bug: Error switching to initial config using flakes on MacOs

[sdedovic]

Are you following the right branch?

• My Nixpkgs and Home Manager versions are in sync

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Issue description

If I run nix run home-manager/master -- switch --flake . on MacOs Sonoma (14.0) I see the following error:

trace: warning: optionsDocBook is deprecated since 23.11 and will be removed in 24.05
trace: warning: optionsDocBook is deprecated since 23.11 and will be removed in 24.05
trace: warning: optionsDocBook is deprecated since 23.11 and will be removed in 24.05
Starting Home Manager activation
Activating checkFilesChanged
Activating checkLaunchAgents
Activating checkLinkTargets
Activating writeBoundary
Activating copyFonts
Activating installPackages
installing 'home-manager-path'
error: opening lock file '/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/foobar/profile.lock': No such file or directory

Oops, Nix failed to install your new Home Manager profile!

Perhaps there is a conflict with a package that was installed using
"nix-env -i"? Try running

    nix-env -q

and if there is a conflicting package you can remove it with

    nix-env -e {package name}

Then try activating your Home Manager configuration again.

Please advise. This is on a clean nix install on my machine. I did not see any prerequisites on the Home Manager docs. Additionally, running nix run home-manager/master -- build --flake . succeeds.

Maintainer CC

No response

System information

- system: `"x86_64-darwin"`
 - host os: `Darwin 23.0.0, macOS 10.16`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.18.1`
 - channels(root): `"nixpkgs"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixpkgs`

[sdedovic]

My abbreviated flake.nix:

{
  inputs = {
    flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    home-manager = {
      url = "github:nix-community/home-manager";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };

  outputs = {
    self,
    flake-utils,
    nixpkgs,
    home-manager,
  }:
    flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (system: let
      pkgs = import nixpkgs {
        inherit system;
        config.allowUnfree = true;
      };
    in {
      packages.homeConfigurations = {
        foobar = home-manager.lib.homeManagerConfiguration {
          inherit pkgs;
          modules = [
            ./modules/devtools.nix
            ({ pkgs, ... }: {
              home.username = "foobar";
              home.homeDirectory = if pkgs.stdenv.isDarwin then "/Users/foobar" else "/home/foobar";
              home.stateVersion = "23.05"; # Please read the comment before changing.
              home.devtools.enable = true;
            })
          ];
        };
      };
    });
}

[sdedovic]

I'm going to close this. I did a full Nix package manager uninstall and re-install, including destroying the nix store volume. Everything is working now.

I think the multi-user install on MacOS fixes the issue.

[brizzbuzz]

hmm i'm running into this too… curious if anyone has a better solution than a full reinstall

[sdedovic]

hmm i'm running into this too… curious if anyone has a better solution than a full reinstall

I think if you look at the other issue referenced above here
they documented the following:

# Run 
sudo mkdir /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/$USER/
sudo chown $USER /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/$USER 

though I have not tried this as I found it easier to burn everything down and try again 😄

[srid]

For anyone looking for a workaround, see

https://github.com/juspay/nix-dev-home?tab=readme-ov-file#error-opening-lock-file-