Yes, Another Architecture: IPFire Now Builds for LoongArch
Key points
IPFire now builds for LoongArch. Michael Tremer announced on Oct. 23, 2026 that LoongArch joins x86, ARM and RISC-V as the fourth 64-bit architecture the firewall distribution supports, and the second one added this year after RISC-V.
The build machine
- The hardware was donated by the Loongson Hobbyists' Community and shipped directly from China.
- It uses a Loongson 3A6000-HV processor on a Loongson XA61200 motherboard, a DTX board with a large fan rather than a single-board computer.
- It is now the fastest machine in IPFire's build farm: a full IPFire build takes just over two hours.
- For comparison, RISC-V builds take about seven hours on a real board and took 54 to 56 hours under emulation.
Current status
- The machine sits in a data centre as a build system, so IPFire has not yet been booted on real LoongArch hardware.
- In an emulated virtual machine it boots fine. The toolchain works, the packages build, and the result starts and runs.
- Nightly images are available and packages work as usual. Feedback and questions go to the development mailing list.
Why another architecture
- Clean builds: each new architecture is a stress test. Building and running on four shows the toolchain and build system do not depend on one host architecture's quirks. Being able to rebuild IPFire independently on different machines makes audits easier and bugs easier to reproduce.
- Choice of hardware: users are not tied to Intel, AMD or any single vendor's roadmap. The post names researchers, governments and operators of critical infrastructure as groups looking to avoid dependence on one dominant instruction set.
- Easiest port so far: the team applied what it learned from earlier ports, and LoongArch support is already upstream in the Linux kernel, GCC and the rest of the toolchain.
- Debian is also about to become available for LoongArch.
- The project says a more resilient build and better-tested software improve the firewall on every architecture, including x86.
What's next
- The goal is to grow IPFire's user base on non-x86 hardware; the software is ready and the project is waiting for hardware to catch up.
- Vendors building LoongArch, RISC-V or ARM hardware are invited to contact the project.
Summary by DistroNews, based on the original post.
A few weeks ago we told you about RISC-V. Today: LoongArch. Another architecture, you ask? Yes. Grab a coffee, and let me tell you why. IPFire is now available for yet another architecture. LoongArch joins x86, ARM and RISC-V as the fourth 64-bit architecture we support, and the second one we have added this year. Somewhere a build server just sighed. A Big Thank You None of this would have happened without our friends at the Loongson Hobbyists' Community, who gifted us the build hardware. We are an open-source project, and nobody was obliged to hand us a very nice computer. They did anyway, and it arrived super fast and completely uncomplicated, directly from China. A porting project lives or dies by having real hardware to work on, and they gave us exactly that. Thank you, truly. Meet the Machine The machine is built around a Loongson 3A6000-HV processor on a Loongson XA61200 motherboard, and it is now the fastest machine in our build farm. It completes a full build of IPFire in just over two hours. For comparison, our RISC-V builds take about seven hours on a real board, and used to take 54 to 56 hours under emulation, which is the kind of number that makes you question your career choices. This is no surprise. It is not yet another SBC, but a properly sized DTX board with a beefy processor and a big fan. It looks like a machine that came to work. I have to be upfront about one thing: it lives in a data centre as a build system, so I have not been able to boot IPFire on it yet. In an emulated virtual machine, it boots just fine. Yes, I know, "it works in the VM" is the hardware equivalent of "it works on my machine". But it is a real milestone: the toolchain works, the packages build, and the result starts and runs. But Why? A milestone? With no hardware to run it on? I know what you are thinking: we are porting to a CPU that you cannot buy at your local shop. What is the point? There are several good reasons.
This is the opening of the story. The full text is on the original page.
Read the original at ipfire.org