Public bug reported:
# Context
- nix-bin can be setup in 2 ways.
- One is to let .nix-defer user local directory handle both channels and
packages. This will get placed into `/home/<user>/.local/state/nix/`
- Second, is to let it all be symlinked into
`nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/<user>`. (This is handled by systemd-tmpfiles
under `nix-setup-systemd` pkg. But very likely default installations do not
enable system-tmpfiles for user, it'll likely be enabled globally, but user
needs to enable manually)
## Current setup
- nix-setup-systemd ends up setting symlinks for per-user into the user
directory here:
- /usr/share/user-tmpfiles.d/nix-daemon.conf
- nix-setup-systemd also ends up setting up the NIX_PATH to per-user dir above
making the assumption that it was completed in this file:
- `/usr/lib/environment.d/nix-daemon.conf`
Firstly, this will fail in default installations since there is unless
the user enabled the systemd tmpfiles per user with
```
systemctl --user --now enable systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
```
These symlinks will never be created and it's not in any of the docs.
But after enabling, this sets up for the profile, but not for channels.
It should also include symlinks for channels. This results in a broken
installation, as `nix-env` will work after adding user channel as
described in the docs. However all attempts to do `nix-shell -p <pkg>`
will error due to:
```
warning: Nix search path entry
'/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/<user>/channels/nixpkgs' does not exist,
ignoring
warning: Nix search path entry '/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/<user>/channels'
does not exist, ignoring
error:
… <borked>
at «none»:0: (source not available)
… while calling the 'import' builtin
```
This is because there is no such symlink and NIX_PATH is set to the non-
existent path.
## Current contents of
```
4 #Type Path Mode UID GID Age Argument
3 d %h/.nix-defexpr
2 L %h/.nix-defexpr/channels_root - - - -
/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels
1 d /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/%u 0755
5 L %h/.nix-profile - - - -
/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/%u/profile
1 d /nix/var/nix/gcroots/per-user/%u 0755
```
## Solutions
### Solution 1
Simplest. Remove excess config.
- Remove the symlinks entirely. Move /usr/share/user-tmpfiles.d/nix-daemon.conf
to docs to remove depending on systemd-tmp files.
- Remove `NIX_PATH` in /usr/lib/environment.d/nix-daemon.conf. When NIX_PATH is
not set, nix handles the user profile automatically and works well. (unset
NIX_PATH in the shell can workaround this at the moment neatly)
### Solution 2
More nix data inside /nix store
- Add channels to the symlink in /usr/share/user-tmpfiles.d/nix-daemon.conf.
- Auto-enable `systemctl --user enable systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service`?
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: nix-setup-systemd 2.18.1+dfsg-1ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-31.31-generic 6.8.1
Uname: Linux 6.8.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.28.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu May 2 12:44:59 2024
InstallationDate: Installed on 2024-04-26 (6 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS "Noble Numbat" - Release amd64 (20240424)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: nix
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
** Affects: nix (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug noble
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2064563
Title:
Broken default installation of nix-bin and nix-setup-systemd
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