Artix Linux Forum

How to install the Nix package manager on Artix?

18 November 2023, 19:59:35

After installing nix from the pacman repo every nix command complains that:

error: getting status of /nix/var/nix/daemon-socket/socket: Permission denied

I cannot find the nix-runit daemon in the repository, hence the package manager is unusable. Is there a way to make it usable without the daemon or is there an easy way to create the daemon manually?

Re: How to install the Nix package manager on Artix?

Reply #1 – 18 November 2023, 20:31:32

The nix package is not in the artix repositories and the archlinux package will use systemd as daemon. You can make an installation for your user without daemon by following the instructions in the link below:

https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Nix_Installation_Guide

Re: How to install the Nix package manager on Artix?

Reply #2 – 18 November 2023, 23:28:11

Thanks this works, however now when a new application is installed  using "nix-env -iA"  it does not show up in my rofi app launcher without creating symbolic links manually, using:

ln -s /home/$USER/.nix-profile/share/applications/* /home/$USER/.local/share/applications/


Is there a way around this?

Re: How to install the Nix package manager on Artix?

Reply #3 – 18 November 2023, 23:49:13

Try this:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Nix#Desktop_integration

Re: How to install the Nix package manager on Artix?

Reply #4 – 19 November 2023, 12:36:23

Setting XDG_DATA_DIRS in my profile prevented thunar from starting up and did not show all installed nix packages in rofi nor could I start all of them. dmenu_run worked finding the installed nix packages but ignored the theme settings for gtk apps.

Finally I've resolved the issue using this rofi script which pulls in the required env variables:

#!/bin/sh

#set required nix env
export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$HOME/.nix-profile/share:$XDG_DATA_DIRS"
export PATH="$HOME/.nix-profile/bin:$HOME/.nix-profile/bin:$PATH"

#set the theme
export GTK_THEME="Adwaita:dark"
export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME="gtk2"
export QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE=gtk

rofi -show drun -show-icons


Thank you for your help!