Reinstalling Nix on OS X hangs

bbarker · November 14, 2021, 9:52pm

I was trying to reinstall Nix on OS X; long story short, when i reset my nix environment, nix itself was no longer on my PATH, so I figured it might be a good time to reinstall. However, when I get here, no progress is made, even after a day of running:

~~> Configuring LaunchDaemon to mount 'Nix Store'

---- sudo execution ------------------------------------------------------------
I am executing:

    $ sudo /usr/bin/ex /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.nixos.darwin-store.plist

to install the Nix volume mounter


---- sudo execution ------------------------------------------------------------
I am executing:

    $ sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.nixos.darwin-store.plist

to launch the Nix volume mounter


---- sudo execution ------------------------------------------------------------
I am executing:

    $ sudo launchctl kickstart -k system/org.nixos.darwin-store

to launch the Nix volume mounter

I’m not super familiar with OS X either, so I haven’t really tried anything so far. Are there any suggestions?

bbarker · November 14, 2021, 10:13pm

Hmm…

macbookwh:~ bbarker$ ls -last /nix
total 0
0 drwxr-xr-x   2 root  wheel   64 Nov 13 19:37 .
0 drwxr-xr-x  23 root  wheel  736 Jun  3 08:29 ..
macbookwh:~ bbarker$ sudo rmdir /nix
rmdir: /nix: Read-only file system
macbookwh:~ bbarker$

abathur · November 14, 2021, 10:48pm

github.com/NixOS/nix

Install script hangs

opened 07:14PM - 12 Nov 21 UTC

closed 08:37PM - 12 Nov 21 UTC

rjmholt

bug

**Describe the bug** A clear and concise description of what the bug is. I…f you have a problem with a specific package or NixOS, you probably want to file an issue at https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues. **Steps To Reproduce** 1. In zsh: `curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh` (edit: also tried bash and got the same behaviour) 2. Enter password to allow script to proceed 3. Script proceeds to `Configuring LaunchDaemon to mount 'Nix Store'` and no further **Expected behavior** nix is installed. **`nix-env --version` output** N/A **Additional context** OS: macOS Monterey 12.0.1 zsh version: zsh 5.8 (x86_64-apple-darwin21.0) Full terminal output: ``` % curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 100 4024 100 4024 0 0 10039 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 3929k downloading Nix 2.4 binary tarball for x86_64-darwin from 'https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.4/nix-2.4-x86_64-darwin.tar.xz' to '/var/folders/lh/3gtqt5y14n302ptskt41fkq00000gn/T/nix-binary-tarball-unpack.XXXXXXXXXX.T2VYiINe'... % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 33.5M 100 33.5M 0 0 10.6M 0 0:00:03 0:00:03 --:--:-- 10.7M Switching to the Multi-user Installer Welcome to the Multi-User Nix Installation This installation tool will set up your computer with the Nix package manager. This will happen in a few stages: 1. Make sure your computer doesn't already have Nix. If it does, I will show you instructions on how to clean up your old install. 2. Show you what we are going to install and where. Then we will ask if you are ready to continue. 3. Create the system users and groups that the Nix daemon uses to run builds. 4. Perform the basic installation of the Nix files daemon. 5. Configure your shell to import special Nix Profile files, so you can use Nix. 6. Start the Nix daemon. Would you like to see a more detailed list of what we will do? No TTY, assuming you would say yes :) We will: - make sure your computer doesn't already have Nix files (if it does, I will tell you how to clean them up.) - create local users (see the list above for the users we'll make) - create a local group (nixbld) - install Nix in to /nix - create a configuration file in /etc/nix - set up the "default profile" by creating some Nix-related files in /var/root - back up /etc/bashrc to /etc/bashrc.backup-before-nix - update /etc/bashrc to include some Nix configuration - back up /etc/zshrc to /etc/zshrc.backup-before-nix - update /etc/zshrc to include some Nix configuration - back up /etc/bash.bashrc to /etc/bash.bashrc.backup-before-nix - update /etc/bash.bashrc to include some Nix configuration - create a Nix volume and a LaunchDaemon to mount it - create a LaunchDaemon (at /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.nixos.nix-daemon.plist) for nix-daemon Ready to continue? No TTY, assuming you would say yes :) ---- let's talk about sudo ----------------------------------------------------- This script is going to call sudo a lot. Normally, it would show you exactly what commands it is running and why. However, the script is run in a headless fashion, like this: $ curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh or maybe in a CI pipeline. Because of that, we're going to skip the verbose output in the interest of brevity. If you would like to see the output, try like this: $ curl -L -o install-nix https://nixos.org/nix/install $ sh ./install-nix ~~> Fixing any leftover Nix volume state Before I try to install, I'll check for any existing Nix volume config and ask for your permission to remove it (so that the installer can start fresh). I'll also ask for permission to fix any issues I spot. ---- Found existing Nix volume ------------------------------------------------- special: disk1s7 uuid: AA3F5C63-68B6-4C78-A29A-1EB0C1AEE87C encrypted: yes Password: Verifying the specific cryptographic user AA3F5C63-68B6-4C78-A29A-1EB0C1AEE87C on APFS Volume disk1s7 Passphrase valid Found a working decryption password in keychain :) During install, I add 'nix' to /etc/synthetic.conf, which instructs macOS to create an empty root directory for mounting the Nix volume. Can I remove /etc/synthetic.conf? No TTY, assuming you would say yes :) During install, I add '/nix' to /etc/fstab so that macOS knows what mount options to use for the Nix volume. Can I remove /etc/fstab? No TTY, assuming you would say yes :) The installer adds a LaunchDaemon to mount your Nix volume: org.nixos.darwin-store Can I remove it? No TTY, assuming you would say yes :) ---- Nix config report --------------------------------------------------------- Temp Dir: /var/folders/lh/3gtqt5y14n302ptskt41fkq00000gn/T/tmp.sjrbRzXPEC Nix Root: /nix Build Users: 32 Build Group ID: 30000 Build Group Name: nixbld build users: Username: UID _nixbld1: 301 _nixbld2: 302 _nixbld3: 303 _nixbld4: 304 _nixbld5: 305 _nixbld6: 306 _nixbld7: 307 _nixbld8: 308 _nixbld9: 309 _nixbld10: 310 _nixbld11: 311 _nixbld12: 312 _nixbld13: 313 _nixbld14: 314 _nixbld15: 315 _nixbld16: 316 _nixbld17: 317 _nixbld18: 318 _nixbld19: 319 _nixbld20: 320 _nixbld21: 321 _nixbld22: 322 _nixbld23: 323 _nixbld24: 324 _nixbld25: 325 _nixbld26: 326 _nixbld27: 327 _nixbld28: 328 _nixbld29: 329 _nixbld30: 330 _nixbld31: 331 _nixbld32: 332 Ready to continue? No TTY, assuming you would say yes :) ---- Preparing a Nix volume ---------------------------------------------------- Nix traditionally stores its data in the root directory /nix, but macOS now (starting in 10.15 Catalina) has a read-only root directory. To support Nix, I will create a volume and configure macOS to mount it at /nix. ~~> Configuring /etc/synthetic.conf to make a mount-point at /nix ~~> Creating a Nix volume ~~> Configuring /etc/fstab to specify volume mount options ~~> Configuring LaunchDaemon to mount 'Nix Store' ```

ncrowell · January 11, 2022, 11:52pm

The last message on the linked Github issue is:

It does indeed look to be running diskutil . Unmounting fixed it. Thanks so much for the response!

How does one unmount the Nix volume?

abathur · January 12, 2022, 12:00am

diskutil unmount/umount can do this from the CLI, but IIRC you can also just open Disk Utility.app, right-click on the Nix Store volume, and select unmount.