New 21.05pre install, no channel

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1

Hi, I just installed 21.05pre (gnome), and there is no channel pre-configured:

$ nix-channel --list

No results. The manual says “When you first install NixOS, you’re automatically subscribed to the NixOS channel that corresponds to your installation source.”

Is this not the case with unstable or something?

PS - Fwiw I’ve been able to nixos-rebuild a few times with new packages added to my configuration.nix in environment.systemPackages, and it works. None are prefaced with a channel name like “pckgs.nyxt”, just “nyxt”. I would have thought adding new packages requires a channel, so that’s a little confusing too.

2

did you do sudo nix-channel --list?

My guess is that it doesn’t know of your user when doing the install.

2 Likes
3

Oh heck, yes that was the problem:

$ sudo nix-channel --list
nixos https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable

I’m so used to commands throwing a “permission denied” error if they require sudo, but this one doesn’t, just returns no results. Makes sense I guess, the channel is configured for the root/system user, not my personal account.

Thanks!

4

your user will “default” to the system NIX_PATH

$ echo $NIX_PATH
/home/jon//.nix-defexpr/channels:nixpkgs=/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos:nixos-config=/etc/nixos/configuration.nix:/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels