diff --git a/default.nix b/default.nix
index 4f8afc17..44d9f11a 100644
--- a/default.nix
+++ b/default.nix
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ let
         packages
         ./modules/alias.nix
         ./modules/system
+        ./modules/system/activation-checks.nix
         ./modules/system/activation-scripts.nix
         ./modules/system/defaults-write.nix
         ./modules/system/defaults/NSGlobalDomain.nix
diff --git a/modules/nix/default.nix b/modules/nix/default.nix
index 070e79f9..107d4abb 100644
--- a/modules/nix/default.nix
+++ b/modules/nix/default.nix
@@ -3,9 +3,7 @@
 with lib;
 
 let
-
   cfg = config.nix;
-  daemon = config.services.nix-daemon;
 
   buildHook = if versionAtLeast (cfg.package.version or "<unknown>") "1.12pre"
     then "build-remote" else "build-remote.pl";
@@ -23,7 +21,7 @@ let
         # WARNING: this file is generated from the nix.* options in
         # your NixOS configuration, typically
         # /etc/nixos/configuration.nix.  Do not edit it!
-        ${optionalString daemon.enable ''
+        ${optionalString config.services.nix-daemon.enable ''
           build-users-group = nixbld
         ''}
         build-max-jobs = ${toString cfg.maxJobs}
@@ -43,267 +41,260 @@ let
         $extraOptions
         END
       '';
-
 in
 
 {
   options = {
-
-    nix = {
-
-      package = mkOption {
-        type = types.path;
-        default = "/nix/var/nix/profiles/default";
-        example = "pkgs.nix";
-        description = ''
-          This option specifies the package or profile that contains the version of Nix to use throughout the system.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      maxJobs = mkOption {
-        type = types.int;
-        default = 1;
-        example = 64;
-        description = ''
-          This option defines the maximum number of jobs that Nix will try
-          to build in parallel.  The default is 1.  You should generally
-          set it to the total number of logical cores in your system (e.g., 16
-          for two CPUs with 4 cores each and hyper-threading).
-        '';
-      };
-
-      buildCores = mkOption {
-        type = types.int;
-        default = 1;
-        example = 64;
-        description = ''
-          This option defines the maximum number of concurrent tasks during
-          one build. It affects, e.g., -j option for make. The default is 1.
-          The special value 0 means that the builder should use all
-          available CPU cores in the system. Some builds may become
-          non-deterministic with this option; use with care! Packages will
-          only be affected if enableParallelBuilding is set for them.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      useSandbox = mkOption {
-        type = types.either types.bool (types.enum ["relaxed"]);
-        default = false;
-        description = "
-          If set, Nix will perform builds in a sandboxed environment that it
-          will set up automatically for each build.  This prevents
-          impurities in builds by disallowing access to dependencies
-          outside of the Nix store.
-        ";
-      };
-
-      sandboxPaths = mkOption {
-        type = types.listOf types.str;
-        default = [];
-        example = [ "/dev" "/proc" ];
-        description =
-          ''
-            Directories from the host filesystem to be included
-            in the sandbox.
-          '';
-      };
-
-      extraOptions = mkOption {
-        type = types.lines;
-        default = "";
-        example = ''
-          gc-keep-outputs = true
-          gc-keep-derivations = true
-        '';
-        description = "Additional text appended to <filename>nix.conf</filename>.";
-      };
-
-      distributedBuilds = mkOption {
-        type = types.bool;
-        default = false;
-        description = ''
-          Whether to distribute builds to the machines listed in
-          <option>nix.buildMachines</option>.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      daemonNiceLevel = mkOption {
-        type = types.int;
-        default = 0;
-        description = ''
-          Nix daemon process priority. This priority propagates to build processes.
-          0 is the default Unix process priority, 19 is the lowest.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      daemonIONice = mkOption {
-        type = types.bool;
-        default = false;
-        description = ''
-          Whether the Nix daemon process should considered to be low priority when
-          doing file system I/O.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      buildMachines = mkOption {
-        type = types.listOf types.attrs;
-        default = [];
-        example = [
-          { hostName = "voila.labs.cs.uu.nl";
-            sshUser = "nix";
-            sshKey = "/root/.ssh/id_buildfarm";
-            system = "powerpc-darwin";
-            maxJobs = 1;
-          }
-          { hostName = "linux64.example.org";
-            sshUser = "buildfarm";
-            sshKey = "/root/.ssh/id_buildfarm";
-            system = "x86_64-linux";
-            maxJobs = 2;
-            supportedFeatures = [ "kvm" ];
-            mandatoryFeatures = [ "perf" ];
-          }
-        ];
-        description = ''
-          This option lists the machines to be used if distributed
-          builds are enabled (see
-          <option>nix.distributedBuilds</option>).  Nix will perform
-          derivations on those machines via SSH by copying the inputs
-          to the Nix store on the remote machine, starting the build,
-          then copying the output back to the local Nix store.  Each
-          element of the list should be an attribute set containing
-          the machine's host name (<varname>hostname</varname>), the
-          user name to be used for the SSH connection
-          (<varname>sshUser</varname>), the Nix system type
-          (<varname>system</varname>, e.g.,
-          <literal>"i686-linux"</literal>), the maximum number of
-          jobs to be run in parallel on that machine
-          (<varname>maxJobs</varname>), the path to the SSH private
-          key to be used to connect (<varname>sshKey</varname>), a
-          list of supported features of the machine
-          (<varname>supportedFeatures</varname>) and a list of
-          mandatory features of the machine
-          (<varname>mandatoryFeatures</varname>). The SSH private key
-          should not have a passphrase, and the corresponding public
-          key should be added to
-          <filename>~<replaceable>sshUser</replaceable>/authorized_keys</filename>
-          on the remote machine.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      # Environment variables for running Nix.
-      envVars = mkOption {
-        type = types.attrs;
-        internal = true;
-        default = {};
-        description = "Environment variables used by Nix.";
-      };
-
-      readOnlyStore = mkOption {
-        type = types.bool;
-        default = true;
-        description = ''
-          If set, NixOS will enforce the immutability of the Nix store
-          by making <filename>/nix/store</filename> a read-only bind
-          mount.  Nix will automatically make the store writable when
-          needed.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      binaryCaches = mkOption {
-        type = types.listOf types.str;
-        example = [ https://cache.example.org/ ];
-        description = ''
-          List of binary cache URLs used to obtain pre-built binaries
-          of Nix packages.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      trustedBinaryCaches = mkOption {
-        type = types.listOf types.str;
-        default = [ ];
-        example = [ https://hydra.example.org/ ];
-        description = ''
-          List of binary cache URLs that non-root users can use (in
-          addition to those specified using
-          <option>nix.binaryCaches</option>) by passing
-          <literal>--option binary-caches</literal> to Nix commands.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      requireSignedBinaryCaches = mkOption {
-        type = types.bool;
-        default = true;
-        description = ''
-          If enabled (the default), Nix will only download binaries from binary caches if
-          they are cryptographically signed with any of the keys listed in
-          <option>nix.binaryCachePublicKeys</option>. If disabled, signatures are neither
-          required nor checked, so it's strongly recommended that you use only
-          trustworthy caches and https to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      binaryCachePublicKeys = mkOption {
-        type = types.listOf types.str;
-        example = [ "hydra.nixos.org-1:CNHJZBh9K4tP3EKF6FkkgeVYsS3ohTl+oS0Qa8bezVs=" ];
-        description = ''
-          List of public keys used to sign binary caches. If
-          <option>nix.requireSignedBinaryCaches</option> is enabled,
-          then Nix will use a binary from a binary cache if and only
-          if it is signed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> of the keys
-          listed here. By default, only the key for
-          <uri>cache.nixos.org</uri> is included.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      trustedUsers = mkOption {
-        type = types.listOf types.str;
-        default = [ "root" ];
-        example = [ "root" "alice" "@wheel" ];
-        description = ''
-          A list of names of users that have additional rights when
-          connecting to the Nix daemon, such as the ability to specify
-          additional binary caches, or to import unsigned NARs. You
-          can also specify groups by prefixing them with
-          <literal>@</literal>; for instance,
-          <literal>@wheel</literal> means all users in the wheel
-          group.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      allowedUsers = mkOption {
-        type = types.listOf types.str;
-        default = [ "*" ];
-        example = [ "@wheel" "@builders" "alice" "bob" ];
-        description = ''
-          A list of names of users (separated by whitespace) that are
-          allowed to connect to the Nix daemon. As with
-          <option>nix.trustedUsers</option>, you can specify groups by
-          prefixing them with <literal>@</literal>. Also, you can
-          allow all users by specifying <literal>*</literal>. The
-          default is <literal>*</literal>. Note that trusted users are
-          always allowed to connect.
-        '';
-      };
-
-      nixPath = mkOption {
-        type = types.listOf types.str;
-        default =
-          [ # Incldue default paths for <darwin> and <darwin-config>.
-            "darwin=$HOME/.nix-defexpr/darwin"
-            "darwin-config=$HOME/.nixpkgs/darwin-configuration.nix"
-            "$HOME/.nix-defexpr/channels"
-            "/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels"
-          ];
-        description = ''
-          The default Nix expression search path, used by the Nix
-          evaluator to look up paths enclosed in angle brackets
-          (e.g. <literal>&lt;nixpkgs&gt;</literal>).
-        '';
-      };
-
+    nix.package = mkOption {
+      type = types.path;
+      default = "/nix/var/nix/profiles/default";
+      example = "pkgs.nix";
+      description = ''
+        This option specifies the package or profile that contains the version of Nix to use throughout the system.
+      '';
     };
 
+    nix.maxJobs = mkOption {
+      type = types.int;
+      default = 1;
+      example = 64;
+      description = ''
+        This option defines the maximum number of jobs that Nix will try
+        to build in parallel.  The default is 1.  You should generally
+        set it to the total number of logical cores in your system (e.g., 16
+        for two CPUs with 4 cores each and hyper-threading).
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.buildCores = mkOption {
+      type = types.int;
+      default = 1;
+      example = 64;
+      description = ''
+        This option defines the maximum number of concurrent tasks during
+        one build. It affects, e.g., -j option for make. The default is 1.
+        The special value 0 means that the builder should use all
+        available CPU cores in the system. Some builds may become
+        non-deterministic with this option; use with care! Packages will
+        only be affected if enableParallelBuilding is set for them.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.useSandbox = mkOption {
+      type = types.either types.bool (types.enum ["relaxed"]);
+      default = false;
+      description = "
+        If set, Nix will perform builds in a sandboxed environment that it
+        will set up automatically for each build.  This prevents
+        impurities in builds by disallowing access to dependencies
+        outside of the Nix store.
+      ";
+    };
+
+    nix.sandboxPaths = mkOption {
+      type = types.listOf types.str;
+      default = [];
+      example = [ "/dev" "/proc" ];
+      description =
+        ''
+          Directories from the host filesystem to be included
+          in the sandbox.
+        '';
+    };
+
+    nix.extraOptions = mkOption {
+      type = types.lines;
+      default = "";
+      example = ''
+        gc-keep-outputs = true
+        gc-keep-derivations = true
+      '';
+      description = "Additional text appended to <filename>nix.conf</filename>.";
+    };
+
+    nix.distributedBuilds = mkOption {
+      type = types.bool;
+      default = false;
+      description = ''
+        Whether to distribute builds to the machines listed in
+        <option>nix.buildMachines</option>.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.daemonNiceLevel = mkOption {
+      type = types.int;
+      default = 0;
+      description = ''
+        Nix daemon process priority. This priority propagates to build processes.
+        0 is the default Unix process priority, 19 is the lowest.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.daemonIONice = mkOption {
+      type = types.bool;
+      default = false;
+      description = ''
+        Whether the Nix daemon process should considered to be low priority when
+        doing file system I/O.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.buildMachines = mkOption {
+      type = types.listOf types.attrs;
+      default = [];
+      example = [
+        { hostName = "voila.labs.cs.uu.nl";
+          sshUser = "nix";
+          sshKey = "/root/.ssh/id_buildfarm";
+          system = "powerpc-darwin";
+          maxJobs = 1;
+        }
+        { hostName = "linux64.example.org";
+          sshUser = "buildfarm";
+          sshKey = "/root/.ssh/id_buildfarm";
+          system = "x86_64-linux";
+          maxJobs = 2;
+          supportedFeatures = [ "kvm" ];
+          mandatoryFeatures = [ "perf" ];
+        }
+      ];
+      description = ''
+        This option lists the machines to be used if distributed
+        builds are enabled (see
+        <option>nix.distributedBuilds</option>).  Nix will perform
+        derivations on those machines via SSH by copying the inputs
+        to the Nix store on the remote machine, starting the build,
+        then copying the output back to the local Nix store.  Each
+        element of the list should be an attribute set containing
+        the machine's host name (<varname>hostname</varname>), the
+        user name to be used for the SSH connection
+        (<varname>sshUser</varname>), the Nix system type
+        (<varname>system</varname>, e.g.,
+        <literal>"i686-linux"</literal>), the maximum number of
+        jobs to be run in parallel on that machine
+        (<varname>maxJobs</varname>), the path to the SSH private
+        key to be used to connect (<varname>sshKey</varname>), a
+        list of supported features of the machine
+        (<varname>supportedFeatures</varname>) and a list of
+        mandatory features of the machine
+        (<varname>mandatoryFeatures</varname>). The SSH private key
+        should not have a passphrase, and the corresponding public
+        key should be added to
+        <filename>~<replaceable>sshUser</replaceable>/authorized_keys</filename>
+        on the remote machine.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    # Environment variables for running Nix.
+    nix.envVars = mkOption {
+      type = types.attrs;
+      internal = true;
+      default = {};
+      description = "Environment variables used by Nix.";
+    };
+
+    nix.readOnlyStore = mkOption {
+      type = types.bool;
+      default = true;
+      description = ''
+        If set, NixOS will enforce the immutability of the Nix store
+        by making <filename>/nix/store</filename> a read-only bind
+        mount.  Nix will automatically make the store writable when
+        needed.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.binaryCaches = mkOption {
+      type = types.listOf types.str;
+      example = [ https://cache.example.org/ ];
+      description = ''
+        List of binary cache URLs used to obtain pre-built binaries
+        of Nix packages.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.trustedBinaryCaches = mkOption {
+      type = types.listOf types.str;
+      default = [ ];
+      example = [ https://hydra.example.org/ ];
+      description = ''
+        List of binary cache URLs that non-root users can use (in
+        addition to those specified using
+        <option>nix.binaryCaches</option>) by passing
+        <literal>--option binary-caches</literal> to Nix commands.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.requireSignedBinaryCaches = mkOption {
+      type = types.bool;
+      default = true;
+      description = ''
+        If enabled (the default), Nix will only download binaries from binary caches if
+        they are cryptographically signed with any of the keys listed in
+        <option>nix.binaryCachePublicKeys</option>. If disabled, signatures are neither
+        required nor checked, so it's strongly recommended that you use only
+        trustworthy caches and https to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.binaryCachePublicKeys = mkOption {
+      type = types.listOf types.str;
+      example = [ "hydra.nixos.org-1:CNHJZBh9K4tP3EKF6FkkgeVYsS3ohTl+oS0Qa8bezVs=" ];
+      description = ''
+        List of public keys used to sign binary caches. If
+        <option>nix.requireSignedBinaryCaches</option> is enabled,
+        then Nix will use a binary from a binary cache if and only
+        if it is signed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> of the keys
+        listed here. By default, only the key for
+        <uri>cache.nixos.org</uri> is included.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.trustedUsers = mkOption {
+      type = types.listOf types.str;
+      default = [ "root" ];
+      example = [ "root" "alice" "@wheel" ];
+      description = ''
+        A list of names of users that have additional rights when
+        connecting to the Nix daemon, such as the ability to specify
+        additional binary caches, or to import unsigned NARs. You
+        can also specify groups by prefixing them with
+        <literal>@</literal>; for instance,
+        <literal>@wheel</literal> means all users in the wheel
+        group.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.allowedUsers = mkOption {
+      type = types.listOf types.str;
+      default = [ "*" ];
+      example = [ "@wheel" "@builders" "alice" "bob" ];
+      description = ''
+        A list of names of users (separated by whitespace) that are
+        allowed to connect to the Nix daemon. As with
+        <option>nix.trustedUsers</option>, you can specify groups by
+        prefixing them with <literal>@</literal>. Also, you can
+        allow all users by specifying <literal>*</literal>. The
+        default is <literal>*</literal>. Note that trusted users are
+        always allowed to connect.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    nix.nixPath = mkOption {
+      type = types.listOf types.str;
+      default =
+        [ # Incldue default paths for <darwin> and <darwin-config>.
+          "darwin=$HOME/.nix-defexpr/darwin"
+          "darwin-config=$HOME/.nixpkgs/darwin-configuration.nix"
+          "$HOME/.nix-defexpr/channels"
+          "/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels"
+        ];
+      description = ''
+        The default Nix expression search path, used by the Nix
+        evaluator to look up paths enclosed in angle brackets
+        (e.g. <literal>&lt;nixpkgs&gt;</literal>).
+      '';
+    };
   };
 
   config = {
@@ -361,13 +352,5 @@ in
       fi
     '';
 
-    system.activationScripts.nix-daemon.text = mkIf daemon.enable ''
-      buildUser=$(dscl . -read /Groups/nixbld 2>&1 | awk '/^GroupMembership: / {print $2}') || true
-      if [ -z $buildUser ]; then
-          echo "Using the nix-daemon requires build users, aborting activation" >&2
-          exit 2
-      fi
-    '';
-
   };
 }
diff --git a/modules/system/activation-checks.nix b/modules/system/activation-checks.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3f07cb00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/system/activation-checks.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
+
+with lib;
+
+let
+  buildUsers = optionalString config.services.nix-daemon.enable ''
+    buildUser=$(dscl . -read /Groups/nixbld GroupMembership 2>&1 | awk '/^GroupMembership: / {print $2}')
+    if [ -z $buildUser ]; then
+        echo "Using the nix-daemon requires build users, aborting activation" >&2
+        exit 2
+    fi
+  '';
+in
+
+{
+  options = {
+  };
+
+  config = {
+
+    system.activationScripts.checks.text = ''
+      set +e
+      ${buildUsers}
+      set -e
+    '';
+
+  };
+}
diff --git a/modules/system/activation-scripts.nix b/modules/system/activation-scripts.nix
index aa97633c..48d27737 100644
--- a/modules/system/activation-scripts.nix
+++ b/modules/system/activation-scripts.nix
@@ -52,9 +52,7 @@ in
 
       ${cfg.activationScripts.extraActivation.text}
 
-      ${cfg.activationScripts.nix-daemon.text}
       ${cfg.activationScripts.nix.text}
-
       ${cfg.activationScripts.accessibility.text}
       ${cfg.activationScripts.applications.text}
       ${cfg.activationScripts.etc.text}
@@ -88,6 +86,8 @@ in
       # Ensure a consistent umask.
       umask 0022
 
+      ${cfg.activationScripts.checks.text}
+
       ${cfg.activationScripts.extraUserActivation.text}
 
       ${cfg.activationScripts.defaults.text}