A convenient way to create custom Raspberry Pi NixOS SD images.

So far this has been tested to work with Docker Desktop for Mac and also Docker on Linux.

1. Install QEMU into the host machine:

   docker run --rm --privileged multiarch/qemu-user-static --reset -p yes

2. Clone this repo.

3. Configure nixos-rpi-sd-image/sd-image.nix and nixos-rpi-sd-image/configuration.nix with your own settings.

1. Use docker-compose to mount output and run the container:

   docker-compose up

2. Check the output directory for the .img file.

1. Burn the .img file in output to an SD card with your preferred method.

2. Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and wait for it to boot.

3. Wait for NixOS to rebuild and switch (this may take a long time) or SSH into the Raspberry Pi, then run the following command to monitor progress:

   journalctl -f -u sd-image-init.service

4. Enjoy!

This was possible mostly in part because of the blog posts and code of @Robertof, but also the contributors to nixos-generators and the wiki for NixOS on ARM.

NixOS on ARM > Building your own image > Compiling through QEMU

NixOS on a Raspberry Pi: creating a custom SD image with OpenSSH out of the box by @Robertof

NixOS Docker-based SD image builder

nixos-generators - one config, multiple formats