vmware-image: ERROR: cptofs failed. diskSize might be too small for closure

[Pablo1107]

Describe the bug

Cannot build a NixOS vmware image, it throws the error in the title.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Write this files:

flake.nix

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs }@inputs:
    {
      nixosConfigurations.vm = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
        system = "x86_64-linux";
        modules = [
          "${nixpkgs}/nixos/modules/virtualisation/vmware-image.nix"
          ./hosts/vm/nixos.nix
          {
            config = {
              vmware.baseImageSize = 32 * 1024;
            };
          }
        ];
      };
    };
}

nixos.nix

{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:

{
  networking = {
    hostName = "vm";
    wireless = {
      enable = true;
      networks."xxxx".psk = "xxxx";
      interfaces = [ "wlan0" ];
    };
  };

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ firefox ];

  services.xserver = {
    enable = true;
    desktopManager = {
      xterm.enable = false;
      xfce.enable = true;
    };
    displayManager.defaultSession = "xfce";
  };

  users = {
    mutableUsers = false;
    users.xxxx = {
      isNormalUser = true;
      extraGroups = [ "wheel" ];
      hashedPassword = "xxxx";
    };
  };

  nix.settings.trusted-users = [ "root" "xxxx" ];

  # hardware.enableRedistributableFirmware = true;
  system.stateVersion = "23.11";
}

2. Run this command

nix build .#nixosConfigurations.vm.config.system.build.vmwareImage

3. Get this error

ERROR: cptofs failed. diskSize might be too small for closure.
error: builder for '/nix/store/a4csb9lalv9ii4yzmzi9ihngngpd6bzj-nixos-vmware-23.11pre-git-x86_64-linux.drv' failed with exit code 1;
       last 10 log lines:
       > error processing entry /build/root/nix/store/q7fz2i5z235wjy8ajsf1wh25mmbj5r97-nixos-23.11pre-git/nixos/pkgs/servers, aborting
       > error processing entry /build/root/nix/store/q7fz2i5z235wjy8ajsf1wh25mmbj5r97-nixos-23.11pre-git/nixos/pkgs, aborting
       > error processing entry /build/root/nix/store/q7fz2i5z235wjy8ajsf1wh25mmbj5r97-nixos-23.11pre-git/nixos, aborting
       > error processing entry /build/root/nix/store/q7fz2i5z235wjy8ajsf1wh25mmbj5r97-nixos-23.11pre-git, aborting
       > error processing entry /build/root/nix/store, aborting
       > error processing entry /build/root/nix, aborting
       > [   39.059236] EXT4-fs (vda2): Remounting filesystem read-only
       > [   39.059279] EXT4-fs (vda2): ext4_writepages: jbd2_start: 9223372036854775807 pages, ino 29336; err -30
       > [   39.082975] reboot: Restarting system
       > ERROR: cptofs failed. diskSize might be too small for closure.
       For full logs, run 'nix-store -l /nix/store/a4csb9lalv9ii4yzmzi9ihngngpd6bzj-nixos-vmware-23.11pre-git-x86_64-linux.drv'.
       note: build failure may have been caused by lack of free disk space

Expected behavior

This should output a vmware image and not throw an error based on lack of disk space. I have >100GB of free space and even if I increase the diskSize it throws anyway. "auto" same result.

Notify maintainers

@evanjs

Metadata

Please run nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m" and paste the result.

[user@system:~]$ nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 6.5.5-arch1-1, Arch Linux, noversion, rolling`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.17.0`
 - channels(pablo): `"home-manager"`
 - channels(root): `"nixos-20.09, nixpkgs"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/store/zl0r71l8kh94rs8r7894nna53z7wpw24-source`

[Lassulus]

do you have /tmp on a tmpfs? if yes that is probably running full? or maybe the VM is running out of memory

[Pablo1107]

do you have /tmp on a tmpfs? if yes that is probably running full? or maybe the VM is running out of memory

No, it's not. But in the linked issue some think it may be resolved by nix-community/nixos-generators#292

[Pablo1107]

Cannot reproduce anymore. I tried just now and it build successfully. Closing.

(thanks @samueldr for the idea)