Alpine Linux
Upstream architecture
Distribution
Good for newcomers
Bottom line
Alpine's riscv64 is a real architecture, but board coverage is narrow — there are only those five u-boot packages, so anything outside them means porting it yourself.
- Based on
- Independent
- Upstream
- riscv64 is an officially supported Alpine architecture: the downloads page offers standard ISO, minirootfs and uboot images next to x86_64/aarch64, and both the main and community repos build for riscv64.
- Versions
- 3.24.3 (current stable, alpine-standard-3.24.3-riscv64.iso) · edge (development branch)
- Doc languages
- en
- Derivatives
- postmarketOS
- Checked
- 2026-11-01
Boards
- QEMU virt (virtual machine) Official An official u-boot-qemu package exists; QEMU is the standard development path
- SiFive HiFive Unmatched Official Official u-boot-unmatched / u-boot-unleashed packages exist
- StarFive VisionFive 2 Official An official u-boot-starfive package exists (StarFive JH7110 family)
- LicheePi 4A Partial No official u-boot-th1520-style package; bring your own bootloader
- Milk-V Meles Partial TH1520 platform, as above
- SpacemiT K3 (Pico-ITX / CoM260) Community An official u-boot-spacemit package exists (SpacemiT platforms, mainly K1); whether K3 is covered separately is unconfirmed
- Zhihe A210 (XuanTie MelonPi dev board) Partial No official u-boot package
- Canaan K230 (Kendryte K230 / CanMV-K230) Partial No official u-boot package
- Milk-V Megrez (ESWIN EIC7700X) Partial No official u-boot package
- Milk-V Titan (UltraRISC DP1000) Partial No official u-boot package
- Milk-V Pioneer (SG2042, server-oriented) Partial No official u-boot package
- Orange Pi RV2 (Ky X1) Partial SpacemiT K1 board, possibly reusing u-boot-spacemit; unconfirmed
- Banana Pi BPI-F3 (SpacemiT K1) Partial SpacemiT K1 board, possibly reusing u-boot-spacemit; unconfirmed
Download
Docs and videos
Pitfalls
- Official u-boot only covers qemu / starfive / spacemit / unleashed / unmatched; other boards need your own bootloader
- musl libc + busybox: prebuilt binaries that need glibc won't run
- The official wiki (wiki.alpinelinux.org) returns 403 to automated requests, so RISC-V details can only be inferred from the packages/downloads pages
RuyiSDK test reports7
Hands-on records from RuyiSDK, board by board. Open a report for the full install steps and verdict.
| Boards | Status | Versions | Last tested | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BIT-BRICK K1 | ◐ Basic | 3.21 | 2025-04-08 | Open report |
| Banana Pi BPI-F3 (SpacemiT K1) | ◐ Basic | edge | 2024-12-10 | Open report |
| Mars | ◐ Basic | 3.20.0_alpha20231219 (edge) | 2025-05-16 | Open report |
| Milk-V Duo series (Duo / Duo 256M / Duo S) | ◐ Basic | 3.21.3 | 2025-05-01 | Open report |
| Milk-V Duo series (Duo / Duo 256M / Duo S) | ◐ Basic | — | 2024-11-05 | Open report |
| VisionFive | ◐ Basic | 3.20.0_alpha20231219 (edge) | 2025-06-04 | Open report |
| StarFive VisionFive 2 | ◐ Basic | 3.20.0_alpha20231219 (edge) | 2024-10-22 | Open report |
Status meanings: good — fully usable (desktop boots); basic — basic system (serial console works); part — partial functionality; cft — image exists, needs verification; cfh — documented as supported but fails to boot; cfi — claimed supported, no image; wip — announced only.
Sources12
- alpinelinux.org/downloads/
- dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.24/releases/riscv64/
- dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.24/releases/riscv64/alpine-standard-3.24.3-riscv64.iso
- docs.alpinelinux.org/user-handbook/0.1a/Installing/manual.html
- alpinelinux.org/releases/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Bit-Brick_K1/Alpine/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/BPI-F3/Alpine/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Mars/Alpine/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Duo/Alpine/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Duo256m/Alpine/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/VisionFive/Alpine/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/
The full source list and how each claim is judged: Sources