# Error: secret key is corrupt when building flake
**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [February 28, 2024, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440 "2024-02-28T08:18:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@aditya](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/aditya)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/1 "2024-02-28T08:18:41Z")
## A little bit of back story if it matters
I started playing around with Nix 2-3 weeks ago. I’ve been able to get it up and running fine on a virtual box vm . I’ve managed to install few packages and make some config changes as well.
Then, I tried flakes as that’s what every nix user recommends. And I was able migrate to it successfully.
## Issue
Now I want to have a more “permanent” vm and so I setup a vm on Proxmox. I followed this repo [GitHub - mitchellh/nixos-config: My NixOS configurations. · GitHub](https://github.com/mitchellh/nixos-config) as guideline to structure my nix config. (i.e. having a `machines` folder for each machine and so and so). The base NixOS installation goes through fine but I’m just not able to build the flake. This is the error I got
```auto
root@nixos:/nix-config]# nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#vm-intel
building the system configuration...
error: secret key is corrupt
```
I have no clue which secret it’s referring to. The “only” change I made was a bit of refactoring.
`nix store verify` throws this error but I also see this error on my VirtualBox VM and there the flake builds with no problem. So I’m not really sure if this is an issue.
```auto
[root@nixos:/nix-config]# nix store verify
error: flake 'path:/nix-config' does not provide attribute 'packages.x86_64-linux.default' or 'defaultPackage.x86_64-linux'
```
## How I’ve structured my new configs
The `hardware-configuration.nix` file is coming from the new proxmox vm installation. But the `flake.nix` `flake.lock` and nix configuration file (`nixos-config/machines/vm-intel.nix` ) is coming from my previous installation in VirtualBox.
Maybe this mismatch is causing the issue … I’m not sure.
## My Nix Config
> **[GitHub - adityathebe/nixos-config](https://github.com/adityathebe/nixos-config)**
>
> Contribute to adityathebe/nixos-config development by creating an account on GitHub.
---
### Author:  [@willbush](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/willbush)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 8:43am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/2 "2024-02-28T08:43:07Z")
I was able to build it.
```sh
❯ nixos-rebuild build --flake .#vm-intel
building the system configuration...
warning: updating lock file '/home/will/code/external/nixos-config/flake.lock':
• Updated input 'nixpkgs':
'github:NixOS/nixpkgs/c68a9fc85c2cb3a313be6ff40511635544dde8da' (2024-02-15)
→ 'github:nixos/nixpkgs/b7ee09cf5614b02d289cd86fcfa6f24d4e078c2a' (2024-02-26)
warning: Git tree '/home/will/code/external/nixos-config' is dirty
```
For some reason it updated the lock file.
`nix store verify` I think is a red herring. I get the same issue on my flake system config.
Do you only get that error when switching?
Perhaps related to: [Getting "secret key is corrupt" on most commands · Issue #45339 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/45339)
Perhaps try deleting your lock file and rebuilding.
---
### Author:  [@aditya](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/aditya)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 8:58am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/3 "2024-02-28T08:58:17Z")
Thanks. Interesting that you were able to build it!
fails with the same error on `build` as well
```auto
[root@nixos:/nix-config]# nixos-rebuild build --flake .#vm-intel
building the system configuration...
error: secret key is corrupt
```
removing the lock file also didn’t help
```auto
[root@nixos:/nix-config]# nixos-rebuild build --flake .#vm-intel
building the system configuration...
warning: creating lock file '/nix-config/flake.lock'
error: secret key is corrupt
```
I had seen [this issue](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/45339) before. I doubt that’s a similar issue to mine though. Specially since you were able to build my config.
---
### Author:  [@willbush](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/willbush)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 9:08am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/4 "2024-02-28T09:08:12Z")
wonder if error is coming from [https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/f489a6e42d2ad3e7b8a8c28f2c3f52452c8b081a/src/libutil/signature/local-keys.cc#L25](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/f489a6e42d2ad3e7b8a8c28f2c3f52452c8b081a/src/libutil/signature/local-keys.cc#L25)
Sorry still digging.
---
### Author:  [@willbush](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/willbush)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/5 "2024-02-28T09:25:21Z")
What all do you have going on under:
```auto
ls -lah /etc/nixos/
```
perhaps something related to binary cache?
Anything changes if you change the `nix.settings` at the end of `vm-intel.nix`?
```nix
nix.settings = {
experimental-features = "nix-command flakes repl-flake";
substituters = [
"https://nix-community.cachix.org"
];
trusted-public-keys = [
"nix-community.cachix.org-1:mB9FSh9qf2dCimDSUo8Zy7bkq5CX+/rkCWyvRCYg3Fs="
];
};
```
---
### Author:  [@aditya](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/aditya)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 9:36am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/6 "2024-02-28T09:36:04Z")
```auto
[root@nixos:/nix-config]# ls -lah /etc/nixos
total 20K
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Feb 26 11:41 .
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4.0K Feb 28 07:05 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.4K Feb 26 11:41 configuration.nix
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.3K Feb 26 11:41 hardware-configuration.nix
```
```auto
[root@nixos:/nix-config]# nixos-rebuild build --flake .#vm-intel
building the system configuration...
warning: updating lock file '/nix-config/flake.lock':
• Updated input 'nixpkgs':
'github:NixOS/nixpkgs/c68a9fc85c2cb3a313be6ff40511635544dde8da' (2024-02-15)
→ 'github:nixos/nixpkgs/b7ee09cf5614b02d289cd86fcfa6f24d4e078c2a' (2024-02-26)
error: secret key is corrupt
```
> perhaps something related to binary cache?
I’ve tried reinstalling this flake on fresh installation a couple of times. So I’m not sure if it’s cache.
I moved all the files inside `/etc/nixos` to a different directory and ran the build command and it’s still the same error.
---
### Author:  [@willbush](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/willbush)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 9:47am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/7 "2024-02-28T09:47:50Z")
Probably someone smarter than me will come along lol. I’ll try this in a VM tomorrow if not.
---
### Author:  [@aditya](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/aditya)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 9:49am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/8 "2024-02-28T09:49:55Z")
Thanks @willbush.
Appreciate your help.
I should probably try this newly structured config on virtual box as well. Maybe this has to do with Proxmox somehow.
---
### Author:  [@aditya](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/aditya)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2024, 2:01pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/error-secret-key-is-corrupt-when-building-flake/40440/9 "2024-03-02T14:01:53Z")
It was in fact related to the ssh keys !!