I develop hardware libraries (node.js, c++ and node-red) for the Raspberry Pi.
The hardware driver is written in C++.
I am currently developing for 32bit and 64bit.
To test the software I have to work with many SD cards for 32bit and 64bit and the different PI models.
If a new OS or Node-Red is released, all SD cards have to be updated.
That is time-consuming.
This is very important because Raspberry recently really set a trap for me and other developers.
They simply changed the access to the GPIO and my gpiox node no longer worked on Raspi except RPi5.
Its now fixed.
In the future I would like to only develop for the Raspberry Pi 64bit OS.
Do many users use 32bit OS?
Thanks for your answers.

I use 32bit. Not least because I have Pi models that don't support 64bit.

Perhaps you need to look at it another way: do you want/need to support 32bit Pi models?

Knowledge, skills, & experience have value. If you expect to profit from someone's you should expect to pay for them.

All advice given is based on my experience. it worked for me, it may not work for you.
Need help? https://github.com/thagrol/Guides

There are stats here that give some idea of the download ratio from 32 to 64.

https://rpi-imager-stats.raspberrypi.com/

Software guy, working in the applications team.

Thank you @jamesh for this link.
This answers my question.

If a new OS or Node-Red is released, all SD cards have to be updated.

You could almost certainly save a lot of time by adopting ’sdm’ to create and update those SD cards.
See https://github.com/gitbls/sdm for details

Making Smalltalk on ARM since 1986; making your Scratch better since 2012

iiot2k wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 05, 2024 12:08 pm

I develop hardware libraries (node.js, c++ and node-red) for the Raspberry Pi.
The hardware driver is written in C++.
I am currently developing for 32bit and 64bit.
To test the software I have to work with many SD cards for 32bit and 64bit and the different PI models.
If a new OS or Node-Red is released, all SD cards have to be updated.
That is time-consuming.
This is very important because Raspberry recently really set a trap for me and other developers.
They simply changed the access to the GPIO and my gpiox node no longer worked on Raspi except RPi5.
Its now fixed.
In the future I would like to only develop for the Raspberry Pi 64bit OS.
Do many users use 32bit OS?
Thanks for your answers.

I use 32-bit on Arm boards that do not support 64-bit. Rest is 64-bit. 32-bit ARMv7 is generic Debian or other distro, that is not much of a problem, but the 32-bit ARMv6 what Raspbian is, needs special attention. Some software isn't build anymore, so I keep old version for the time being.

But RPi can network boot and there are multiple partitions possible (multiboot). Use that, then you can do likely most or all work without removing SDcard and/or remote via ssh. I use Network Block Device (NBD) and TFTPboot a lot these days. I have a few boards via PoE, can toggle the power in a PoE switch, that is very handy. For SW that does not use special HW I/O, you can use containers or virtual machines. All remote, no SD-cards needed. A rolling release OS would be an other way of working. I do in-place dist-upgrades, so never actually use the rpi-imager or dd or so.

The Pi 500 arrives with a microSD card loaded with the 32 bit version. I guess the next 5,673,932 students will learn all things Pi using the 32 bit version. :geek:

peterlite wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 17, 2025 10:55 pm

The Pi 500 arrives with a microSD card loaded with the 32 bit version. I guess the next 5,673,932 students will learn all things Pi using the 32 bit version. :geek:

It does? That doesn't sound right.

Software guy, working in the applications team.

I booted my new Pi 500 a couple of days ago and the spash screen said 32 bit. The 32 GB Raspberry Pi branded A2 card was in the card slot. Booted about 5 minutes after unboxing so there was not time for the other 32 bits to evaporate. :D

jamesh wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 18, 2025 9:28 am

peterlite wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 17, 2025 10:55 pm

The Pi 500 arrives with a microSD card loaded with the 32 bit version. I guess the next 5,673,932 students will learn all things Pi using the 32 bit version. :geek:

It does? That doesn't sound right.

It does if the Raspberry Pi official microSD is purchased from The Pi Hut, an Approved Reseller in the UK.


Ref: Raspberry Pi Micro SD Card with RPi OS Pre-Installed - https://thepihut.com/products/noobs-pre ... ed-sd-card

Features
This is the 'hard drive' and operating system for your Raspberry Pi
Extended partition to make full use of the SD card
Ready to use – plug it in and you’re ready to go
Only the most current stable release of Raspberry Pi OS will be used
We install a 32-bit version of RPiOS on these cards for compatibility with all Raspberry Pi models**
High-quality, official Raspberry Pi Micro SD card for the Raspberry Pi
Official Raspberry Pi product
Pre-imaged and delivered in individually sealed bags

[ ... ]

**Whilst some models such as the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 can make use of (and benefit from) a 64-bit system, we sell these cards with a 32-bit OS for full compatibility across the range of boards available. It still works perfectly on all models, however you may want to re-write a 64-bit OS for full performance and features on Raspberry Pi 5 and 4.

And that is the microSD card that Pi Hut link to as being shipped with an RPi500 Desktop Kit. https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry ... esktop-kit

Beware of the Leopard

iiot2k wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 05, 2024 12:08 pm

In the future I would like to only develop for the Raspberry Pi 64bit OS.
Do many users use 32bit OS?

The Pi5 Cortex A76 requires a 64-bit kernel but still allows 32-bits user-land.
Later ARM CPU's requite 64-bits for everything, so as a pure guess, the next Pi model will be 64-bits only.

There's only one pre-programmed SD card image and it's therefore 32-bit userland. The 64-bit kernel is automatically selected on Pi4 and Pi5

32 bit and 64 bit mixed. What happens in 16 GB Pi 5 when you are searching TB disks with millions of files? Is the file cache 64 bit so it can cache the entries?

The cache goes to 12 GB in my 16 GB machine. I have file management programs that use 6 GB or 8 GB when doing things like searching for duplicates. I guess they only work in pure 64 bit.

Is the silicon more expensive for 64 bit? The Zero 2 is almost the same price as the Zero W in our shops.

iiot2k wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 05, 2024 12:08 pm

Do many users use 32bit OS?

Hard to tell and I would take any statistics on recent downloads with a pinch of salt as they won't include earlier downloads, won't necessarily reflect what people have installed, and will be tilted towards people downloading for newly released products more than what has been available for years.

I download for off-line local install so that, at best, registers as only one download, doesn't reflect how many times I have deployed that download.

thagrol wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 05, 2024 1:32 pm

I use 32bit. Not least because I have Pi models that don't support 64bit.

Likewise, and I also run 32-bit userlands on Pi which could support 64-bit, though I do use a 64-bit kernel where that's supported.

I have been led to believe that 32-bit can be better suited to the Pi Zero 2W than 64-bit but have never put it to the test.

I also tend to configure my Pi OS SD Cards on my faster 64-bit capable Pi to be moved to 32-bit Pi when done.

thagrol wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 05, 2024 1:32 pm

Perhaps you need to look at it another way: do you want/need to support 32bit Pi models?

Raspberry Pi have decided "no" when it comes to the VS Code Pico Extension for Pico-range development. It won't even run on Raspberry Pi 32-bit OS, including Bookworm :cry:

Unfortunately I fear that is the direction of travel.

I would expect Raspberry Pi to provide a 32-bit OS until at least 2030, during the period Zero, Zero W and other 32-bit products remains in production, but 32-bit apps may suffer a death of a thousand cuts before then; every dropping of support for 32-bit encouraging others to do the same.

hippy wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2025 1:26 pm

Raspberry Pi have decided "no" when it comes to the VS Code Pico Extension for Pico-range development. It won't even run on Raspberry Pi 32-bit OS, including Bookworm :cry:

Unfortunately I fear that is the direction of travel.

I would expect Raspberry Pi to provide a 32-bit OS until at least 2030, during the period Zero, Zero W and other 32-bit products remains in production, but 32-bit apps may suffer a death of a thousand cuts before then; every dropping of support for 32-bit encouraging others to do the same.

VSCode is a bit clunky on anything less than Pi 4, so I'd always use a 64-bit OS for a Pico dev system. Preferably a Pi 5 with NVME, its make it all so much smoother.

We will obviously keep 32-bit support going whilst we still sell 32-bit-only systems. We kept to 32 bit only as long as we could - there were many people complaining we hadn't moved to 64 bit. Now it's the other way round. A typical no-win situation for us, one of many.

Software guy, working in the applications team.

jamesh wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2025 1:47 pm

VSCode is a bit clunky on anything less than Pi 4, so I'd always use a 64-bit OS for a Pico dev system.

VS Code is good enough for me on my Pi 3B Buster and Pi 4B 1GB Bookworm 32-bit systems. Building against Pico SDK using CMake Tools is perfectly acceptable and I would expect the VS Code Pico Extension to work just as well if it would run on a 32-bit system.

In fact it did work just as well once I'd hacked it to allow some of it to run on 32-bit but I'm not familiar with modern extensions, soon ran into brick walls, never completed that effort, and have stuck with using CMake Tools.

jamesh wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2025 1:47 pm

Preferably a Pi 5 with NVME, its make it all so much smoother.

Upgrading my Windows PC would do the same and be far more beneficial to me, but VS Code on that is smooth enough as it is.

I would love to have a tricked-out Pi 5 but I can't justify spending 200ドル for 16GB or 160ドル for 8GB. I will likely switch to 64-bit to use the VS Code Pico Extension when Trixie arrives but moving from 32-bit is too much effort and inconvenience at the moment.

hippy wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2025 4:38 pm

VS Code is good enough for me on my Pi 3B Buster and Pi 4B 1GB Bookworm 32-bit systems. Building against Pico SDK using CMake Tools is perfectly acceptable and I would expect the VS Code Pico Extension to work just as well if it would run on a 32-bit system.

Linus Torvalds has a rather excellent rant about LPAE, and suggests you need at least 8x the memory address space to the amount of RAM you have. So my recommendation would always be to run the 64b kernel even with a 32b userland. Not that you have a choice on the 5.

I would love to have a tricked-out Pi 5 but I can't justify spending 200ドル for 16GB or 160ドル for 8GB. I will likely switch to 64-bit to use the VS Code Pico Extension when Trixie arrives but moving from 32-bit is too much effort and inconvenience at the moment.

Have you considered adding aarch64 as a foreign architecture, and running it as a hybrid? I've had this working, albeit not on a Pi.

As it is apparently board policy to disallow any criticism of anything, as it appears to criticise something is to criticise all the users of that something, I will no longer be commenting in threads which are not directly relevant to my uses of the Pi.

hippy wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2025 4:38 pm

I would love to have a tricked-out Pi 5 but I can't justify spending 200ドル for 16GB or 160ドル for 8GB.

Where do you see these prices? Scalpers.
114ドル.90 is the normal price for a 16GB Pi5 and 76ドル.50 for the 8GB model.
https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry ... 2414431617

jahboater wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2025 1:37 pm

hippy wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2025 4:38 pm

I would love to have a tricked-out Pi 5 but I can't justify spending 200ドル for 16GB or 160ドル for 8GB.

Where do you see these prices? Scalpers.
114ドル.90 is the normal price for a 16GB Pi5 and 76ドル.50 for the 8GB model.
https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry ... 2414431617

Perhaps "tricked out" includes the cost of PSU, active cooler, NVMe base/HAT and NVMe SSD. That comes to 175.80 plus shipping at one UK based authorised reseller. Assuming 16GB Pi5 and 250GB SSD

Knowledge, skills, & experience have value. If you expect to profit from someone's you should expect to pay for them.

All advice given is based on my experience. it worked for me, it may not work for you.
Need help? https://github.com/thagrol/Guides

I would think 8GB is enough for VSCode. TBH, I've never even seen a 16GB PI 5, and have got by on 8 since launch.

Software guy, working in the applications team.