bug#34494: proot-based non-root setup: refusing to run with elevated privileges (UID 0)

[Florian Thevissen]

Hi,

I am trying to get guix to run on a system where I do not have root access, following a guide by pjotrp involving proot, here: https://github.com/pjotrp/guix-notes/blob/master/GUIX-NO-ROOT.org .

All guix operations that involve the script perform-download fail with the error:

guix perform-download: error: refusing to run with elevated privileges (UID 0)

I am not sure if this hints at a bug in guix itself, but a comment in the guix sources lets me assume so. It says in package-management.scm:355

“Note that scripts like ‘guix perform-download’ do not run as root (…)”

In my setup, following this guide, however, it apparently is run as root, and (assert-low-privileges) in the script perform-download.scm:89 acts accordingly by signalling the error and exiting.

(By the way - running guix-daemon with proot root privileges fails (-0), and running it without (no -0) fails also.)

Now my question: why is perform-download run as root following pjotrs guide, and is there anything that can be done about it?

I am a bit at a loss here, being unfamiliar with the guix sources and overall system setup.

Looking forward to help, thanks,

Florian

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