# Home-manager broken after nix-channel --update run
**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [August 2, 2022, 12:16am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708 "2022-08-02T00:16:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@val123](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/val123)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:16am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/1 "2022-08-02T00:16:03Z")
Hello,
I’ve recently ran `nix-channel --update` and ended up with broken home-manager. I’m very new to nix and not sure where to look to troubleshoot the following error.
```auto
❯ home-manager switch
error: 'submoduleWith' at /nix/store/s8j80dqc1g19xqbdm5xs8473iw1jnmyc-nixpkgs/nixpkgs/lib/types.nix:570:7 called with unexpected argument 'description'
at /Users/val123/.nix-defexpr/channels/home-manager/nixos/common.nix:14:14:
13|
14| hmModule = types.submoduleWith {
| ^
15| description = "Home Manager module";
```
---
### Author:  [@NobbZ](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/NobbZ)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:18am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/2 "2022-08-02T00:18:07Z")
This error is common for a channel mismatch between home-manager and nixpkgs.
Please make sure that you use a correct pair.
---
### Author:  [@val123](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/val123)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:23am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/3 "2022-08-02T00:23:27Z")
do nixpkgs and home-manager channels need to match?
```auto
❯ nix-channel --list
darwin https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/archive/master.tar.gz
home-manager https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/archive/master.tar.gz
nixpkgs-unstable https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable
```
---
### Author:  [@NobbZ](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/NobbZ)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/4 "2022-08-02T00:27:26Z")
What are roots channels?
You don’t have a `nixpkgs`, so roots `nixpkgs` or `nixos` become relevant.
---
### Author:  [@val123](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/val123)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/5 "2022-08-02T00:31:59Z")
```auto
root# nix-channel --list
nixpkgs https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable
```
---
### Author:  [@NobbZ](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/NobbZ)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:33am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/6 "2022-08-02T00:33:21Z")
Did you also update that one?
---
### Author:  [@val123](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/val123)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/7 "2022-08-02T16:46:30Z")
That was it, thank you!
---
### Author:  [@Sandro](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/Sandro)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2022, 11:36am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/8 "2022-08-03T11:36:30Z")
I would recommend to also create a nixpkgs channel in your user channels. This makes things a lot easier.
---
### Author:  [@val123](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/val123)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/9 "2022-08-04T22:19:48Z")
@Sandro I don’t understand how channels relate do each other between different users. Would I need to keep the root user’s channel around? Or as long as nixpkgs channel is defined for my user the root’s channel won’t be looked up?
---
### Author:  [@Sandro](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/Sandro)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2022, 9:37am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/home-manager-broken-after-nix-channel-update-run/20708/10 "2022-08-05T09:37:15Z")
If you are trying to use a channel which does not exist under the user nix looks at the root user channels. If the channel exists there then that one will be used.
> [@val123](#):
>
> Would I need to keep the root user’s channel around?
Yes, I think it is used by nix update-nix.
> [@val123](#):
>
> Or as long as nixpkgs channel is defined for my user the root’s channel won’t be looked up?
yes