GUIX installation / uninstallation problem

GUIX installation / uninstallation problem

[Hans-Werner Roitzsch]

Hello Guix users!

I sort of messed up my Guix setup as follows:

I installed Guix using the binary installer script. The installer asked
me, whether I wanted to allow prebuilt packages and I thought: "Nah, let
it compile packages." Not considering how long that would take initially
and/or with any updates for packages.

Then I started installing the locales as suggested, when you do not have
them yet, which I think is always the case on a fresh Guix installation.
So I started installing those with the command provided by the Guix
installer.

I think it spent already 30min or so compiling stuff, when I canceled
it. Then I started looking for a way to change the prebuilt thingy
setting, as I realized what I had done. I found no way to change the
setting and neither did any web search yield anything helpful. So I went
ahead and thought "Isn't it like a thing contained in one directory? I
should be able to simply delete Guix using `rm -rf` …". I deleted `/gnu`
and a few other locations.

Then I tried to install Guix again, but it refused to "overwrite" an
existing installation. So there must have been traces of the previous
installation left somewhere. I searched more about uninstalling Guix and
found very little. At some point I found the following Arch Linux wiki
link:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Guix

I removed all the guixbuilders and the group guixbuild. Then I removed
the other paths mentioned in the wiki article.

Finally Guix installer did not find any previous installation any longer
and installed, seemingly without problems.

But then I started to see the actual problem. When I tried installing
the locales following the installation of Guix an error with the guix
daemon socket came up:

=====
guix package -i glibc-utf8-locales
guile: warning: failed to install locale
hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales'
package and defining `GUIX_LOCPATH', along these lines:

    guix package -i glibc-utf8-locales
    export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"

See the "Application Setup" section in the manual, for more info.


guix package: error: failed to connect to
`/var/guix/daemon-socket/socket': No such file or directory
=====

So now my question is: How can I repair my Guix, its socket, or better
yet: Completely remove and reinstall it?

Thanks for any help!

Hans

Re: GUIX installation / uninstallation problem

[Zelphir Kaltstahl]

I already fixed it : )

I had to _restart_ the guix daemon. Note: It was already running
according to `systemctl status`. So this might be worth some
consideration for the future: If the daemon is running, but there is no
socket, tell the user something like: "You might need to restart your
guix daemon."

It would be great to have an official uninstallation / removal guide for
Guix, that does prevent all problems in future reinstalls of Guix.

Now I only need to fix the issue with the locales again. That is a topic
for another question under a different title though.

Hans

> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2019 13:48:35 +0200
> From: Hans-Werner Roitzsch <hwroitzsch@posteo.net>
> To: help-guix@gnu.org
> Subject: GUIX installation / uninstallation problem
> Message-ID: <ad90d430-74d0-3eb6-8d50-325577d8ac42@posteo.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Hello Guix users!
>
> I sort of messed up my Guix setup as follows:
>
> I installed Guix using the binary installer script. The installer asked
> me, whether I wanted to allow prebuilt packages and I thought: "Nah, let
> it compile packages." Not considering how long that would take initially
> and/or with any updates for packages.
>
> Then I started installing the locales as suggested, when you do not have
> them yet, which I think is always the case on a fresh Guix installation.
> So I started installing those with the command provided by the Guix
> installer.
>
> I think it spent already 30min or so compiling stuff, when I canceled
> it. Then I started looking for a way to change the prebuilt thingy
> setting, as I realized what I had done. I found no way to change the
> setting and neither did any web search yield anything helpful. So I went
> ahead and thought "Isn't it like a thing contained in one directory? I
> should be able to simply delete Guix using `rm -rf` ?". I deleted `/gnu`
> and a few other locations.
>
> Then I tried to install Guix again, but it refused to "overwrite" an
> existing installation. So there must have been traces of the previous
> installation left somewhere. I searched more about uninstalling Guix and
> found very little. At some point I found the following Arch Linux wiki
> link:
>
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Guix
>
> I removed all the guixbuilders and the group guixbuild. Then I removed
> the other paths mentioned in the wiki article.
>
> Finally Guix installer did not find any previous installation any longer
> and installed, seemingly without problems.
>
> But then I started to see the actual problem. When I tried installing
> the locales following the installation of Guix an error with the guix
> daemon socket came up:
>
> =====
> guix package -i glibc-utf8-locales
> guile: warning: failed to install locale
> hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales'
> package and defining `GUIX_LOCPATH', along these lines:
>
> ??? guix package -i glibc-utf8-locales
> ??? export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"
>
> See the "Application Setup" section in the manual, for more info.
>
>
> guix package: error: failed to connect to
> `/var/guix/daemon-socket/socket': No such file or directory
> =====
>
> So now my question is: How can I repair my Guix, its socket, or better
> yet: Completely remove and reinstall it?
>
> Thanks for any help!
>
> Hans

Re: GUIX installation / uninstallation problem

[Giovanni Biscuolo]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1543 bytes --]

Hello Hans-Werner,

Hans-Werner Roitzsch <hwroitzsch@posteo.net> writes:

[...]

> But then I started to see the actual problem. When I tried installing
> the locales following the installation of Guix an error with the guix
> daemon socket came up:
>
> =====
> guix package -i glibc-utf8-locales
> guile: warning: failed to install locale
> hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales'
> package and defining `GUIX_LOCPATH', along these lines:
>
>     guix package -i glibc-utf8-locales
>     export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"
>
> See the "Application Setup" section in the manual, for more info.
>
>
> guix package: error: failed to connect to
> `/var/guix/daemon-socket/socket': No such file or directory
> =====

it seems guix-daemon service is not running: can you check it?

you should see a process like this one:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(anemone)giovanni@anemone:~$ ps aux | grep guix-daemon
root      2444  0.0  0.0  12216   412 ?        Ss   Mar22   0:00 /var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/current-guix/bin/guix-daemon --build-users-group=guixbuild
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I installed Guix on Debian with the binary installation bash script
provided upstream and it installed the right systemd service; if
guix-daemon is not running on your system you should double check the
manual

[...]

HTH! Gio'

-- 
Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

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Re: GUIX installation / uninstallation problem

[Hans-Werner Roitzsch]

Hi Giovanni!

The problem is already solved, but thanks for your message!

The solution was to _restart_ the daemon. According to systemctl status
it was still running, but it needed a restart nevertheless. I think I
described it in my follow-up e-mail : )

Thanks!

Hans

On 4/25/19 4:45 PM, Giovanni Biscuolo wrote:
> Hello Hans-Werner,
>
> Hans-Werner Roitzsch <hwroitzsch@posteo.net> writes:
>
> [...]
>
>> But then I started to see the actual problem. When I tried installing
>> the locales following the installation of Guix an error with the guix
>> daemon socket came up:
>>
>> =====
>> guix package -i glibc-utf8-locales
>> guile: warning: failed to install locale
>> hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales'
>> package and defining `GUIX_LOCPATH', along these lines:
>>
>>     guix package -i glibc-utf8-locales
>>     export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"
>>
>> See the "Application Setup" section in the manual, for more info.
>>
>>
>> guix package: error: failed to connect to
>> `/var/guix/daemon-socket/socket': No such file or directory
>> =====
> it seems guix-daemon service is not running: can you check it?
>
> you should see a process like this one:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> (anemone)giovanni@anemone:~$ ps aux | grep guix-daemon
> root      2444  0.0  0.0  12216   412 ?        Ss   Mar22   0:00 /var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/current-guix/bin/guix-daemon --build-users-group=guixbuild
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> I installed Guix on Debian with the binary installation bash script
> provided upstream and it installed the right systemd service; if
> guix-daemon is not running on your system you should double check the
> manual
>
> [...]
>
> HTH! Gio'
>