I manually resolved those directory issues with #nix, only to reveal a new category of error:
```
error: file 'nixpkgs' was not found in the Nix search path (add it using $NIX_PATH or -I)
```
Sorry, if trying Nix was supposed to a step towards using #NixOS, the out of the box experience has been poor for me on Arch Linux.
Apparently this issue might be that first `nix-channel` needs to download something? That could have been done automatically or the diagnostic message could say that.