diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2411.section.md b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2411.section.md
index 357678db60bd..0ca928e38fc5 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2411.section.md
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2411.section.md
@@ -326,6 +326,10 @@
 
 - The `lsh` package and the `services.lshd` module have been removed as they had no maintainer in Nixpkgs and hadn’t seen an upstream release in over a decade. It is recommended to migrate to `openssh` and `services.openssh`.
 
+- `opencv2` and `opencv3` have been removed, as they are obsolete and
+  were not used by any other package. External users are encouraged to
+  migrate to OpenCV 4.
+
 ## Other Notable Changes {#sec-release-24.11-notable-changes}
 
 <!-- To avoid merge conflicts, consider adding your item at an arbitrary place in the list instead. -->
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/3.x.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/3.x.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 01479f31116e..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/3.x.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,304 +0,0 @@
-{ lib, stdenv
-, fetchFromGitHub
-, callPackage
-, cmake, pkg-config, unzip, zlib, pcre, hdf5
-, glog, boost, gflags, protobuf_21
-, config
-
-, enableJPEG      ? true, libjpeg
-, enablePNG       ? true, libpng
-, enableTIFF      ? true, libtiff
-, enableWebP      ? true, libwebp
-, enableEXR ?     !stdenv.isDarwin, openexr_3
-, enableEigen     ? true, eigen
-, enableOpenblas  ? true, openblas, blas, lapack
-, enableContrib   ? true
-
-, enableCuda      ? config.cudaSupport
-, cudaPackages
-, enableUnfree    ? false
-, enableIpp       ? false
-, enablePython    ? false, pythonPackages ? null
-, enableGtk2      ? false, gtk2
-, enableGtk3      ? false, gtk3
-, enableFfmpeg    ? false, ffmpeg
-, enableGStreamer ? false, gst_all_1
-, enableTesseract ? false, tesseract, leptonica
-, enableTbb       ? false, tbb
-, enableOvis      ? false, ogre
-, enableGPhoto2   ? false, libgphoto2
-, enableDC1394    ? false, libdc1394
-, enableDocs      ? false, doxygen, graphviz-nox
-
-, AVFoundation, Cocoa, VideoDecodeAcceleration, bzip2, CoreMedia, MediaToolbox, Accelerate
-}:
-
-assert blas.implementation == "openblas" && lapack.implementation == "openblas";
-
-assert enablePython -> pythonPackages != null;
-
-let
-  inherit (cudaPackages) backendStdenv cudatoolkit;
-  inherit (cudaPackages.cudaFlags) cudaCapabilities;
-
-  version = "3.4.18";
-
-  src = fetchFromGitHub {
-    owner  = "opencv";
-    repo   = "opencv";
-    rev    = version;
-    hash   = "sha256-PgwAZNoPknFT0jCLt3TCzend6OYFY3iUIzDf/FptAYA=";
-  };
-
-  contribSrc = fetchFromGitHub {
-    owner  = "opencv";
-    repo   = "opencv_contrib";
-    rev    = version;
-    hash   = "sha256-TEF/GHglOmsshlC6q4iw14ZMpvA0SaKwlidomAN+sRc=";
-  };
-
-  # Contrib must be built in order to enable Tesseract support:
-  buildContrib = enableContrib || enableTesseract;
-
-  useSystemProtobuf = ! stdenv.isDarwin;
-
-  # See opencv/3rdparty/ippicv/ippicv.cmake
-  ippicv = {
-    src = fetchFromGitHub {
-      owner  = "opencv";
-      repo   = "opencv_3rdparty";
-      rev    = "32e315a5b106a7b89dbed51c28f8120a48b368b4";
-      sha256 = "19w9f0r16072s59diqxsr5q6nmwyz9gnxjs49nglzhd66p3ddbkp";
-    } + "/ippicv";
-    files = let name = platform : "ippicv_2019_${platform}_general_20180723.tgz"; in
-      if stdenv.hostPlatform.system == "x86_64-linux" then
-      { ${name "lnx_intel64"} = "c0bd78adb4156bbf552c1dfe90599607"; }
-      else if stdenv.hostPlatform.system == "i686-linux" then
-      { ${name "lnx_ia32"}    = "4f38432c30bfd6423164b7a24bbc98a0"; }
-      else if stdenv.hostPlatform.system == "x86_64-darwin" then
-      { ${name "mac_intel64"} = "fe6b2bb75ae0e3f19ad3ae1a31dfa4a2"; }
-      else
-      throw "ICV is not available for this platform (or not yet supported by this package)";
-    dst = ".cache/ippicv";
-  };
-
-  # See opencv_contrib/modules/xfeatures2d/cmake/download_vgg.cmake
-  vgg = {
-    src = fetchFromGitHub {
-      owner  = "opencv";
-      repo   = "opencv_3rdparty";
-      rev    = "fccf7cd6a4b12079f73bbfb21745f9babcd4eb1d";
-      sha256 = "0r9fam8dplyqqsd3qgpnnfgf9l7lj44di19rxwbm8mxiw0rlcdvy";
-    };
-    files = {
-      "vgg_generated_48.i"  = "e8d0dcd54d1bcfdc29203d011a797179";
-      "vgg_generated_64.i"  = "7126a5d9a8884ebca5aea5d63d677225";
-      "vgg_generated_80.i"  = "7cd47228edec52b6d82f46511af325c5";
-      "vgg_generated_120.i" = "151805e03568c9f490a5e3a872777b75";
-    };
-    dst = ".cache/xfeatures2d/vgg";
-  };
-
-  # See opencv_contrib/modules/xfeatures2d/cmake/download_boostdesc.cmake
-  boostdesc = {
-    src = fetchFromGitHub {
-      owner  = "opencv";
-      repo   = "opencv_3rdparty";
-      rev    = "34e4206aef44d50e6bbcd0ab06354b52e7466d26";
-      sha256 = "13yig1xhvgghvxspxmdidss5lqiikpjr0ddm83jsi0k85j92sn62";
-    };
-    files = {
-      "boostdesc_bgm.i"          = "0ea90e7a8f3f7876d450e4149c97c74f";
-      "boostdesc_bgm_bi.i"       = "232c966b13651bd0e46a1497b0852191";
-      "boostdesc_bgm_hd.i"       = "324426a24fa56ad9c5b8e3e0b3e5303e";
-      "boostdesc_binboost_064.i" = "202e1b3e9fec871b04da31f7f016679f";
-      "boostdesc_binboost_128.i" = "98ea99d399965c03d555cef3ea502a0b";
-      "boostdesc_binboost_256.i" = "e6dcfa9f647779eb1ce446a8d759b6ea";
-      "boostdesc_lbgm.i"         = "0ae0675534aa318d9668f2a179c2a052";
-    };
-    dst = ".cache/xfeatures2d/boostdesc";
-  };
-
-  # See opencv_contrib/modules/face/CMakeLists.txt
-  face = {
-    src = fetchFromGitHub {
-      owner  = "opencv";
-      repo   = "opencv_3rdparty";
-      rev    = "8afa57abc8229d611c4937165d20e2a2d9fc5a12";
-      sha256 = "061lsvqdidq9xa2hwrcvwi9ixflr2c2lfpc8drr159g68zi8bp4v";
-    };
-    files = {
-      "face_landmark_model.dat" = "7505c44ca4eb54b4ab1e4777cb96ac05";
-    };
-    dst = ".cache/data";
-  };
-
-  # See opencv/cmake/OpenCVDownload.cmake
-  installExtraFiles = extra : ''
-    mkdir -p "${extra.dst}"
-  '' + lib.concatStrings (lib.mapAttrsToList (name : md5 : ''
-    ln -s "${extra.src}/${name}" "${extra.dst}/${md5}-${name}"
-  '') extra.files);
-
-  opencvFlag = name: enabled: "-DWITH_${name}=${printEnabled enabled}";
-
-  printEnabled = enabled : if enabled then "ON" else "OFF";
-in
-
-stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  pname = "opencv";
-  inherit version src;
-
-  postUnpack = lib.optionalString buildContrib ''
-    cp --no-preserve=mode -r "${contribSrc}/modules" "$NIX_BUILD_TOP/opencv_contrib"
-  '';
-
-  # Ensures that we use the system OpenEXR rather than the vendored copy of the source included with OpenCV.
-  patches = [
-    ./cmake-don-t-use-OpenCVFindOpenEXR.patch
-  ];
-
-  # This prevents cmake from using libraries in impure paths (which
-  # causes build failure on non NixOS)
-  # Also, work around https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/26304 with
-  # what appears to be some stray headers in dnn/misc/tensorflow
-  # in contrib when generating the Python bindings:
-  postPatch = ''
-    sed -i '/Add these standard paths to the search paths for FIND_LIBRARY/,/^\s*$/{d}' CMakeLists.txt
-    sed -i -e 's|if len(decls) == 0:|if len(decls) == 0 or "opencv2/" not in hdr:|' ./modules/python/src2/gen2.py
-  '';
-
-  preConfigure =
-    lib.optionalString enableIpp (installExtraFiles ippicv) + (
-    lib.optionalString buildContrib ''
-      cmakeFlagsArray+=("-DOPENCV_EXTRA_MODULES_PATH=$NIX_BUILD_TOP/opencv_contrib")
-
-      ${installExtraFiles vgg}
-      ${installExtraFiles boostdesc}
-      ${installExtraFiles face}
-    '');
-
-  postConfigure = ''
-    [ -e modules/core/version_string.inc ]
-    echo '"(build info elided)"' > modules/core/version_string.inc
-  '';
-
-  buildInputs =
-       [ zlib pcre hdf5 glog boost gflags ]
-    ++ lib.optional useSystemProtobuf protobuf_21
-    ++ lib.optional enablePython pythonPackages.python
-    ++ lib.optional enableGtk2 gtk2
-    ++ lib.optional enableGtk3 gtk3
-    ++ lib.optional enableJPEG libjpeg
-    ++ lib.optional enablePNG libpng
-    ++ lib.optional enableTIFF libtiff
-    ++ lib.optional enableWebP libwebp
-    ++ lib.optionals enableEXR [ openexr_3 ]
-    ++ lib.optional enableFfmpeg ffmpeg
-    ++ lib.optionals (enableFfmpeg && stdenv.isDarwin)
-                     [ VideoDecodeAcceleration bzip2 ]
-    ++ lib.optionals enableGStreamer [ gst_all_1.gstreamer gst_all_1.gst-plugins-base ]
-    ++ lib.optional enableOvis ogre
-    ++ lib.optional enableGPhoto2 libgphoto2
-    ++ lib.optional enableDC1394 libdc1394
-    ++ lib.optional enableEigen eigen
-    ++ lib.optional enableOpenblas openblas
-    # There is seemingly no compile-time flag for Tesseract.  It's
-    # simply enabled automatically if contrib is built, and it detects
-    # tesseract & leptonica.
-    ++ lib.optionals enableTesseract [ tesseract leptonica ]
-    ++ lib.optional enableTbb tbb
-    ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [
-      bzip2 AVFoundation Cocoa VideoDecodeAcceleration CoreMedia MediaToolbox Accelerate
-    ]
-    ++ lib.optionals enableDocs [ doxygen graphviz-nox ];
-
-  propagatedBuildInputs = lib.optional enablePython pythonPackages.numpy
-    ++ lib.optional enableCuda cudatoolkit;
-
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake pkg-config unzip ];
-
-  # Configure can't find the library without this.
-  OpenBLAS_HOME = lib.optionalString enableOpenblas openblas;
-
-  cmakeFlags = [
-    "-DWITH_OPENMP=ON"
-    "-DBUILD_PROTOBUF=${printEnabled (!useSystemProtobuf)}"
-    "-DPROTOBUF_UPDATE_FILES=${printEnabled useSystemProtobuf}"
-    "-DOPENCV_ENABLE_NONFREE=${printEnabled enableUnfree}"
-    "-DBUILD_TESTS=OFF"
-    "-DBUILD_PERF_TESTS=OFF"
-    "-DBUILD_DOCS=${printEnabled enableDocs}"
-    (opencvFlag "IPP" enableIpp)
-    (opencvFlag "TIFF" enableTIFF)
-    (opencvFlag "WEBP" enableWebP)
-    (opencvFlag "JPEG" enableJPEG)
-    (opencvFlag "PNG" enablePNG)
-    (opencvFlag "OPENEXR" enableEXR)
-    (opencvFlag "CUDA" enableCuda)
-    (opencvFlag "CUBLAS" enableCuda)
-    (opencvFlag "TBB" enableTbb)
-  ] ++ lib.optionals enableCuda [
-    "-DCUDA_FAST_MATH=ON"
-    "-DCUDA_HOST_COMPILER=${backendStdenv.cc}/bin/cc"
-    "-DCUDA_NVCC_FLAGS=--expt-relaxed-constexpr"
-    "-DCUDA_ARCH_BIN=${lib.concatStringsSep ";" cudaCapabilities}"
-    "-DCUDA_ARCH_PTX=${lib.last cudaCapabilities}"
-  ] ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [
-    "-DWITH_OPENCL=OFF"
-    "-DWITH_LAPACK=OFF"
-
-    # Disable unnecessary vendoring that's enabled by default only for Darwin.
-    # Note that the opencvFlag feature flags listed above still take
-    # precedence, so we can safely list everything here.
-    "-DBUILD_ZLIB=OFF"
-    "-DBUILD_TIFF=OFF"
-    "-DBUILD_JASPER=OFF"
-    "-DBUILD_JPEG=OFF"
-    "-DBUILD_PNG=OFF"
-    "-DBUILD_WEBP=OFF"
-  ] ++ lib.optionals enablePython [
-    "-DOPENCV_SKIP_PYTHON_LOADER=ON"
-  ] ++ lib.optionals enableEigen [
-    # Autodetection broken by https://github.com/opencv/opencv/pull/13337
-    "-DEIGEN_INCLUDE_PATH=${eigen}/include/eigen3"
-  ];
-
-  postBuild = lib.optionalString enableDocs ''
-    make doxygen
-  '';
-
-  # By default $out/lib/pkgconfig/opencv.pc looks something like this:
-  #
-  #   prefix=/nix/store/10pzq1a8fkh8q4sysj8n6mv0w0nl0miq-opencv-3.4.1
-  #   exec_prefix=${prefix}
-  #   libdir=${exec_prefix}//nix/store/10pzq1a8fkh8q4sysj8n6mv0w0nl0miq-opencv-3.4.1/lib
-  #   ...
-  #   Libs: -L${exec_prefix}//nix/store/10pzq1a8fkh8q4sysj8n6mv0w0nl0miq-opencv-3.4.1/lib ...
-  #
-  # Note that ${exec_prefix} is set to $out but that $out is also appended to
-  # ${exec_prefix}. This causes linker errors in downstream packages so we strip
-  # of $out after the ${exec_prefix} prefix:
-  postInstall = ''
-    sed -i "s|{exec_prefix}/$out|{exec_prefix}|" \
-      "$out/lib/pkgconfig/opencv.pc"
-  '';
-
-  hardeningDisable = [ "bindnow" "relro" ];
-
-  passthru = lib.optionalAttrs enablePython { pythonPath = []; } // {
-    tests = lib.optionalAttrs enableCuda {
-      no-libstdcxx-errors = callPackage ./libstdcxx-test.nix { attrName = "opencv3"; };
-    };
-  };
-
-  meta = {
-    description = "Open Computer Vision Library with more than 500 algorithms";
-    homepage = "https://opencv.org/";
-    # OpenCV 3 won't build with CUDA 12+
-    broken = enableCuda && cudaPackages.cudaAtLeast "12";
-    license = if enableUnfree then lib.licenses.unfree else lib.licenses.bsd3;
-    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [mdaiter basvandijk];
-    platforms = with lib.platforms; linux ++ darwin;
-  };
-}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/default.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index d59e6a6342d7..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/default.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, cmake, pkg-config, unzip
-, zlib
-, enableGtk2 ? false, gtk2
-, enableJPEG ? true, libjpeg
-, enablePNG ? true, libpng
-, enableTIFF ? true, libtiff
-, enableEXR ? (!stdenv.isDarwin), openexr, ilmbase
-, enableFfmpeg ? false, ffmpeg
-, enableGStreamer ? false, gst_all_1
-, enableEigen ? true, eigen
-, enableUnfree ? false
-, AVFoundation, Cocoa, QTKit, Accelerate
-}:
-
-let
-  opencvFlag = name: enabled: "-DWITH_${name}=${if enabled then "ON" else "OFF"}";
-
-in
-
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  pname = "opencv";
-  version = "2.4.13.7";
-
-  src = fetchFromGitHub {
-    owner = "opencv";
-    repo = "opencv";
-    rev = version;
-    sha256 = "062js7zhh4ixi2wk61wyi23qp9zsk5vw24iz2i5fab2hp97y5zq3";
-  };
-
-  patches =
-    [ # Don't include a copy of the CMake status output in the
-      # build. This causes a runtime dependency on GCC.
-      ./no-build-info.patch
-    ];
-
-  # This prevents cmake from using libraries in impure paths (which causes build failure on non NixOS)
-  postPatch = ''
-    sed -i '/Add these standard paths to the search paths for FIND_LIBRARY/,/^\s*$/{d}' CMakeLists.txt
-  '';
-
-  outputs = [ "out" "dev" ];
-
-  buildInputs =
-       [ zlib ]
-    ++ lib.optional enableGtk2 gtk2
-    ++ lib.optional enableJPEG libjpeg
-    ++ lib.optional enablePNG libpng
-    ++ lib.optional enableTIFF libtiff
-    ++ lib.optionals enableEXR [ openexr ilmbase ]
-    ++ lib.optional enableFfmpeg ffmpeg
-    ++ lib.optionals enableGStreamer (with gst_all_1; [ gstreamer gst-plugins-base ])
-    ++ lib.optional enableEigen eigen
-    ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [ AVFoundation Cocoa QTKit Accelerate ]
-    ;
-
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake pkg-config unzip ];
-
-  CXXFLAGS = lib.optionalString stdenv.cc.isClang "-std=c++14";
-
-  env.NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = lib.optionalString enableEXR "-I${ilmbase.dev}/include/OpenEXR";
-
-  cmakeFlags = [
-    (opencvFlag "TIFF" enableTIFF)
-    (opencvFlag "JPEG" enableJPEG)
-    (opencvFlag "PNG" enablePNG)
-    (opencvFlag "OPENEXR" enableEXR)
-    (opencvFlag "GSTREAMER" enableGStreamer)
-  ] ++ lib.optional (!enableUnfree) "-DBUILD_opencv_nonfree=OFF";
-
-  hardeningDisable = [ "bindnow" "relro" ];
-
-  # Fix pkg-config file that gets broken with multiple outputs
-  postFixup = ''
-    sed -i $dev/lib/pkgconfig/opencv.pc -e "s|includedir_old=.*|includedir_old=$dev/include/opencv|"
-    sed -i $dev/lib/pkgconfig/opencv.pc -e "s|includedir_new=.*|includedir_new=$dev/include|"
-  '';
-
-  meta = with lib; {
-    description = "Open Computer Vision Library with more than 500 algorithms";
-    homepage = "https://opencv.org/";
-    license = if enableUnfree then licenses.unfree else licenses.bsd3;
-    maintainers = [ ];
-    platforms = platforms.unix;
-  };
-}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/no-build-info.patch b/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/no-build-info.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 4ee9701583a0..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/no-build-info.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-diff -ru -x '*~' opencv-2.4.13-orig/modules/core/src/system.cpp opencv-2.4.13/modules/core/src/system.cpp
---- opencv-2.4.13-orig/modules/core/src/system.cpp	1970-01-01 01:00:01.000000000 +0100
-+++ opencv-2.4.13/modules/core/src/system.cpp	2016-10-02 18:44:53.674181762 +0200
-@@ -442,9 +442,7 @@
- 
- const std::string& getBuildInformation()
- {
--    static std::string build_info =
--#include "version_string.inc"
--    ;
-+    static std::string build_info = "(build info elided)";
-     return build_info;
- }
- 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
index 7de046c1349a..691e71b7b959 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
@@ -1080,6 +1080,8 @@ mapAliases ({
   onevpl-intel-gpu = lib.warn "onevpl-intel-gpu has been renamed to vpl-gpu-rt" vpl-gpu-rt; # Added 2024-06-04
   opa = throw "opa has been removed from nixpkgs as upstream has abandoned the project"; # Added 2023-03-21
   opam_1_2 = throw "'opam_1_2' has been renamed to/replaced by 'opam'"; # Added 2023-03-08
+  opencv2 = throw "opencv2 has been removed as it is obsolete and was not used by any other package; please migrate to OpenCV 4"; # Added 2024-08-20
+  opencv3 = throw "opencv3 has been removed as it is obsolete and was not used by any other package; please migrate to OpenCV 4"; # Added 2024-08-20
   openafs_1_8 = openafs; # Added 2022-08-22
   openapi-generator-cli-unstable = throw "openapi-generator-cli-unstable was removed as it was not being updated; consider openapi-generator-cli instead"; # Added 2024-01-02
   openbangla-keyboard = throw "openbangla-keyboard has been replaced by ibus-engines.openbangla-keyboard and fcitx5-openbangla-keyboard"; # added 2023-10-10
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index e32502d1e4b8..bd2fc1c0ee6b 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -23021,19 +23021,6 @@ with pkgs;
 
   openct = callPackage ../development/libraries/openct { };
 
-  opencv2 = callPackage ../development/libraries/opencv {
-    inherit (darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks) AVFoundation Cocoa QTKit Accelerate;
-    ffmpeg = ffmpeg_4;
-  };
-
-  opencv3 = callPackage ../development/libraries/opencv/3.x.nix {
-    inherit (darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks)
-      AVFoundation Cocoa VideoDecodeAcceleration CoreMedia MediaToolbox Accelerate;
-    ffmpeg = ffmpeg_4;
-    # OpenCV3 won't build with anything newer than CUDA 11 due to API changes.
-    cudaPackages = cudaPackages_11;
-  };
-
   opencv4 = callPackage ../development/libraries/opencv/4.x.nix {
     inherit (darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks)
       AVFoundation Cocoa VideoDecodeAcceleration CoreMedia MediaToolbox Accelerate;