This document on how I configure NixOS on NanoPC-T4 and contains my original collection of notes and links when researching how to do this.

To install NixOS on you can follow the official instructions by downloading the pre-built images. You can also build the U-Boot image yourself from nixpkgs based on changes added in #111034.

The basic configuration should look something like this:

{
  # Disable Grub in favor of ExtLinux
  boot.loader.grub.enable = false;
  # Enables the generation of /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf
  boot.loader.generic-extlinux-compatible.enable = true;
  # Enable additional firmware (such as Wi-Fi drivers).
  hardware.enableRedistributableFirmware = true;
}

To make the NVMe SSD be detected at boot compile Rockchip modules directly into the kernel:

{
  boot.kernelPatches = [{
    name = "pcie-rockchip-config.patch";
    patch = null;
    extraConfig = ''
      PHY_ROCKCHIP_PCIE y
      PCIE_ROCKCHIP_HOST y
    '';
  }];
}

For more details see the PCI NVMe document.

My solution was to migrate the OS from the eMMC storage to the NVMe.

I create the ZFS pool and three filesystems on the SSD:

zpool create -O xattr=sa -O acltype=posixacl -O mountpoint=none rpool /dev/nvme0n1
for vol in nix root home; do
    zfs create -o mountpoint=legacy rpool/$VOL
    mkdir /mnt/$VOL
    mount.zfs rpool/$VOL /mnt/$VOL
done
rsync -rax /. /mnt/root
rsync -rax /nix/. /mnt/nix
rsync -rax /home/. /mnt/home
rsync -rax /boot/. /

And I create a configuration that looks something like this:

{
  fileSystems."/boot" = { device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/1234-5678"; fsType = "ext4"; };
  fileSystems."/" = { device = "rpool/root"; fsType = "zfs"; };
  fileSystems."/nix" = { device = "rpool/nix"; fsType = "zfs"; };
  fileSystems."/home" = { device = "rpool/home"; fsType = "zfs"; };
}

And rebuild he system:

sudo nixos-rebuild boot

After that it's necessary to run all the four rsync commands again to sync filesystems.

Once everything is synced you can finally reboot.

• UART Console
• U-Boot
• Upgrade Tool
• PCI NVMe
• Logs
• Links