Kernel freeze on OS X High Sierra (Nix)

[mbrock]

Sadly, Nix breaks the kernel on High Sierra, because of a bug Apple introduced and will hopefully fix.

This results in freezes and kernel panics when installing Nix packages!

The workaround is to use Nix in "single user mode" rather than using the Nix daemon.

Here's how to switch, after you've installed Nix:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.nixos.nix-daemon.plist
sudo launchctl stop org.nixos.nix-daemon
sudo chown -R $(whoami) /nix
sudo sed -i /build-users-group/d /etc/nix/nix.conf
echo "export NIX_REMOTE=" >> ~/.bashrc

After that, the Nix commands should work again.