Raspberry Pi 3 can be run in both 32 and 64 bit mode. https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... figuration suggests for RPI3 on 32 bit mode to use kernel7 and on 64 bit mode to use kernel8.img as kernel name. These names are particularly useful when running RPI OS in QEMU.
The image 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-arm64-lite.img contains kernel8.img and kernel_2712.img. The image 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.img contains kernel.img, kernel7.img and kernel8.img.
• Why does https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... figuration suggest for RPI4 on 32 bits to use kernel7l , but 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.img does not contain kernel7l?
Emulating under QEMU 10.1.3 RPI3 in 32 bit mode with kernel7:prints nothing in reasonable time, so it does not work.
Replacing KERNEL=kernel7 with KERNEL=kernel8 produces the same result, as described at viewtopic.php?t=395144.
• Why is kernel8.img included in 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.img and why does it work for RPI3/32bit emulation, if RPI3/32bit is supposed to use kernel7 and kernel8 is only for 64bit OS, which 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.img is not?
The image 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-arm64-lite.img contains kernel8.img and kernel_2712.img. The image 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.img contains kernel.img, kernel7.img and kernel8.img.
• Why does https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... figuration suggest for RPI4 on 32 bits to use kernel7l , but 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.img does not contain kernel7l?
Emulating under QEMU 10.1.3 RPI3 in 32 bit mode with kernel7:
Code:
IMG=2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.imgKERNEL=kernel7.imgBCM=bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtbmkdir bootguestmount -a $IMG -m /dev/sda1 boot/cp boot/$BCM .cp boot/$KERNEL .touch boot/sshecho "pi:$(echo 'xyz9' | openssl passwd -6 -stdin)" > boot/userconf.txtguestunmount bootsleep 4 # see man guestmount “Race conditions possible when shutting down the connection”guestmount -a $IMG -m /dev/sda2 boot/fakeroot sed -i "sK#WatchdogDevice=.*\$KWatchdogDevice=/dev/watchdog666K" boot/etc/systemd/system.confguestunmount bootsleep 4 # see man guestmount “Race conditions possible when shutting down the connection”rmdir bootqemu-img resize -f raw $IMG 4Gqemu-system-aarch64 -M raspi3b -cpu cortex-a53 \ -append "rw earlyprintk loglevel=8 console=ttyAMA1,115200 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootdelay=1" \ -dtb $BCM -drive file=$IMG,format=raw,if=sd,index=0 -kernel $KERNEL -m 1G -smp 4 -usb -serial mon:stdio -nographic \ -device usb-net,netdev=net0 -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22Replacing KERNEL=kernel7 with KERNEL=kernel8 produces the same result, as described at viewtopic.php?t=395144.
• Why is kernel8.img included in 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.img and why does it work for RPI3/32bit emulation, if RPI3/32bit is supposed to use kernel7 and kernel8 is only for 64bit OS, which 2025-12-04-raspios-trixie-armhf-lite.img is not?
Statistics: Posted by dpa — Mon Jan 05, 2026 6:08 pm — Replies 1 — Views 65