Installation fails with empty error message

[mwilson-ns]

I'm having difficulty installing, and there are no error diagnostics to provide further information.

• I'm using Arch Linux
• uname -a: Linux octet 3.19.3-3-ARCH The sync option #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Apr 8 14:10:00 CEST 2015 x86_64 GNU/Linux

octet :: ~ % curl https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  1329  100  1329    0     0   3015      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  3013
unpacking Nix binary tarball for x86_64-linux from `https://nixos.org/releases/nix/nix-1.8/nix-1.8-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2'...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 68.9M  100 68.9M    0     0   496k      0  0:02:22  0:02:22 --:--:--  329k
performing a single-user installation of Nix...
directory /nix does not exist; creating it by running ‘mkdir -m 0755 /nix && chown mwilson /nix’ using sudo
copying Nix to /nix/store..........................
initialising Nix database...
creating /home/mwilson/.nix-profile
installing ‘nix-1.8’
building path(s) ‘/nix/store/l1jay99nhry9n4y1d7wij405q8rp2p9p-user-environment’
killing process 13511
error: 
nix-binary-tarball-unpack/nix-1.8-x86_64-linux/install: unable to install Nix into your default profile

[domenkozar]

How much ram do you have? Can you reproduce every run?

[mwilson-ns]

I have 16GB of RAM. I'm able to reproduce the given error every time.

[domenkozar]

cc @edolstra any ideas?

[mwilson-ns]

I worked around this issue. It turns out the issue was related to my shell environment. In a file that got sourced by my shell profile I exporting a variable that performs coloring of stderr:

# STDERR coloring, if available
if [ -f "/usr/lib/libstderred.so" ]; then
    export LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/libstderred.so"
fi

Removing this export allowed me to install nix and successfully use it. I would still consider this a bug, but I consider this issue closed.

[edolstra]

What does libstderred do exactly?

[mwilson-ns]

it colors anything emitted from stderr. https://github.com/sickill/stderred

[wawe]

I had the same issue, also using libstderred via LD_PRELOAD. Unsetting LD_PRELOAD, as described by @mwilson-ns, worked for me as well.

[domenkozar]

Could someone figure out where does it stop/crash exactly?

[Anton-Latukha]

@domenkozar

unable to install Nix into your default profile

I'm looking in that state of tree:
Disclose what happened in install-nix-from-closure.sh:

...
echo "initialising Nix database..." >&2
if ! $nix/bin/nix-store --init; then
    echo "$0: failed to initialize the Nix database" >&2
    exit 1
fi

if ! $nix/bin/nix-store --load-db < $self/.reginfo; then
    echo "$0: unable to register valid paths" >&2
    exit 1
fi

. $nix/etc/profile.d/nix.sh

if ! $nix/bin/nix-env -i "$nix"; then
    echo "$0: unable to install Nix into your default profile" >&2
    exit 1
fi

That shows that unable to install Nix into your default profile due to . $nix/etc/profile.d/nix.sh
And it is a file:
scripts/nix-profile.sh.in:

if [ -n "$HOME" ]; then
    NIX_LINK="$HOME/.nix-profile"

    # Set the default profile.
    if ! [ -L "$NIX_LINK" ]; then
        echo "creating $NIX_LINK" >&2
        _NIX_DEF_LINK=@localstatedir@/nix/profiles/default
        @coreutils@/ln -s "$_NIX_DEF_LINK" "$NIX_LINK"
    fi

    export PATH=$NIX_LINK/bin:$NIX_LINK/sbin:$PATH

    # Subscribe the user to the Nixpkgs channel by default.
    if [ ! -e $HOME/.nix-channels ]; then
        echo "https://nixos.org/channels/nixpkgs-unstable nixpkgs" > $HOME/.nix-channels
    fi

    # Append ~/.nix-defexpr/channels/nixpkgs to $NIX_PATH so that
    # <nixpkgs> paths work when the user has fetched the Nixpkgs
    # channel.
    export NIX_PATH=${NIX_PATH:+$NIX_PATH:}nixpkgs=$HOME/.nix-defexpr/channels/nixpkgs

    # Set $SSL_CERT_FILE so that Nixpkgs applications like curl work.
    if [ -e /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt ]; then # Fedora, NixOS
        export SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
    elif [ -e /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt ]; then # Ubuntu, Debian
        export SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
    elif [ -e "$NIX_LINK/etc/ca-bundle.crt" ]; then # fall back to Nix profile
        export SSL_CERT_FILE="$NIX_LINK/etc/ca-bundle.crt"
    fi
fi

We can see that it's responsibility to Set the default profile, if HOME/.nix-profile is absent or not a link.

And it does:

echo "creating $NIX_LINK" >&2

creating /home/mwilson/.nix-profile

Second time this message was not present (NixOS/nixpkgs#7733):

So there is indication that this script worked.

Then happens:

...
if ! $nix/bin/nix-env -i "$nix"; then
    echo "$0: unable to install Nix into your default profile" >&2
    exit 1
fi

Than means that during invocation, nix-env -i "$nix" fails, script prints a message, and with those things we have output:

installing ‘nix-1.8’
building path(s) ‘/nix/store/l1jay99nhry9n4y1d7wij405q8rp2p9p-user-environment’
killing process 13511
error:
/install: unable to install Nix into your default profile

nix-profile.sh.in was heavilly expanded and rewritten from May of 2015: current nix-profile.sh.in.

Last discussion here was Feb 11, 2016 when wawe witnesses bug.

Then, on Apr 11, 2016 in (commit)[https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/af4fb6ef6169b292c7f54e4278c896cb453c56c5] wmertens heavilly rewrote script.

In related to that commit bug #414 named "nix-env doesn't auto-create per-user profile?" he created in 2014 and closed the same Apr 11, 2016 he did commit, in description he states:

If your nix-env was originally set up by https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/master/scripts/nix-profile.sh.in#L5-L9 then your ~/.nix-profile will point to /nix/var/nix/profiles/default.

If you then use nix-env -i ... and you don't have write access to that directory, it will fail to update your environment instead of creating a new environment under /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/$USER/.

It will also not give you any indication of what's happening, all you get is error: opening lock file ‘/nix/var/nix/profiles/default.lock’: Permission denied

By 'https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/master/scripts/nix-profile.sh.in#L5-L9' he points to that time master:

nix/scripts/nix-profile.sh.in

Lines 5 to 9 in d53735c

	if ! [ -L "$NIX_LINK" ]; then
	echo "creating $NIX_LINK" >&2
	_NIX_DEF_LINK=@localstatedir@/nix/profiles/default
	@coreutils@/ln -s "$_NIX_DEF_LINK" "$NIX_LINK"
	fi

Since;

1. 'nix-env -i ... will fail to update' and
2. 'It will also not give you any indication of what's happening' and it gives 'error:' and
3. this bug spans two years, so it is highly plausible that mwilson-ns just hit the same bug, but with effect that it resulted in just 'error:' and
4. since we can see that mwilson-ns here used modified shell introduction line, but in (Installation fails with empty error message nixpkgs#7733) he already uses classic one, and it states $ - that means he installs Nix from a user (not root), that indicates that bug#414 applies to him (his user does not have /nix/var/nix/profiles write permissions).

In install script, directory creation uses:

if ! [ -e $dest ]; then
    cmd="mkdir -m 0755 $dest && chown $USER $dest"
    echo "directory $dest does not exist; creating it by running ‘$cmd’ using sudo" >&2
    if ! sudo sh -c "$cmd"; then
        echo "$0: please manually run ‘$cmd’ as root to create $dest" >&2
        exit 1
    fi
fi

Note that he had message:

directory /nix does not exist; creating it by running ‘mkdir -m 0755 /nix && chown mwilson /nix’ using sudo

---

So mwilson installs Nix from normal user that has sudoers access (probably passwordless sudoers access).
But he hits a bug #414. because after that one use of sudo - all commands executed from his user mwilson.
So he hits directory write permissions problem.
Then nix-env -i can not write to the nix/var/nix/profiles/, so in its tantrum its own child get killed. poor 13511, and in desperation nix-env commits suicide.

I think case closed here.

It is duplicate of bug #414 and already solved crime case.

[domenkozar]

Closing as it seems to be resolved.