Unable to Install on macOS via nix-env

[gurjeet]

Describe the bug

The readme says installation via nix-env is possible, and that macOS is a supported OS. But when I try to install it on macOS using the Nix CLI, I get an error that the package is not supported on macOS/Darwin.

$ nix-env --install nyxt
installing 'nyxt-2020-10-23'
error: Package ‘nyxt-2020-10-23’ in /nix/store/l8jnvwgjm8wh723nxr2pardzwbpykgh0-nixpkgs-21.05pre272788.870dbb751f4/nixpkgs/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/nyxt/default.nix:51
is not supported on ‘x86_64-darwin’, refusing to evaluate.

Information

$ nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
 - system: `"x86_64-darwin"`
 - host os: `Darwin 18.7.0, macOS 10.14.6`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.3.7`
 - channels(gurjeet): `""`
 - channels(root): `"nixpkgs-21.05pre272788.870dbb751f4"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixpkgs`

[Ambrevar]

Hi!

The readme says installation via nix-env is possible, and that macOS is a supported OS. But when I try to install it on macOS using the Nix CLI, I get an error that the package is not supported on macOS/Darwin.

Sorry if this was confusing, indeed the two statements don't compose: macOS is non-officially supported but _not_ via Nix. You can install webkitgtk via MacPorts. That said, the process is convoluted. My guts tell me that the way forward for macOS support is Nix, so we'd need to work in that direction. Any takers to get the webkitgtk Nix package to work on macOS? @jmercouris has some patches I believe.

[jmercouris]

There is somebody working on this already, let me try to find the information.

[jmercouris]

Here it is: NixOS/nixpkgs#116233 (review)

[jmercouris]

Hopefully that is useful :-)

[Ambrevar]

Fantastic news!

[teehemkay]

FWIW, the MacPorts kind of manages to build. It took about 2h30 on a Late 2012 Mac mini, 2,6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, macOS Catalina 10.15.7.

I had a couple of issues. The main one was ensuring that gtk3 was built using its quartz variant (i.e. NOT the X11 one). Which I did by adding -x11 +no_x11 +quartz to MacPorts `variants.conf' config file.

Although the build process errors out towards the end, the command line nyxt executable produced seems (at least somewhat) functional. The GUI Mac app seems broken though.

Running that executable from the terminal ($ ./nyxt after cd'ing into the build directory) opens a window with the Help buffer displaying the "Welcome to Nyxt :-)" message :-).

The internal documentation (tutorial, help, etc) loads normally.

Trying to open an external URL fails with a "WebKit encountered an internal error" message displayed in the buffer.
Here's what's logged in the terminal used to launch nyxt

(process:61761): GLib-GIO-ERROR **: 10:27:45.528: No GSettings schemas are installed on the system
<INFO> [10:27:45] Saving session to "/Users/<username>/.local/share/nyxt/sessions/default.lisp".
<INFO> [10:27:45] Finished loading "https://duckduckgo.com/?q=help".
<INFO> [10:27:45] Saving session to "/Users/<username>/.local/share/nyxt/sessions/default.lisp".
<INFO> [10:27:46] Loading "https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/start".
<INFO> [10:27:46] Finished loading "https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/start".

[jmercouris]

The dreaded "internal error" message! :-D

thank you for this thorough reporting!

[tastyminerals]

FWIW, the MacPorts kind of manages to build. It took about 2h30 on a Late 2012 Mac mini, 2,6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, macOS Catalina 10.15.7.

I had a couple of issues. The main one was ensuring that gtk3 was built using its quartz variant (i.e. NOT the X11 one). Which I did by adding -x11 +no_x11 +quartz to MacPorts `variants.conf' config file.

Although the build process errors out towards the end, the command line nyxt executable produced seems (at least somewhat) functional. The GUI Mac app seems broken though.

Running that executable from the terminal ($ ./nyxt after cd'ing into the build directory) opens a window with the Help buffer displaying the "Welcome to Nyxt :-)" message :-).

The internal documentation (tutorial, help, etc) loads normally.

Trying to open an external URL fails with a "WebKit encountered an internal error" message displayed in the buffer.
Here's what's logged in the terminal used to launch nyxt

(process:61761): GLib-GIO-ERROR **: 10:27:45.528: No GSettings schemas are installed on the system
<INFO> [10:27:45] Saving session to "/Users/<username>/.local/share/nyxt/sessions/default.lisp".
<INFO> [10:27:45] Finished loading "https://duckduckgo.com/?q=help".
<INFO> [10:27:45] Saving session to "/Users/<username>/.local/share/nyxt/sessions/default.lisp".
<INFO> [10:27:46] Loading "https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/start".
<INFO> [10:27:46] Finished loading "https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/start".

I followed the instructions here: https://source.atlas.engineer/view/repository/macports-port
However, after sudo port install nyxt I get Error: Port nyxt not found.
How did you manage to do it via MacPorts?

[Dima-369]

However, after sudo port install nyxt I get Error: Port nyxt not found.
How did you manage to do it via MacPorts?

Are you sure you ran portindex in the macports-port directory (see step 3)?

It outputs something like:

Creating port index in /Users/Gira/macports-port
Adding port devel/libfixposix
Adding port python/py-gobject
Adding subport py27-gobject
Adding subport py35-gobject
Adding subport py36-gobject
Adding subport py37-gobject
Adding subport py38-gobject
Adding port www/Nyxt
Adding port www/webkit2-gtk-devel

[tastyminerals]

/Users/Gira/macports-port

Ah, I cloned the nyxt git repo instead of the macports-port one. It works now, although it doesn't compile for M1 yet.

--->  Computing dependencies for Nyxt
Error: Cannot install Nyxt for the arch 'x86_64' because
Error: its dependency sbcl does not build for the required arch by default
Error: and does not have a universal variant.
Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets if you believe there is a bug.
Error: Processing of port Nyxt failed

[joelmccracken]

Hi, I'm interested in helping with this. I would really like to use nyxt as my daily driver browser - there are many reasons this makes sense for me. However, I would probably need some guidance in fixing some things -- I am not very experienced with CL, and I am not super experienced with i.e. GTK, etc. Thoughts?

[jmercouris]

Hello Joel, thank you for your interest. It isn't exactly about having good experience, it is about having a lot of perseverance. At some point, it seems you are trying random things, and searching cryptic error messages until you can get it to work. There is a lot of machinery that makes no sense. I wish you the best of luck!

[aadcg]

Stale.

Nyxt 3.0.0 should land on Nix soon. See NixOS/nixpkgs#217888.

Please open an issue if that will fail to work on macOS.