Nixos-Install unable to bind mount

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1

Running into a issue where nixos-install will error out with this error. The specific package will change but the error about being unable to bind mount stays the same.

error: while setting up the build environment: unable to bind mount '/mnt/nix/store/mf8va3r7ci4nlxqzw85vwks4whywcmbk-append-initrd-secrets.drv.chroot': Permission denied

Ive tried different iso’s across different usb sticks but the error is always the same

Hardware Config 
# Do not modify this file!  It was generated by ‘nixos-generate-config’
# and may be overwritten by future invocations.  Please make changes
# to /etc/nixos/configuration.nix instead.
{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:

{
  imports =
    [ <nixpkgs/nixos/modules/installer/scan/not-detected.nix>
    ];

  boot.initrd.availableKernelModules = [ "xhci_pci" "ehci_pci" "ahci" "firewire_ohci" "usb_storage" "usbhid" "sd_mod" "sr_mod" "sdhci_pci" ];
  boot.initrd.kernelModules = [ ];
  boot.kernelModules = [ "kvm-intel" ];
  boot.extraModulePackages = [ ];

  fileSystems."/" =
    { device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/c21d5f75-e03a-4504-ac5f-5ea2dad425a6";
      fsType = "ext4";
    };

  fileSystems."/home" =
    { device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/a6287ccb-acdc-447b-982f-36ad95103cd1";
      fsType = "xfs";
    };

  swapDevices = [ ];

  nix.maxJobs = lib.mkDefault 8;
  powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = lib.mkDefault "powersave";
}

Very Basic configuration i know but is mostly for debugging

Configuration 
# Edit this configuration file to define what should be installed on
# your system.  Help is available in the configuration.nix(5) man page
# and in the NixOS manual (accessible by running ‘nixos-help’).

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  imports =
    [ # Include the results of the hardware scan.
      ./hardware-configuration.nix
    ];

  # Use the GRUB 2 boot loader.
  boot.loader.grub.enable = true;
  boot.loader.grub.version = 2;
  # boot.loader.grub.efiSupport = true;
  # boot.loader.grub.efiInstallAsRemovable = true;
  # boot.loader.efi.efiSysMountPoint = "/boot/efi";
  # Define on which hard drive you want to install Grub.
  boot.loader.grub.device = "/dev/sda"; # or "nodev" for efi only

  # networking.hostName = "nixos"; # Define your hostname.
  # networking.wireless.enable = true;  # Enables wireless support via wpa_supplicant.

  # Configure network proxy if necessary
  # networking.proxy.default = "http://user:password@proxy:port/";
  # networking.proxy.noProxy = "127.0.0.1,localhost,internal.domain";

  # Select internationalisation properties.
  # i18n = {
  #   consoleFont = "Lat2-Terminus16";
  #   consoleKeyMap = "us";
  #   defaultLocale = "en_US.UTF-8";
  # };

  # Set your time zone.
  time.timeZone = "America/Chicago";

  # List packages installed in system profile. To search, run:
  # $ nix search wget
  # environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
  #   wget vim
  # ];

  # Some programs need SUID wrappers, can be configured further or are
  # started in user sessions.
  # programs.mtr.enable = true;
  # programs.gnupg.agent = { enable = true; enableSSHSupport = true; };

  # List services that you want to enable:

  # Enable the OpenSSH daemon.
  # services.openssh.enable = true;

  # Open ports in the firewall.
  # networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ ... ];
  # networking.firewall.allowedUDPPorts = [ ... ];
  # Or disable the firewall altogether.
  # networking.firewall.enable = false;

  # Enable CUPS to print documents.
  # services.printing.enable = true;

  # Enable sound.
  # sound.enable = true;
  # hardware.pulseaudio.enable = true;

  # Enable the X11 windowing system.
  # services.xserver.enable = true;
  # services.xserver.layout = "us";
  # services.xserver.xkbOptions = "eurosign:e";

  # Enable touchpad support.
  # services.xserver.libinput.enable = true;

  # Enable the KDE Desktop Environment.
  # services.xserver.displayManager.sddm.enable = true;
  # services.xserver.desktopManager.plasma5.enable = true;

  # Define a user account. Don't forget to set a password with ‘passwd’.
  users.users.jane = {
    isNormalUser = true;
    extraGroups = [ "wheel" ]; # Enable ‘sudo’ for the user.
  };

  # This value determines the NixOS release with which your system is to be
  # compatible, in order to avoid breaking some software such as database
  # servers. You should change this only after NixOS release notes say you
  # should.
  system.stateVersion = "19.09"; # Did you read the comment?

}
2

here is the verbose output of the nix-build command

Nix Build Output

3

Anyone have any ideas? Would really like to give nixos another go but this is being a pretty hard roadblock

4

I don’t have a good solution, but this thread looks similar:

1 Like
5

Already looked through it but changing the USB drive did nothing along with changing nixos versions

6

Many Many hours have been used up trying to figure this out. Passed through my hard drive to a VM and have been playing around with it in there and nixos HATES my ssd for some reason. Refused to install onto it and had the same issues as installing it natively. Cant even install it to the virtualdisk and transfer it over. This rabbit hole just keeps going deeper and deeper while getting all the more strange.

Time to poke around a source code and see if i can figure something out but no idea how fruitful that will be

7

Heres the strace log incase anyone wants to give it a look

Strace Log of nixos-install