[Nix-dev] [Unable to upgrade GCE Nixos Image: Requires version > nix-1.10

[James Cook]

I'm glad to hear it. I filed a nixpkgs issue about the link to the
outdated wiki page that appeared in the error you pasted.

 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/23013

On 20 February 2017 at 05:41, rohit yadav <rohityadav at utexas.edu> wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 11:36 PM, James Cook <james.cook at utoronto.ca> wrote:
>>
>> On 20 February 2017 at 04:57, rohit yadav <rohityadav at utexas.edu> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 10:18 PM, rohit yadav <rohityadav at utexas.edu>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 10:08 PM, James Cook <james.cook at utoronto.ca>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> On 19 February 2017 at 23:51, rohit yadav <rohityadav at utexas.edu>
>> >>> wrote:
>> >>> > Hi,
>> >>> >
>> >>> > I am trying to upgrade a nixos machine on GCE created from the old
>> >>> > tempalted
>> >>> > 14.12. I am unable to do so. I receive following error:
>> >>> >
>> >>> > [root at localhost:~]# nixos-rebuild switch
>> >>> > building Nix...
>> >>> > error: syntax error, unexpected $undefined, expecting '"', at
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> > "/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs/lib/sources.nix":52:49
>> >>> > (use ‘--show-trace’ to show detailed location information)
>> >>> > error: syntax error, unexpected $undefined, expecting '"', at
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> > "/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs/lib/sources.nix":52:49
>> >>> > (use ‘--show-trace’ to show detailed location information)
>> >>> > error: evaluation aborted with the following error message: ‘This
>> >>> > version of
>> >>> > Nixpkgs requires Nix >= 1.10, please upgrade! See
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> > https://nixos.org/wiki/How_to_update_when_Nix_is_too_old_to_evaluate_Nixpkgs’
>> >>> > error: getting status of ‘/root/@nix_x86_64_linux@’: No such file or
>> >>> > directory
>> >>> > warning: don't know how to get latest Nix
>> >>> > building the system configuration...
>> >>> > error: syntax error, unexpected $undefined, expecting '"', at
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> > "/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs/lib/sources.nix":52:49
>> >>> > (use ‘--show-trace’ to show detailed location information)
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Note: I have already upgrade nix to 1.11 even then it continues to
>> >>> > complain
>> >>> > about it.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Thanks,
>> >>> > Rohit
>> >>>
>> >>> Strange... just to confirm, what does "nix-env --version" show when
>> >>> you run it as root?
>> >>
>> >> As I mentioned earlier, the version is 1.11.6.
>> >> [root at localhost:~]# nix-env --version
>> >> nix-env (Nix) 1.11.6
>> >
>> > I notice that nix-env in current-system/sw directory is still nix-1.8. I
>> > am
>> > not sure why it is not updating even though in my root environment, I
>> > have
>> > nix-1.11.6. Any clue, how to fix this?
>> >
>> > [root at localhost:/var/run/current-system/sw/bin]#  nix-store -q
>> > --references
>> > /var/run/current-system/sw | cut -d'-' -f2- | grep nix
>> > nix-1.8
>> > nixos-install
>> > nixos-version
>> > nixos-build-vms
>> > nixos-checkout
>> > nixos-option
>> > nixos-rebuild
>> > nixos-manpages
>> > nixos-help
>> > nixos-generate-config
>> > nixos-container
>> >
>> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Thanks,
>> >> Rohit
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>>
>> The instructions at
>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/pipermail/nix-dev/2013-March/010874.html
>> look promising, though it's from 2013, so proceed with caution.
>>
>> Here's what I think is happening:
>>
>> a) When you run nixos-rebuild, it doesn't automatically find the
>> latest version of nix you installed. Instead, it uses a specific store
>> path built in to the nixos-rebuild script.
>>
>> b) My hope is the instructions in the link above will give you a newer
>> nixos-rebuild, which will in turn use a newer version of nix.
>>
>> c) To answer your question about nix-1.8: well, I think that's not
>> exactly the problem (see (a)). But if you installed nix-1.11 using
>> nix-env, it ended up under $HOME/.nix-profile.
>> /var/run/current-system/sw is separate, and probably still has
>> whatever software your image came with, unless you've run
>> nixos-rebuild successfully since then.
>
>
> Thanks for the reply James. Yes, I figured that out. So, I upgraded the
> system step by step (using each release nixos-xx) from nixos-14.12 to
> nixos-16.09. It took only few minutes once I understood the problem. I have
> perfectly fine working Nixos now with latest release.
>>
>>
>> James
>
>