Gentoo
Upstream architecture
Distribution
Needs some effort
Bottom line
Friendly to veterans, discouraging for beginners: complete docs but a fully manual install, good for people who want deep customization or an embedded rootfs.
- Based on
- Independent (built from source, OpenRC/systemd optional)
- Upstream
- Official architecture: ARCH=riscv with the ~riscv keyword; release engineering ships rv64gc/rv32gc stage3 for every combination of lp64d/lp64/multilib, openrc/systemd and glibc/musl. The project states there is no plan for a stable keyword.
- Versions
- rolling (stage3 rv64_lp64d-openrc 20261026T164559Z)
- Doc languages
- en
- Checked
- 2026-11-01
Boards
- QEMU virt (virtual machine) Official Both qemu-system-riscv64 and qemu-riscv64 user-mode work; the official wiki has a dedicated QEMU install page
- SiFive HiFive Unmatched Community Community members own it and listed it in the wiki hardware table (SiFive FU740)
- StarFive VisionFive 2 Community JH7110; the wiki marks it Active with mainline kernel work in progress
- LicheePi 4A Community TH1520 (C910); community reports the standard install works
- Milk-V Pioneer (SG2042, server-oriented) Community Developers have real Milk-V Pioneer Box hardware (SG2042, 64 cores)
- Orange Pi RV2 (Ky X1) Community Ky X1 (X60); community-listed
- Banana Pi BPI-F3 (SpacemiT K1) Community SpacemiT K1 (RVV 1.0); community-listed
Download
Docs and videos
Pitfalls
- Only the ~riscv (testing) keyword exists, no stable — expect unstable packages indefinitely
- No directly flashable image; you must do a manual stage3 install (a bootable image is still on the official TODO)
- rv32 still has bugs under qemu user-mode, which bites during cross/emulated testing
- Mixing multilib with the lp64d/lp64 ABIs easily gets you the wrong stage3; check first whether the board has the D extension
RuyiSDK test reports1
Hands-on records from RuyiSDK, board by board. Open a report for the full install steps and verdict.
| Boards | Status | Versions | Last tested | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StarFive VisionFive 2 | ◐ Basic | 2.13 | 2024-06-21 | 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.
Sources6
- gentoo.org/downloads/riscv/
- distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/riscv/autobuilds/current-stage3-rv64_lp64d-openrc/
- wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:RISC-V
- wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/RISC-V_Qemu_setup
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/VisionFive2/Gentoo/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/
The full source list and how each claim is judged: Sources