Developer's Guide

GNU Toolchain

GCC and Binutils officially support LoongArch. They are available directly from your distro's repository, as binaries, or may be built through cross-compilation.

To install GNU toolchain on common Linux distributions and operating systems:

If you do not have a LoongArch device or wish to cross-compile:

LLVM Toolchain

LLVM officially supports LoongArch. It is available directly from your distro's repository, as binaries, or may be built through cross-compilation.

To install LLVM (including Clang) on common Linux distributions and operating systems:

The LLVM toolchain (particularly the Clang compiler) natively supports cross compilation. To cross-compile this toolchain for LoongArch, use LLVM version 17 or later and refer to this article and specify the LoongArch target (e.g., loongarch64-unknown-linux-gnu).

Rust

Rust officially supports LoongArch. It is available directly from your distro's repository, as binaries, or may be built through cross-compilation.

Rust recommends using rustup to install the Rust toolchain:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

To install Rust (rustc) and the Cargo package manager on common Linux distributions and operating systems:

Node.js

Node.js officially supports LoongArch. It is available directly from your distro's repository, as binaries, or may be built through cross-compilation. Node.js ships LoongArch binaries through the Unofficial Builds project (tagged as the loong64 architecture).

To install Node.js on common Linux distributions and operating systems:

Go

Go officially supports LoongArch. It is available directly from your distro's repository, as binaries, or may be built through cross-compilation. The Go upstream builds LoongArch binaries, which are available from their download page.

To install Go on common Linux distributions and operating systems:

Go natively supports cross-compilation. With Go 1.21 or later, follow the instructions outlined in this article and specify the LoongArch target (i.e., GOARCH=loong64) to cross-compile for LoongArch.

Python

Python officially supports LoongArch. It is available directly from your distro's repository, as binaries, or may be built through cross-compilation.

To install Python on common Linux distributions and operating systems:

.NET

.NET officially supports LoongArch. However, as LoongArch is classified as a “community-supported architecture” within .NET, Microsoft does not ship binary toolchains for LoongArch.

However, .NET toolchain binaries may be obtained through the following channels:

• .NET 10 (from Loongson Technology)
• .NET 9 (from the loongson-community organization)

For common Linux distributions, simply download the SDK package with the RID (.NET Runtime Identifier) linux-loongarch64 to obtain the full toolchain (i.e., dotnet-runtime-10.0.1-linux-loongarch64.tar.gz). For instructions on installing the .NET SDK using tar packages, refer to the official .NET documentation.

Cross-Compiling .NET Applications for LoongArch ​

.NET natively supports cross-compilation and cross-platform publishing. With .NET 9 or later, refer to this article and specify the target RID to publish .NET applications for LoongArch. However, since LoongArch is classified as a “community-supported architecture” for .NET, NuGet.org does not host .NET runtime packages targeting LoongArch, which may cause build failures.

To workaround this issue, you may obtain and deploy all necessary NuGet packages locally. To do so, simply obtain the following files from the toolchain release pages mentioned above (* denotes specific version numbers):

• Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-loongarch64.*.nupkg
• Microsoft.NETCore.App.Crossgen2.linux-loongarch64.*.nupkg
• Microsoft.NETCore.App.Host.linux-loongarch64.*.nupkg
• Microsoft.NETCore.App.Runtime.linux-loongarch64.*.nupkg
• runtime.linux-loongarch64.Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler.*.nupkg

Place the above files in a path that suits your needs (e.g., /data/loongarch64-nupkgs) and follow the instructions in this article to add this directory to your NuGet source list, as shown below:

<packageSources>
    <add key="LoongArch64 Packages" value="/data/loongarch64-nupkgs" />
</packageSources>

You should now be able to cross-compile .NET applications for LoongArch.

Compiling the .NET Toolchain ​

Compiling the .NET toolchain itself is a relatively involved process. To ease the learning curve, please refer to the CI build scripts used by Loongson Technology. This method utilizes the VMR source distribution package officially recommended by .NET for compilation.

Java

Due to non-technical reasons, Oracle OpenJDK does not currently support LoongArch JIT. To install Java, it is recommended to download binary packages compatible with the "Linux 5.10.0 kernel UAPI" on the Loongson Open Source Community (loongnix.cn) or through your distro's repository.

To install Java on common Linux distributions and operating systems:

Linux Kernel

The Linux Kernel officially supports LoongArch. Generally, Linux distributions based on ABI2.0 utilize the upstream kernel (along with platform-specific workarounds and other patches, see below). However, some commercial distributions ship the 6.6 "longterm" kernel with an extensive set of platform-specific patches.

Kernel Maintenance Reference ​

As noted above, newer Linux kernels are generally preferable due to their better support for LoongArch devices. However, as distros may have their own set of rules when it comes to kernel updates, we have assembled the guide below for your reference.

Unmerged Patches ​

Generally, engineers at Loongson Technology and community developers pushes hardware enablement, optimizations, and fixes to the upstream (mainline) kernel. However, due to technical and non-technical reasons, some patches remain unmerged.

The following table lists all known and essential patches maintained by various downstream parties (developers, distribution communities, etc.), for your reference (the patch list below are based on v6.19-rc1 and do not include patches already submitted to the upstream loongarch mailing list):

Docker

Docker (utility) now officially supports LoongArch, usually available from your distro's repository.

To install Docker on common Linux distributions and operating systems:

CI Runners

Many code hosting platforms offer CI runner support and some already supports LoongArch natively

GitHub Actions ​

GitHub Actions Runner could not produce binary releases due to NuGet lacking LoongArch support. If you wish to compile and deploy this CI agent yourself, please refer to this pull request.

GitLab Runner ​

GitLab Runner officially supports LoongArch. To deploy, simply download and install packages or compressed archives tagged loong64 from its release page.

Gitea act_runner ​

Gitea act_runner officially supports LoongArch, though LoongArch binaries are not yet available. For now, you may clone the source code to compile and deploy this runner.

Forgejo Runner ​

Forgejo Runner has not yet merged LoongArch support. If you wish to compile and deploy this runner yourself, please refer to this pull request.

Sourcehut ​

Sourcehut's CI proxy builds.sr.ht officially supports LoongArch. As this CI runner does not distribute binaries, you would need to build and deploy this runner from source.

Gitee ​

Gitee has not yet merged LoongArch support. If you wish to compile and deploy this runner yourself, please refer to the following pull requests:

• gitee-go/utils#1
• gitee-go/core#1
• gitee-go/runner-core#1
• gitee-go/runner#1

GitCode ​

As inquired by community members, GitCode currently does not support self-hosted CI proxies and thus it is not possible to support LoongArch, at least for now.