75w39z5368wjdf5lmcyh8ccazqc-etc
error: Cannot build '/nix/store/lafxzzbpnw2fbbrzmvnp1kasfahbzr32-nixos-system-Lenovo_P16v_nixos-25.11.20251209.09eb77e.drv'.
Reason: 1 dependency failed.
Output paths:
/nix/store/9q49nhfphmd591c3h9py09zh1dgn00v4-nixos-system-Lenovo_P16v_nixos-25.11.20251209.09eb77e
It auto-passes all attributes of pkgs to the function defined in the file you provide.
You can just put (pkgs.callPackage ./path/to/betterbird.nix {}) - keep the parens! - in environment.systemPackages or similar package list.
Your machine probably doesnāt have enough physical RAM (no, swap doesnāt count).
1 Like
ahhh, perfect, adding (callPackage ./betterbird.nix {}) into environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ .. ]; in my configuration.nix file and saving betterbird-bin/package.nix
to betterbird.nix in the same directory worked like a charm 
I have 32GB physical RAM on this machine, and Iāve even closed Firefox before going to sleep so it has most of it (whatever plasma doesnāt use) for building - still it seems it wasnāt enough. strange imho.
Thats normal unfortunately, 32 gigs isnāt enough.
Iāve modified my betterbird.nix to update to the latest bin release and add a desktop entry with icons for it:
{
lib,
stdenv,
fetchurl,
autoPatchelfHook,
patchelfUnstable,
wrapGAppsHook3,
alsa-lib,
}:
stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
pname = "betterbird";
version = "140.7.1esr-bb18";
src = fetchurl {
url = "https://www.betterbird.eu/downloads/LinuxArchive/betterbird-140.7.1esr-bb18.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.xz";
hash = "sha256-XTzXokiZfzc75nAcotWPdVPMYFDkLVLglyIxwFpcvWk=";
};
nativeBuildInputs = [
autoPatchelfHook
patchelfUnstable
wrapGAppsHook3
];
buildInputs = [
alsa-lib
];
# Thunderbird uses "relrhack" to manually process relocations from a fixed offset
patchelfFlags = [ "--no-clobber-old-sections" ];
strictDeps = true;
postPatch = ''
# Don't download updates from Mozilla directly
echo 'pref("app.update.auto", "false");' >> defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js
'';
installPhase = ''
runHook preInstall
appdir="$out/usr/lib/betterbird-bin-${finalAttrs.version}"
mkdir -p "$appdir"
cp -r ./* "$appdir"
mkdir -p "$out/bin"
ln -s "$appdir/betterbird" "$out/bin/betterbird"
# wrapThunderbird expects "$out/lib" instead of "$out/usr/lib"
ln -s "$out/usr/lib" "$out/lib"
# ---------- Desktop entry ----------
mkdir -p "$out/share/applications"
cat > "$out/share/applications/betterbird.desktop" <<EOF
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Betterbird
GenericName=Mail Client
Comment=Fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird
Exec=betterbird %u
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=betterbird
Categories=Network;Email;GTK;
MimeType=message/rfc822;x-scheme-handler/mailto;
StartupWMClass=Betterbird
EOF
# ---------- Icons (symlinks) ----------
icon_src_dir="$appdir/chrome/icons/default"
if [ -d "$icon_src_dir" ]; then
for size in 16 22 24 32 48 64 128 256; do
icon_src="$icon_src_dir/default''${size}.png"
if [ -f "$icon_src" ]; then
icon_dest_dir="$out/share/icons/hicolor/''${size}x''${size}/apps"
mkdir -p "$icon_dest_dir"
ln -s "$icon_src" "$icon_dest_dir/betterbird.png"
fi
done
# Optional: SVG, if desktop environment prefers it
if [ -f "$icon_src_dir/default.svg" ]; then
icon_dest_dir="$out/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps"
mkdir -p "$icon_dest_dir"
ln -s "$icon_src_dir/default.svg" "$icon_dest_dir/betterbird.svg"
fi
fi
runHook postInstall
'';
meta = {
changelog = "https://www.betterbird.net/en-US/betterbird/${finalAttrs.version}/releasenotes/";
description = "Betterbird is a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird, Thunderbird on steroids, if you will.";
homepage = "https://www.betterbird.eu";
mainProgram = "betterbird";
sourceProvenance = with lib.sourceTypes; [ binaryNativeCode ];
license = lib.licenses.mpl20;
maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ ];
platforms = [ "x86_64-linux" ];
};
})