Darwin failed suddenly

[jasonxue1]

I can use it normally the day before yesterday, but when I run sudo darwin-rebuild switch yesterday, it failed and told me this message.

I try to reinstall nix and reinstall macOS. But it tells me the same.

My Mac is macOS 10.12, it’s MacBook pro 2016.

Here is the output:

jason@jason-MacBook-Pro:~/ > nix
dyld[1153]: Symbol not found: (__ZTVNSt3__13pmr25monotonic_buffer_resourceE)
  Referenced from: '/nix/store/y8v9ariyblm29ypgsq5i1vf8xsrfsm3q-nix-expr-2.31.2/lib/libnixexpr.dylib'
  Expected in: '/usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib'
zsh: abort      nix
jason@jason-MacBook-Pro:~/ > 

I need help, thanks.

I use Determinate and use upstream nix. When I uninstall nix Darwin, it’s normal.

Here is the output:

jason@jason-MacBook-Pro:~/ > sudo darwin-uninstaller

Uninstalling nix-darwin, this will:

    - remove /Applications/Nix Apps symlink
    - cleanup static /etc files
    - disable and remove all launchd services managed by nix-darwin
    - restore nix-daemon service from the Nix installer

Proceed? [y/n] y
setting up /Applications/Nix Apps...
setting up pam...
applying patches...
setting up /etc...
setting up launchd services...
removing service org.nixos.activate-system
removing service org.nixos.nix-daemon
restoring unmanaged Nix daemon...
configuring networking...
configuring application firewall...
Enabled allow signed built-in applications automatically 
Enabled allow signed downloaded applications automatically 
Stealth mode disabled 
configuring power...
setting up /Library/Fonts/Nix Fonts...
setting nvram variables...
dyld[1818]: Symbol not found: (__ZTVNSt3__13pmr25monotonic_buffer_resourceE)
  Referenced from: '/nix/store/y8v9ariyblm29ypgsq5i1vf8xsrfsm3q-nix-expr-2.31.2/lib/libnixexpr.dylib'
  Expected in: '/usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib'
/nix/store/ndhvyplkx8xgdxbqdwq5mbgfndhi3fm6-darwin-system-25.11/activate: line 311:  1818 Abort trap: 6              nix-channel --remove darwin
NOTE: the /run symlink will be removed on reboot

NOTE: The /nix/var/nix/profiles/system* profiles still exist and won't be garbage collected.

Done!

jason@jason-MacBook-Pro:~/ > nix
error: no subcommand specified
Try 'nix --help' for more information.
jason@jason-MacBook-Pro:~/ > nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
warning: error: unable to download 'https://channels.nixos.org/flake-registry.json': Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?) (77) error setting certificate file: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt; using cached version
warning: error: unable to download 'https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/commits/nixpkgs-unstable': Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?) (77) error setting certificate file: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt; using cached version
warning: Nix search path entry '/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels' does not exist, ignoring
 - system: `"x86_64-darwin"`
 - host os: `Darwin 21.6.0, macOS 12.7.4`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.31.1`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/store/q4dfpr4f7ydjhwcf6048ppyi22gqwdyd-source`

jason@jason-MacBook-Pro:~/ > 

[sikmir]

The same problem.

[jasonxue1]

The same problem.

I solve it by use determinate nix instead of upstream nix.

Use this one (in the image). You can try this way before the developers fix it.

[jasonxue1]

Link these issues

• Darwin failed suddenly #14201
• Darwin failed suddenly nix-darwin/nix-darwin#1606
• Failed suddenly in Darwin DeterminateSystems/nix-installer#1684

[TheEros]

Same problem, any solution?

[sikmir]

Same problem, any solution?

Determinate nix works fine for me.

[xokdvium]

This stems from the fact that MacOS ties the libc++ version to the OS version. Nix >= 2.28 is targeted to support Nixpkgs 25.05, which has the baseline 11.3 Minimum deployment target. Nix has started making use of newer library features (C++17's memory_resource library in particular) that are available in this version, but not present in 10.12).

2.31 on the other hand will be the stable nix version for NixOS 25.11, which will raise the minimum requirement to macOS 14.0 (NixOS/nixpkgs#405893).

EDIT: To be more correct, this particular feature has sneaked in unnoticed even with the minimum deployement target due to the lack of annotations https://matrix.to/#/!MMDPZwBJsBXZCsLkuj:matrix.org/$_-D4mE9qqx8YdbqLXHfkb0CsQmdfI8e-0SWkLg7gd1c?via=nixos.org&via=matrix.org&via=envs.net.

[xokdvium]

To elaborate further, it's likely that the root cause has been the switch to using the system-provided libc++ instead of the LLVM one in NixOS/nixpkgs#398727, which has recently landed in the unstable channel. It should be possible to restore the old behavior of building with the LLVM libc++ by recompiling nix with llvmPackages.libcxxStdenv.

[Paul-Roux-Perso]

Same problem here. Is there a fix without installing determinate nix ?

[sikmir]

Same problem here. Is there a fix without installing determinate nix ?

I guess determinate nix is only way to go for now.

[xokdvium]

Is there a fix without installing determinate nix ?

Nix is itself built against the toolchain provided by nixpkgs and current unstable has de-facto removed supported for macOS 12 and 13 (as has Apple btw), as well as switching away from shipping a custom libc++ in favor of using the system provided one. As such, using any software built with current unstable channel or the upcoming 25.11 release will become impossible. Your best approach is to stay with 25.05 release if you want to keep using an EOL OS version. Unfortunately there isn't much that can be done on the nix end. The only reason determinate nix works on your machine is that it (like all current nix releases) are built against nixpkgs 25.05 which bundles a newer libc++.