linux-aarch64-lts

aarch64 LTS Kernel package for Arch Linux ARM

---

Motivation

This repository aims at providing a kernel package for aarch64 that follows the latest LTS branch while staying as close to upstream Arch packaging as possible.

It is maintained as a separate project as pull requests on archlinuxarm/PKGBUILDs have all been ignored.

Usage

In order to make use of the kernel package provided by this repository there are four options:

Build Natively

Simply run makepkg from within this directory on the target device to build natively:

$ makepkg -s -r

Emulated Native Build using Podman and QEMU

In builder there is a Containerfile and a wrapper script that enable QEMU binfmt emulation based cross-platform builds using Podman (or Docker).

The build container itself can be built using

$ podman build --pull -t aarch64-lts-builder:latest --platform linux/arm64 builder

after which the package build process can be started using the wrapper script:

$ ./builder/aarch64-makepkg.sh -C -c

Cross Compilation

On an x86_64 Arch Linux host one can install aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc and use the following to cross-compile the package without modification:

$ CARCH=aarch64 ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- makepkg -s -r

This may be considered somewhat unclean (even when done in a clean chroot) but has the advantage of reducing build time drastically compared to emulated native builds (due to the lack of binfmt emulation).

Using Pre-Built Packages via Pacman Repository

In order to include this as a repository add the following block in pacman.conf:

[linux-aarch64-lts]
SigLevel = Optional
Server = https://github.com/lynix/linux-aarch64-lts/releases/latest/download

⚠️ Please note: I can only test this package on an Odroid C4 and a Hetzner cloud VM as those are the only aarch64 machines I have at hand.

Use at your own risk on other platforms!

Migrating from linux-aarch64

Please consider the following differences when migrating from the official linux-aarch64 package:

• file names for kernel and initrd follow upstream Arch packaging, e.g. /boot/vmlinuz-linux-aarch64-lts instead of /boot/Image
• no support for ChromeBooks

Contributions

Pull requests are generally welcome and appreciated.

However I try to keep the number of patches against kernel sources low, so please understand that I won't accept everything (e.g. patches for niche SBCs that are not supported by mainline).