Make issues with trusted keys have clearer error messages

[yavko]

Describe the bug

Whenever I run a nix command, (ex. nix run, nix profile, nixos-rebuild) it will fail like so

nix profile remove 0 2>&1 | wl-copy
removing 'github:nix-community/comma#packages.x86_64-linux.default'
removed 1 packages, kept 1 packages
error: invalid character in Base64 string: ''

with no extra info, just fails

Steps To Reproduce

1. Run a nix command that it happens with
2. See error

Expected behavior

nix command executes sucessfully

nix-env --version output

nix-env (Nix) 2.15.0

Additional context

I'm running NixOS

Priorities

Add 👍 to issues you find important.

[abathur]

Increasing the verbosity might help identify the culprit; can you try invoking with -vvvvv?

[yavko]

Increasing the verbosity might help identify the culprit; can you try invoking with -vvvvv?

Nope already tried that

[yavko]

Not being able to rebuild my system is really annoying, anyway here is an example of an erroring cmd with 9 -vs
nix run nixpkgs#neofetch -v -v -v -v -v -v -v -v -v 2>&1 | wl-copy:

looked up 'flake:nixpkgs' -> 'path:/nix/store/12b8sml63980nacpjvh0rlf0w5fg7g8l-source?lastModified=1684049129&narHash=sha256-7WB9LpnPNAS8oI7hMoHeKLNhRX7k3CI9uWBRSfmOCCE%3D&rev=0470f36b02ef01d4f43c641bbf07020bcab71bf1'
using substituted/cached input 'path:/nix/store/12b8sml63980nacpjvh0rlf0w5fg7g8l-source?lastModified=1684049129&narHash=sha256-7WB9LpnPNAS8oI7hMoHeKLNhRX7k3CI9uWBRSfmOCCE%3D&rev=0470f36b02ef01d4f43c641bbf07020bcab71bf1' in '/nix/store/12b8sml63980nacpjvh0rlf0w5fg7g8l-source'
got tree '/nix/store/12b8sml63980nacpjvh0rlf0w5fg7g8l-source' from 'path:/nix/store/12b8sml63980nacpjvh0rlf0w5fg7g8l-source?lastModified=1684049129&narHash=sha256-7WB9LpnPNAS8oI7hMoHeKLNhRX7k3CI9uWBRSfmOCCE%3D&rev=0470f36b02ef01d4f43c641bbf07020bcab71bf1'
checking access to '/nix/store/12b8sml63980nacpjvh0rlf0w5fg7g8l-source/flake.nix'
evaluating file '/nix/store/12b8sml63980nacpjvh0rlf0w5fg7g8l-source/flake.nix'
old lock file: {
  "nodes": {
    "root": {}
  },
  "root": "root",
  "version": 7
}
computing lock file node ''
new lock file: {
  "nodes": {
    "root": {}
  },
  "root": "root",
  "version": 7
}
trying flake output attribute 'apps.x86_64-linux.neofetch'
using cached attrset attribute ''
trying flake output attribute 'packages.x86_64-linux.neofetch'
using cached attrset attribute ''
trying flake output attribute 'legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.neofetch'
trying flake output attribute 'neofetch'
using cached attrset attribute ''
using cached string attribute 'legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.neofetch.type'
using cached string attribute 'legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.neofetch.drvPath'
using cached string attribute 'legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.neofetch.outPath'
using cached string attribute 'legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.neofetch.outputName'
using cached string attribute 'legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.neofetch.name'
using cached string attribute 'legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.neofetch.meta.mainProgram'
querying info about missing paths...
starting pool of 3 threads
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/iqixndzb3161p6c21xzbm0lng5lxia9p-python3.10-ueberzug-18.1.9'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/iqixndzb3161p6c21xzbm0lng5lxia9p-python3.10-ueberzug-18.1.9'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/iqixndzb3161p6c21xzbm0lng5lxia9p-python3.10-ueberzug-18.1.9'
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/z67mf580w9j9spbbg4z16sv4j7v6gb8a-python3.10-docopt-0.6.2'
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/zp4bgng87x2b1nypddzq6ci1p8dwj3yl-python3.10-xlib-0.33'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/z67mf580w9j9spbbg4z16sv4j7v6gb8a-python3.10-docopt-0.6.2'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/zp4bgng87x2b1nypddzq6ci1p8dwj3yl-python3.10-xlib-0.33'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/zp4bgng87x2b1nypddzq6ci1p8dwj3yl-python3.10-xlib-0.33'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/z67mf580w9j9spbbg4z16sv4j7v6gb8a-python3.10-docopt-0.6.2'
reaping 3 worker threads
these 4 paths will be fetched (0.36 MiB download, 1.80 MiB unpacked):
  /nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10
  /nix/store/z67mf580w9j9spbbg4z16sv4j7v6gb8a-python3.10-docopt-0.6.2
  /nix/store/iqixndzb3161p6c21xzbm0lng5lxia9p-python3.10-ueberzug-18.1.9
  /nix/store/zp4bgng87x2b1nypddzq6ci1p8dwj3yl-python3.10-xlib-0.33
building of '/nix/store/nc0sc8qg2cialm73bkch2g2lzl8k3fln-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10.drv!out' from .drv file: created
building of '/nix/store/nc0sc8qg2cialm73bkch2g2lzl8k3fln-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10.drv!out' from .drv file: woken up
querying info about missing paths...
starting pool of 3 threads
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10'
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/iqixndzb3161p6c21xzbm0lng5lxia9p-python3.10-ueberzug-18.1.9'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/iqixndzb3161p6c21xzbm0lng5lxia9p-python3.10-ueberzug-18.1.9'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/iqixndzb3161p6c21xzbm0lng5lxia9p-python3.10-ueberzug-18.1.9'
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/z67mf580w9j9spbbg4z16sv4j7v6gb8a-python3.10-docopt-0.6.2'
checking substituter 'https://cache.ngi0.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/zp4bgng87x2b1nypddzq6ci1p8dwj3yl-python3.10-xlib-0.33'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/z67mf580w9j9spbbg4z16sv4j7v6gb8a-python3.10-docopt-0.6.2'
checking substituter 'https://cache.privatevoid.net' for path '/nix/store/zp4bgng87x2b1nypddzq6ci1p8dwj3yl-python3.10-xlib-0.33'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/z67mf580w9j9spbbg4z16sv4j7v6gb8a-python3.10-docopt-0.6.2'
checking substituter 'https://cache.nixos.org' for path '/nix/store/zp4bgng87x2b1nypddzq6ci1p8dwj3yl-python3.10-xlib-0.33'
reaping 3 worker threads
entered goal loop
building of '/nix/store/nc0sc8qg2cialm73bkch2g2lzl8k3fln-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10.drv!out' from .drv file: init
building of '/nix/store/nc0sc8qg2cialm73bkch2g2lzl8k3fln-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10.drv!out' from .drv file: loading derivation
acquiring write lock on '/nix/var/nix/temproots/383416'
building of '/nix/store/nc0sc8qg2cialm73bkch2g2lzl8k3fln-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10.drv!out' from .drv file: have derivation
substitution of '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10': created
substitution of '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10': woken up
substitution of '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10': init
substitution of '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10': trying next substituter
substitution of '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10': trying next substituter
substitution of '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10': trying next substituter
building of '/nix/store/nc0sc8qg2cialm73bkch2g2lzl8k3fln-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10.drv!out' from .drv file: goal destroyed
substitution of '/nix/store/h3b58mc7b1d4sy073gz8rmbdv3xvchdq-neofetch-unstable-2021-12-10': goal destroyed
error: invalid character in Base64 string: ''

[gruhn]

Had the same issue. Completely uninstalling and reinstalling Nix worked for me.

[yavko]

Had the same issue. Completely uninstalling and reinstalling Nix worked for me.

Oof, well I recently found the fix. It happened to be a impropperly formatted trusted key. I think the error needs to be made clearer

[brianmcgee]

I got burned by this on Friday and spent a couple of hours trying to read the tea leaves. In the end, patching nix was the only way to determine I had a copy-paste error in one of the public keys for a binary cache.

[ParetoOptimalDev]

Somewhat related and might imply there are other causes of this:

I even get the error building your fork (while trying to debug my own instance of this) using:

/tmp/nix $ nix build --option substituters "https://cache.nixos.org"
error: invalid character in Base64 string: '

I can build it with no substitutions using this though it looks like:

/tmp/nix $ nix build --option substituters '[]'
warning: don't know how to open Nix store '[]'
[1/0/598 built] building gettext-0.21 (configurePhase): checkin

[ParetoOptimalDev]

Nevermind, I was inspecting /etc/nix/nix.conf but I also had a ~/.config/nix/nix.conf and the later was the one causing issues.