[Nix-dev] A few questions about Arm support and NixOS on a Chrome-book

[Mateusz Kowalczyk]

On 10/25/2014 03:58 PM, James Haigh wrote:
> Hello,
>     I also wish to install NixOS on ARM hardware.
>     I have a series 3 Samsung ARM Exynos 5 Chromebook which I bought
> specifically for being an ARM-powered Linux laptop. However, though it
> comes with ‘Linux’, Chrome OS is absolutely terrible and as a result it
> has just been sitting collecting dust since I bought it nearly 2 years
> ago. Clearly Chrome OS isn't the full GNU+Linux so I want to install
> NixOS on it instead.
>     The Chromebook isn't the only device that I wish to install NixOS on
> though; I also want to install it on a BeagleBone Black, a PandaBoard
> ES, and, if possible, a Raspberry Pi. The R'Pi isn't so important
> because it's pretty old now and is ARMv6 which apparently isn't so well
> supported. The BeagleBone Black and the PandaBoard ES are both open
> hardware platforms that I intend to use a lot. I will use BeagleBone
> Blacks for various electronics projects; the PandaBoard ES will be used
> as a desktop PC.
>     In fact, I don't intend to buy new x86 hardware ever again. I'm also
> going to be increasingly keen to avoid buying new hardware that isn't
> open. Another platform that I'd like to see support for is Novena; with
> the success of the Novena project so far, it's clear that they're going
> to be centre-stage in the open hardware scene next year. And that's
> another ARM-powered platform.
>     So yeah, having good support for the ARM Chromebooks and other ARM
> devices would be much appreciated.
> 
> Best regards,
> James Haigh.

As you probably know, if you don't want to compile stuff yourself
(because your hardware is limited), someone else has to. For x86, Hydra
does that job. But there's no ARM box for Hydra and I don't think there
will be one any time soon: if you're asking whether we (nix people) can
support ARM and by support you also mean binary caches, then probably
not any time soon. You'd have to find an ARM machine strong enough to
build nixpkgs, even if only sometimes. I believe machines of that power
are very expensive. I might be wrong. Or maybe you know someone who
would be happy to donate such a monster ;)

So I think a better thing to do here would be to try and use nix on one
of your ARM machines and complain if something doesn't work. I see no
fundamental issue with trying to support ARM as long as this support
only extends to ‘our tools run on ARM’ rather than ‘we have binary
caches for ARM’. If better ARM support is desired, some ARM users will
have to step up and start doing the work I think.

I'll second vcunat here, I think the general practice by those that do
run nix on their RPi &c is to cross-compile. There's a wiki page at
https://nixos.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi you might find useful in general.

> On 25/10/14 14:40, Vladimír Čunát wrote:
>> Hi.
>>
>> On 10/25/2014 09:51 AM, Liam Daly wrote:
>>> Is it possible/viable/desirable to enable Arm builds on Hydra [...]
>>
>> Hydra has no arm hardware ATM. And without continuous integration
>> there, I expect many things won't work out of the box.
>>
>> AFAIK people cross-compile stuff for arm on their PCs. CC: Viric has
>> probably most experience with that.
>>
>>
>> Vladimir
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev
> 
> On 25/10/14 08:51, Liam Daly wrote:
>> Hey, firstly great work with everything! I use nix on my main computer
>> with Gentoo but I've come into possession of a Samsung arm Chromebook.
>>
>>
>> I really want to put Nix on it but I have a few questions first,
>> What's the support like for Arm like at the moment? Is it
>> possible/viable/desirable to enable Arm builds on Hydra as the
>> chromebook has a terrible processor and how big is a NixOS
>> installation (Eg. X, a web browser, Emacs and several programming
>> languages) ?
>>
>> The reason for the last question is that Chrome-books have a limited
>> hard drive and from what I've seen some Nix Closures are quite large.
>>
>> If the install is quite large is there any way to put some of the
>> programs on a portable hard drive but not to require it? For example,
>> have all the important programs stored on the Chrome-book but put
>> extra Nix programs (In my case games or other large unimportant
>> programs) on the hard-drive.
>>
>> Thank you and sorry if any of my questions were bad.
>>
>>
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> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Mateusz K.