View source for Talk:NixOS on ARM/Raspberry Pi 4

I am a bit confused here, it seems like there is a lot of valueable information, but it hard to follow. Can someone help me clear it up, please?

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About which image to use it says:

First follow the generic installation steps to get the installer image and install using the installation and configuration steps.
(Link to https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/NixOS_on_ARM#Installation which itself links to
'''https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nixos/release-20.03/nixos.sd_image.aarch64-linux''')
Until the generic image works, a temporary device-specific image is build on Hydra. Note that this image is not using u-boot, but rather the Raspberry Pi specific bootloader configuration.
(Link to '''https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nixos/trunk-combined/nixos.sd_image_raspberrypi4.aarch64-linux''')

Only the later link gave me an image that would boot on my RP4(4GB)

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There is also this line: "These configurations will boot (from this PR comment):"
But then no configurations do follow.

== Viable Pi 4 (B) image(s) ==

(The confusion around working images is compounded by the fact that Hydra offers identically-named downloads have non-identical contents, and the underscore/hyphen nomenclature varies wildly. It took me a while to confirm that the file I'd downloaded matched the build link below.)

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Currently, [https://hydra.nixos.org/build/149338044/ build #149338044] has worked twice on my Pi 4 (B) hardware.
My usage is command-line only (Bash on TTY + ssh/mosh headless use), and the first run was stable for about three or four weeks of daily-ish use.

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To be quite honest, I'm not sure how I found that specific working image. 

I know my path led past here, which is why I'm posting, but I know it involved a lot of negotiating with Hydra's willingness to purge long-running queries and finding a way to list successful sd_image_new_kernel.aarch64-linux builds (maybe via [https://hydra.nixos.org/search?query=nixos-sd-image-21.11pre this query?]. Following that logic has been somewhat of a mixed bag, eg today I've unsuccessfully attempted to get both [https://hydra.nixos.org/build/154444353 build #154444353] and [https://hydra.nixos.org/build/154444322 build #154444322] to run.

== Enabling the SPI ==

This section is confusing, mostly because it has factual errors and i can't get it to work.
For starters, it talks about <code>dtsoFile = ./spi0-0cd.dtso;</code>, which should probably be <code>dtboFile = ./spi0-0cs.dtbo;</code> (note the ''dtbo'' and ''cs'' part, the page mentions ''dtso'' and ''cd'') - at least that is my idea, if i look at the link's (below) target, which is <code>https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/blob/master/boot/overlays/spi0-0cs.dtbo</code>

Also, it is unclear on how one should ''change the <code>compatible</code> field'' in a dtbo-file - editing is only possible on their corresponding source files - while the text actually mentions ''dtbo'' here ;)

I've adapted my configuration to this but don't get any spi devices (nor does <code>spi</code> appear in dmesg). I'm also wondering wether using <code>boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_rpi4;</code> is still relevant (it is mentioned in [https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware/issues/565 nixos-hardware-issues/565]) while some other user claims that "using nixos-hardware wasn't necessary anymore" ([https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware/issues/631#issuecomment-1584100732 nixos-hardware/issues/631] - maybe unrelated)

It would probably help, if someone knowledgeable can verify these instructions and in general clarify the confusions i mentioned. 

Thanks in advance, [[User:Riot|Riot]] ([[User talk:Riot|talk]]) 21:44, 3 April 2024 (UTC)