Probably some installation error about home-manager

Help
1

When I try to use home-manager, the following error appears when executing sudo nixos-rebuild switch

error:
       … while calling the 'head' builtin
         at /nix/store/idq1bmwwy9rlkc21hccvx42wlwpxsx1f-source/lib/attrsets.nix:1574:11:
         1573|         || pred here (elemAt values 1) (head values) then
         1574|           head values
             |           ^
         1575|         else

       … while evaluating the attribute 'value'
         at /nix/store/idq1bmwwy9rlkc21hccvx42wlwpxsx1f-source/lib/modules.nix:816:9:
          815|     in warnDeprecation opt //
          816|       { value = addErrorContext "while evaluating the option `${showOption loc}':" value;
             |         ^
          817|         inherit (res.defsFinal') highestPrio;

       … while evaluating the option `system.build.toplevel':

       … while evaluating definitions from `/nix/store/idq1bmwwy9rlkc21hccvx42wlwpxsx1f-source/nixos/modules/system/activation/top-level.nix':

       … while evaluating the option `home-manager.users.foxo.home.homeDirectory':

       (stack trace truncated; use '--show-trace' to show the full, detailed trace)

       error: The option `home-manager.users.foxo.home.homeDirectory' has conflicting definition values:
       - In `/nix/store/idq1bmwwy9rlkc21hccvx42wlwpxsx1f-source/flake.nix': "/home/foxo"
       - In `/nix/store/l68z5vq2qh6yazcv80d50sw2b4d1z0wq-source/nixos/common.nix': "/var/empty"
       Use `lib.mkForce value` or `lib.mkDefault value` to change the priority on any of these definitions.

The following are configuration.nix, flake.nix, home.nix:

/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

# Edit this configuration file to define what should be installed on
# your system. Help is available in the configuration.nix(5) man page, on
# https://search.nixos.org/options and in the NixOS manual (`nixos-help`).

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:

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

  # Use the systemd-boot EFI boot loader.
  boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
  boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;

  networking.hostName = "nixos"; # Define your hostname.
  # Pick only one of the below networking options.
  # networking.wireless.enable = true;  # Enables wireless support via wpa_supplicant.
  networking.networkmanager.enable = true;  # Easiest to use and most distros use this by default.

  # Set your time zone.
  time.timeZone = "Asia/Shanghai";

  i18n.defaultLocale = "en_US.UTF-8";

  services.xserver.enable = true;
  services.displayManager.sddm.enable = true;
  services.desktopManager.plasma6.enable = true;


  

  # Configure keymap in X11
  # services.xserver.xkb.layout = "us";
  # services.xserver.xkb.options = "eurosign:e,caps:escape";

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

  # Enable sound.
  # hardware.pulseaudio.enable = true;
  # OR
  services.pipewire = {
    enable = true;
    pulse.enable = true;
  };

  programs.firefox.enable = true;

  # List packages installed in system profile. To search, run:
  # $ nix search wget
  nix.settings.experimental-features = [ "nix-command" "flakes" ];
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    vim # Do not forget to add an editor to edit configuration.nix! The Nano editor is also installed by default.
    wget
    git
    curl
    open-vm-tools
    noto-fonts-cjk-sans
    noto-fonts-cjk-serif
  ];

  nix.settings.substituters = [
    "https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/nix-channels/store"
  ];
  system.stateVersion = "24.11"; # Did you read the comment?

}

/etc/nixos/flake.nix

  {
  description = "NixOS configuration";

  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-24.11";
    home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager/release-24.11";
    home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };

  outputs = inputs@{ nixpkgs, home-manager, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations = {
      nixos = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
        system = "x86_64-linux";
        modules = [
          ./configuration.nix
          home-manager.nixosModules.home-manager
          {
            home-manager.useGlobalPkgs = true;
            home-manager.useUserPackages = true;
            home-manager.users.foxo = import ./home.nix;

            # Optionally, use home-manager.extraSpecialArgs to pass
            # arguments to home.nix
          }
        ];
      };
    };
  };
}

/etc/nixos/home.nix

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
	home.username = "foxo";
	home.homeDirectory = "/home/foxo";

	home.packages = with pkgs;[
		fastfetch
	];

	home.stateVersion = "24.11";

	programs.home-manager.enable = true;
}

Is there something wrong?
If more information is needed, please let me know.
Thank you very much

2

You also need to configure the foxo user in your configuration.nix file. See the relevant manual section for details.

At a minimum, you want

users.users.foxo.isNormalUser = true;

which will resolve this particular conflict.

1 Like
4

Ah! It worked. Thank you very much!

5

That error message could definitely be improved with an assertion tbf

6

I had a similar issue.

I found out by changing the following:

users.users.<name> = {
  isNormalUser = true;
}

to

users.users.<name>.isNormalUser = true;

fixes the homeDirectory conflict.

I’m just recently started learning about nix. I’m quite surprised to find out both configs above having different behavior.

7

Those two do the same thing. You added or missed some other step in between.

1 Like
8

my bad, I just realize this wasnt the case

9 
  home-manager.users.name = { pkgs, ... }: {
    home = {
      username = "username";
      # homeDirectory = /home/name;
    };

so far I “solve” it by not specifying homeDirectory.

I’m not sure why there’s a conflict in the first place. Initially I guess it’s because the user was already created before I add home-manager, but I also encounter the same issue when adding a new test user.

  users.users.test = {
    isNormalUser = true;
  };

  home-manager.users.test = { pkgs, ... }: {
    home = {
      username = "test";
      homeDirectory = /home/test;
    };
    home.stateVersion = "25.11";
  };

$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch -I nixos-config=./dotfiles/root/etc/nixos/configuration.nix

error: The option `home-manager.users.test.home.homeDirectory' has conflicting definition values:
       - In `/home/name/dotfiles/root/etc/nixos/configuration.nix': /home/test
       - In `/nix/store/...-source/nixos/common.nix': "/home/test"
10

You’re missing quotes. Use "/home/test" not /home/test/.

11

thank you, that was indeed the issue