Cannot install packages with non-root user

[marler8997]

Issue description

On NixOS, cannot install packages with non-root user. After boot, I logged in with my user which has this configuration:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  #
  # [snip]...
  #
  users.users.someUser = {
    isNormalUser = true;
    home = "/home/someUser";
    createHome = true;
    extraGroups = ["wheel" "networkmanager"];
  };
  #
  # [snip]...
  #
}

Then I run this:

$ nix-env -i hello
installing 'hello-2.10'
these paths will be fetched...
...
error: opening lock file '/nix/var/nix/profiles/default.lock': Permission denied

I also tried

source /etc/profile

And still get the same error.

Steps to reproduce

Install NixOS on a VirtualBox VM. Add the user using config above. Reboot, login with new user and run nix-env -i hello.

Technical details

 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 4.14.90, NixOS, 18.09.1799.b9fa31cea0e (Jellyfish)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.1.3`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos`

[marler8997]

Note that I could not figure out what to do based on reading the manual section here:

https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/#sec-user-management

Based on this issue: #5713

I tried export NIX_REMOTE=daemon but still get the same error.

[marler8997]

Reading this issue: #12399

I also do not have any .bashrc, .bash_profile or .profile in my home directory.

[stale]

Thank you for your contributions.

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[marler8997]

Been so long I don't remember how this resolved but I no longer have this issue and I would have no idea how to reproduce it at this point, so going to close.