NixOS image for Raspberry Pi 3B armv7?

Help
1

I’d like to install nixos on my old raspberry pi 3b rev 1.2 which is armv7. I have some beginner questions:

  • I do need an armv7 image, right? I can’t use the aarch64 images?
  • From reading this I understand that I can’t find an image for armv7 on hydra. Is that correct?
  • Are there any guides that takes you from A->Z for armv7? I’m struggling to put pieces from NixOS on ARM - NixOS Wiki together to build an image.
  • I’m considering just getting a newer raspberry pi. Maybe that would make my life easier?

Thanks!

2

It should boot fine with an aarch64 image. Just give it a try: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_on_ARM#Installation

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3

Thanks! I can confirm that it does indeed boot with such an image. Beginner question: Why is that?

4

The prozessor in your Raspberry Pi 3 is an ARMv8. With ARMv8 the 64-bit extension was introduced: AArch64. Though, you could run binaries for ARMv7 on it, as it has backward compatibility.

Quote from Wikipedia on AArch64: “AArch64 provides user-space compatibility with the existing 32-bit architecture (“AArch32” / ARMv7-A), and instruction set (“A32”).”

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5

For a bit of clarification, the Pi 3B is aarch64. Raspberry Pi OS recommends armv7, but that’s just so that they can use the same software for all Pi models.

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6

Thank you for the clarification. This was why I was confused initially. I was under the wrong impression that my raspberry pi 3b was armv7, and not aarch64.