Arch Linux on aarch64

Status: unofficial. Packages come from Arch Linux Ports, built outside Arch infrastructure and signed with the port's own key. Targets ARMv8.2-A and later (no Raspberry Pi 4 or Cortex-A53 class CPUs).

ISO

UEFI boards install with the regular guided script from the aarch64 archiso

It boots through EFI/BOOT/BOOTAA64.EFI, ships linux as kernel, and its pacman.conf already points at the port's repositories, so nothing has to be pointed anywhere.

Repositories

Repo	Content
core, extra	analogues of the x86_64 repositories
forge	board kernels and firmware (linux-rpi5, linux-mainline, linux-firmware-rpi5), archports-keyring, Pi tooling

All three live on https://arch-linux-repo.drzee.net/arch/$repo/os/$arch. The port's own pacman package ships that conf, so the installed system resolves from it without a mirrorlist. What differs from x86_64 inside archinstoo:

• Mirror regions are not offered (no mirror network). Custom servers and repos still are.
• forge ships enabled in that conf, nothing to toggle. The optional repositories are core-testing and extra-testing only: no multilib on the port.
• archports-keyring joins the base packages: pacman does not depend on it there.
• The microcode initramfs hook is dropped, it only knows x86 vendors.
• Bootloaders: systemd-boot, grub (arm64-efi), limine (BOOTAA64.EFI).
• Serial console defaults to ttyAMA0,115200, the pl011 UART most boards expose.

Board kernels are plain package names: "kernels": ["linux-rpi5"] in a config reaches pacstrap as is. In the interactive kernel menu, Custom (type a name) takes the same names.

Running on an already installed system

For non-UEFI systems where you went the hard-way with tarball modifications.

./RUN --script packages opens a reduced menu for Profile, Applications and Additional packages