# Help

**URL:** https://discourse.flox.dev/c/help/10.md?page=1

[Latest](https://discourse.flox.dev/latest.md) · [Categories](https://discourse.flox.dev/categories.md) · [Tags](https://discourse.flox.dev/tags.md)

**Page:** 2

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## [Unable to activate a postgres flox environment](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/unable-to-activate-a-postgres-flox-environment/1082)

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**Author:** [@vishnu3014](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/vishnu3014)\
**Replies:** 9\
**Last updated:** [February 17, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/unable-to-activate-a-postgres-flox-environment/1082 "2025-02-17T14:47:54Z")

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Hi, I’m trying to run the a simple postgres flox environment from floxhub on my m1 mac machine. However, it fails to activate with the -start-services flag. I’ve pulled the env by using ’ flox pull flox/postgres ’ Th…

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## ["unexpected catalog connection error" installing older version of teleport package on aarch64-darwin](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/unexpected-catalog-connection-error-installing-older-version-of-teleport-package-on-aarch64-darwin/1079)

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**Author:** [@will.gorman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/will.gorman)\
**Replies:** 3\
**Last updated:** [February 15, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/unexpected-catalog-connection-error-installing-older-version-of-teleport-package-on-aarch64-darwin/1079 "2025-02-15T00:02:52Z")

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I’m trying to install teleport@14.3.0 on aarch64-darwin and getting the following error: ❌ ERROR: Failed to lock the manifest. unexpected catalog connection error Running with -vv I see this error: 2025-02-12T20:03:0…

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## [Collision error with two packages that provide an executable with the same name](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/collision-error-with-two-packages-that-provide-an-executable-with-the-same-name/1080)

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**Author:** [@will.gorman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/will.gorman)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [February 12, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/collision-error-with-two-packages-that-provide-an-executable-with-the-same-name/1080 "2025-02-12T22:24:10Z")

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Both the teleport and temporal-cli packages include an executable named tctl and attempting to install them both into the same environment results in this error: environment\> error: collision between \`/nix/store/aw9zjxk…

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## [Running out of disk space while installing vault in a VM](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/running-out-of-disk-space-while-installing-vault-in-a-vm/1075)

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**Author:** [@will.gorman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/will.gorman)\
**Replies:** 2\
**Last updated:** [February 12, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/running-out-of-disk-space-while-installing-vault-in-a-vm/1075 "2025-02-12T20:35:37Z")

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I’m trying to install HashiCorp vault (flox install vault) in a VM (lima on macOS) but it’s running out of disk space while building it. last 10 log lines: \> go: downloading github.com/x448/float16 v0.8.4 …

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## [Constraints too tight error when installing older versions of package ceph-dev](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/constraints-too-tight-error-when-installing-older-versions-of-package-ceph-dev/1076)

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**Author:** [@will.gorman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/will.gorman)\
**Replies:** 2\
**Last updated:** [February 7, 2025, 8:25pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/constraints-too-tight-error-when-installing-older-versions-of-package-ceph-dev/1076 "2025-02-07T20:25:27Z")

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I’m trying to install a specific version of the ceph-dev package, 18.2.4. The latest version 19.2.0 is able to be installed with no error. However, installing 18.2.4 (or any older version I’ve tried) results in the “c…

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## [Using a flox environment for a GitHub build](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/using-a-flox-environment-for-a-github-build/1053)

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**Author:** [@t0rx](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/t0rx)\
**Replies:** 3\
**Last updated:** [January 14, 2025, 6:51pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/using-a-flox-environment-for-a-github-build/1053 "2025-01-14T18:51:51Z")

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Is there a simple example of doing a CI build on GitHub in a Flox environment (defined in .flox in the repo), so the GitHub build is using exactly the same dependencies as the developers?

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## [Installing MacOS full-GUI apps](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-macos-full-gui-apps/1041)

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**Author:** [@John\_Stegeman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/John_Stegeman)\
**Replies:** 2\
**Last updated:** [January 8, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-macos-full-gui-apps/1041 "2025-01-08T21:52:02Z")

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Hi once again, I’m revisiting this part of Flox after reading some of the flox blogs and saw examples of installing GUI apps with Flox (for example, iTerm2, Slack, etc). In my testing, installing these with flox will in…

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## [Installing flox via cloud-init](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-flox-via-cloud-init/1014)

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**Author:** [@John\_Stegeman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/John_Stegeman)\
**Replies:** 6\
**Last updated:** [January 6, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-flox-via-cloud-init/1014 "2025-01-06T15:05:49Z")

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Hello again - I’m trying to get flox installed in my vms using a cloud-init script (on Ubuntu, if that matters). If I add the apt source for flox (I get it by installing using the flox documentation then looking for the …

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## [Homebrew-\>Flox: size on disk, casks](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/homebrew-flox-size-on-disk-casks/1008)

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**Author:** [@John\_Stegeman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/John_Stegeman)\
**Replies:** 3\
**Last updated:** [December 17, 2024, 5:42pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/homebrew-flox-size-on-disk-casks/1008 "2024-12-17T17:42:19Z")

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Hello there. Long-time homebrew user here who discovered Flox the other day. Prior to that, I used a mix of Homebrew + zinit/zi to get cli software installed. I preferred zinit where possible because that generally works…

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## [Installing Tailscale with Flox](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-tailscale-with-flox/1003)

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**Author:** [@will.gorman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/will.gorman)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [December 13, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-tailscale-with-flox/1003 "2024-12-13T20:53:37Z")

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What’s the best way to install and run tailscale with flox? The tailscale package installs the tailscale client and the tailscaled daemon but there’s no systemd unit created for running the daemon. I’ve looked at usin…

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## [Is there somewhere people publish config for common tools?](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/is-there-somewhere-people-publish-config-for-common-tools/993)

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**Author:** [@t0rx](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/t0rx)\
**Replies:** 2\
**Last updated:** [November 25, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/is-there-somewhere-people-publish-config-for-common-tools/993 "2024-11-25T21:00:43Z")

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For common things like Tomcat or MySql, is there a community area where people publish config snippets to show how it’s done? Especially for tools like these two which need initial configuration before normal use, and a…

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## [Large log files generated by watchdog](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/large-log-files-generated-by-watchdog/985)

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**Author:** [@t0rx](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/t0rx)\
**Replies:** 4\
**Last updated:** [November 21, 2024, 7:23am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/large-log-files-generated-by-watchdog/985 "2024-11-21T07:23:21Z")

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I’m new to Flox and am giving it a spin to check it out. Even with a trivial environment, I’m seeing very large log files created under .flox/log, with many entries per second of the form : 2024-11-17T10:16:59.357869Z…

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## [Install duckdb@1.1.2](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/install-duckdb-1-1-2/981)

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**Author:** [@etorreborre](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/etorreborre)\
**Replies:** 2\
**Last updated:** [October 23, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/install-duckdb-1-1-2/981 "2024-10-23T20:02:28Z")

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Hi, I’m trying to install the latest version of duckdb (1.1.2). The error message I’m getting is a bit cryptic: ❌ ERROR: resolution failed: constraints for group 'toplevel' are too tight Use 'flox edit' to adjust v…

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## [Cuda, Glib, GCC, Poetry, and Descending One Layer of Abstraction](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/cuda-glib-gcc-poetry-and-descending-one-layer-of-abstraction/977)

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**Author:** [@ovidysus0](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/ovidysus0)\
**Replies:** 6\
**Last updated:** [September 27, 2024, 12:56am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/cuda-glib-gcc-poetry-and-descending-one-layer-of-abstraction/977 "2024-09-27T00:56:47Z")

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Hey! TLDR, I am having a hard time getting Flox to reconcile a few dependencies and have been going back and forth on it enough that I am wondering if I’m “missing the point” of the whole Flox / Nix ecosystem. I started…

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## [Cannot install nixGL, is there an impure option?](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/cannot-install-nixgl-is-there-an-impure-option/964)

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**Author:** [@lofidevops](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/lofidevops)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [September 5, 2024, 10:52pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/cannot-install-nixgl-is-there-an-impure-option/964 "2024-09-05T22:52:17Z")

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I am trying to see how much I can achieve with flox as a replacement for a system package manager. So instead of using apt on Ubuntu and brew on macOS, I would use flox on both (and maybe even on nixOS?). So despite reco…

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## [How can I make fish my default shell (without a nest of shells)?](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/how-can-i-make-fish-my-default-shell-without-a-nest-of-shells/949)

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**Author:** [@lofidevops](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/lofidevops)\
**Replies:** 5\
**Last updated:** [September 5, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/how-can-i-make-fish-my-default-shell-without-a-nest-of-shells/949 "2024-09-05T20:07:02Z")

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After some head-scratching I now have flox running by default in my Ubuntu terminal. Previously I had fish (installed via apt) as my default shell and this seemed to cause problems. To resolve this I: uninstalled fish …

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## [Installing a Python Package with Flox that has a Dependency Not Included in the set of Nix Python Packages](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-a-python-package-with-flox-that-has-a-dependency-not-included-in-the-set-of-nix-python-packages/940)

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**Author:** [@max](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/max)\
**Replies:** 7\
**Last updated:** [September 2, 2024, 8:19pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-a-python-package-with-flox-that-has-a-dependency-not-included-in-the-set-of-nix-python-packages/940 "2024-09-02T20:19:06Z")

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I am trying to install the pinecone-client Python package for Python3.12. When I ran flox install python312Packages.pinecone-client I ran into the following error. Successfully built pinecone\_client-4.1.1-py3-none-any.…

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## [Is a remote default a good idea? If so can I change the prompt?](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/is-a-remote-default-a-good-idea-if-so-can-i-change-the-prompt/947)

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**Author:** [@lofidevops](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/lofidevops)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [August 28, 2024, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/is-a-remote-default-a-good-idea-if-so-can-i-change-the-prompt/947 "2024-08-28T14:57:23Z")

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I followed the Extreme $HOME makeover to: create my default environment store it on FloxHub always activate it in .bashrc So far so good! But now when I launch a terminal I get: flox \[lofidevops/default (remote)\] use…

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## [ERROR: resolution failed](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/error-resolution-failed/928)

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**Author:** [@johnl](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/johnl)\
**Replies:** 2\
**Last updated:** [July 20, 2024, 1:01pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/error-resolution-failed/928 "2024-07-20T13:01:41Z")

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I thought I would try version 1.2 so I nuked the existing flox 1.02 install on my Linux Mint machine and installed the new x86\_64 .deb. Some packages that used to install fine before, eg vlc now give an error message $…

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## [Installation source code](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installation-source-code/920)

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**Author:** [@bcvanmeurs](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/bcvanmeurs)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [June 26, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installation-source-code/920 "2024-06-26T17:35:40Z")

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Hi team, Thanks for developing flox, it looks quite amazing and useful to me. I am evaluating and noticed that brew is just downloading and executing a binary, I am looking for the source code for that installation. I …

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## [Install package from an existing Flake or GitHub repo?](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/install-package-from-an-existing-flake-or-github-repo/880)

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**Author:** [@Crafteo](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Crafteo)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [June 13, 2024, 11:30am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/install-package-from-an-existing-flake-or-github-repo/880 "2024-06-13T11:30:17Z")

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Hi there, Is there a way to install a package from an existing Flake? (such as Novops) ? With something like: \[install\] novops.flake.url="github:PierreBeucher/novops"

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## [Installing gcc.lib](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-gcc-lib/910)

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**Author:** [@Baughn](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Baughn)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [June 10, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-gcc-lib/910 "2024-06-10T21:48:43Z")

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I have an application with components that need runtime access to libstdc++ (in LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH). With shell.nix I’d grab pkgs.gcc.lib (or stdenv.cc.cc.lib); what’s the Flox equivalent? I tried installing gcc, but that …

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## [Flox env activation failed](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/flox-env-activation-failed/908)

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**Author:** [@nazarhussain](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/nazarhussain)\
**Replies:** 5\
**Last updated:** [June 4, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/flox-env-activation-failed/908 "2024-06-04T18:37:39Z")

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Hi I am facing some issues with flox env activation. /Users/alpha/.flox/run/aarch64-darwin.default/activate: line 175: /nix/store/nddzbf5pifm77kksh25xwiy2g9kqqm9f-gnused-4.9/bin/sed: No such file or directory /Users/alp…

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## [Installing k9s fails](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-k9s-fails/900)

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**Author:** [@etorreborre](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/etorreborre)\
**Replies:** 4\
**Last updated:** [May 17, 2024, 2:16pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/installing-k9s-fails/900 "2024-05-17T14:16:41Z")

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I’m trying to install k9s. flox can find it: flox show k9s k9s - Kubernetes CLI To Manage Your Clusters In Style k9s - k9s@0.28.2 but cannot install it: ❯ flox install -d $FLOX/ockam k9s ❌ ERROR: Could not find pa…

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## [Upgrade to the latest awscli2 package](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/upgrade-to-the-latest-awscli2-package/896)

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**Author:** [@etorreborre](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/etorreborre)\
**Replies:** 5\
**Last updated:** [May 1, 2024, 2:44pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/upgrade-to-the-latest-awscli2-package/896 "2024-05-01T14:44:46Z")

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I’m trying to install the latest aws cli tool, which is 2.15.38, but I can’t find the right commands to do this. Is it not possible to install packages from unstable anymore? (this is currently a blocker for me).

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## [Integration of flox with home-manager](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/integration-of-flox-with-home-manager/888)

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**Author:** [@cytochrome](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/cytochrome)\
**Replies:** 2\
**Last updated:** [April 22, 2024, 12:56am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/integration-of-flox-with-home-manager/888 "2024-04-22T00:56:32Z")

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Hi, I am new to flox and am excited by the possibilities to create and share reproducible environments for the scientific research I conduct. I am a NixOS user and an using home-manager to manage my dotfiles. However, …

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## [Problem setting up and running Redis in flox](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/problem-setting-up-and-running-redis-in-flox/885)

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**Author:** [@Salekin](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Salekin)\
**Replies:** 10\
**Last updated:** [April 16, 2024, 4:50am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/problem-setting-up-and-running-redis-in-flox/885 "2024-04-16T04:50:36Z")

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I apologize in advance if this is a duplicate, but I’ve searched on github, and here and didn’t find a solution. I’ve installed Redis on flox using the command. flox install redis flox activate then after activating, …

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## [Are the hooks working with flox 1.0.1?](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/are-the-hooks-working-with-flox-1-0-1/841)

<div class="topic-metadata">

**Author:** [@etorreborre](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/etorreborre)\
**Replies:** 26\
**Last updated:** [April 2, 2024, 8:46am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/are-the-hooks-working-with-flox-1-0-1/841 "2024-04-02T08:46:44Z")

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I don’t know if I am doing anything wrong but the \[hook\] section seems to have 2 issues: The file attribute is not supported ERROR: unrecognized manifest field 'hook.file'. When I try to put a simple echo hello insi…

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## [Switching between versions](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/switching-between-versions/873)

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**Author:** [@Dewi](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Dewi)\
**Replies:** 4\
**Last updated:** [April 1, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/switching-between-versions/873 "2024-04-01T20:59:31Z")

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I’ve been cleaning up my development laptop - replacing sdkman, asdf and others with just flox. Everything’s going nicely, except for one use case where I don’t see the best way forward. With sdkman, I could use it to e…

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## [WSL2 install failing on \`flox nix store ping\` step](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/wsl2-install-failing-on-flox-nix-store-ping-step/875)

<div class="topic-metadata">

**Author:** [@spencerwilson](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/spencerwilson)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [March 30, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/wsl2-install-failing-on-flox-nix-store-ping-step/875 "2024-03-30T23:14:09Z")

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Hello, Am following WSL 2 install instructions. On Debian, I installed the flox 1.0.2 .deb for my platform and ps aux shows the /usr/bin/nix-daemon running. The step after this is failing: $ flox nix store ping ❌ ERROR:…

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