Debian Linux has formally recognized LoongArch 64-bit (Loong64) as an official architecture, marking a significant milestone for the Chinese-developed CPU instruction set. This promotion means LoongArch will be fully supported in the next Debian stable release, codenamed "Forky," scheduled for 2027. The decision culminates over two years of development work within Debian Ports, where the architecture was initially incubated.

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According to the Debian announcement, maintainers have built and imported 112 foundational packages to establish an initial chroot environment. Build servers are now actively compiling packages, with 300 new packages processed overnight. Project leads anticipate the bootstrap process will complete within approximately one week, accelerated potentially by additional build servers.

"I am happy to announce that... loong64 has become an official architecture in Debian and will therefore be part of the upcoming Debian 14 ('forky') release if everything goes along as planned," stated the project's architecture maintainers.

LoongArch, developed by Loongson Technology, draws architectural inspiration from MIPS and RISC-V while maintaining proprietary instruction sets. Its inclusion in Debian—a distribution renowned for its broad architecture support—signals growing ecosystem validation. For developers, this means:

  • Native compilation capabilities for LoongArch systems
  • Simplified package maintenance through Debian's build infrastructure
  • Broader hardware compatibility options for specialized deployments

The timing coincides with Loongson's outreach to technical reviewers, suggesting imminent availability of benchmarkable hardware. As Debian serves as the foundation for numerous derivatives, this architectural endorsement could accelerate LoongArch adoption across the Linux ecosystem. While full parity with x86_64 or ARM64 remains distant, Debian's rigorous packaging standards ensure LoongArch users will receive the same security updates and software availability as other architectures upon Debian 14's release.