After 9 months of development, Alt Linux has announced the launch of its experimental assemblies for Chinese processors with the architecture loctrh64. These assemblies are based on the RISC ISA, similar to MIPS and RISC-V, and are available with user interfaces XFCE and GNOME. The repositories for these assemblies are built on the Sisyphus repository and include popular user applications such as Libreoffice, Firefox, and Gimp. This development makes Alt Linux the first Russian distribution to start building assemblies for Loongarch64, although Debian Gnu/Linux has also recently accepted the port for Loongarch.
To speed up the preparation of the port, Alt Linux developers have used a process called package assembly catching up, which automates the assembly for new platforms by using information about the emergence of new versions in the main repository. Initially, the developers spent about 6 months manually porting thousands of basic packages for Loongarch64. Once this was done, an automated assembly process was configured, resulting in the availability of 17 thousand packages, which makes up 91.7% of the entire Sisyphus repository. It is worth noting that Alt Linux also builds distributions for 5 primary platforms (i586, x86_64, Aarch64, Armh, PPC64le) and 3 non-core platforms (Elbrus, Mipsel, Riscav64).
In addition to the Loongarch64 assemblies, Alt Linux has also released experimental assemblies for mobile devices. These assemblies, called Alt Mobile, are equipped with the graphic shelling PHOSH based on GNOME technologies. They are available for Qemu (x86_64, ARM64, and RISC-V) as well as in the form of a systemic image for the smartphone Pinephone Pro. The Alt Mobile assemblies include popular programs such as Telegram, Chatty, Firefox, Chromium, Megapixels, Clapper, MPV, Amberol, Evince, Foliate, Gnome CALCULATOR, GNOME SOUND RUUND, GNOME Software, GNOME CONTROL Senter, Phosh Mobile Settings, Alt Tweaks, Gnome Calls, and GNOME MAPS, all of which have been adapted for working with small touch screens.
