openRuyi
Upstream architecture
Distribution
Vendor testing
Bottom line
Mostly for vendor/ecosystem testing: it is officially positioned as early validation — surfacing firmware, platform-semantics and kernel interop problems early so vendors fork less. Regular users normally don't need it; for daily use pick a vendor distro such as Bianbu / RevyOS / openKylin, and try its QEMU image if you just want a zero-cost look.
- Based on
- Independent, self-built (RPM + dnf, rolling release); kernel 7.2.6 / LTS 6.18.54, toolchain GCC 16.2 with its own glibc
- Upstream
- Independent distro: a RISC-V native distro initiated and long maintained by ISCAS (Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences), with its own RPM package set and build pipeline (SPECS/dnf); it does not build on Debian/Ubuntu/openEuler binaries.
- Versions
- 2026.09 (built 2026-09-29) · 2026.08 (2026-08-26) · 2026.07 (2026-07-23)
- Doc languages
- en
- Checked
- 2026-11-01
Boards
- QEMU virt (virtual machine) Official An official QEMU/virt image plus RVA23 virtualization notes; the least effort way to try it
- SpacemiT K3 (Pico-ITX / CoM260) Community Ruyi Firmware (coreboot+OpenSBI+EDK2) validates the whole firmware-to-desktop path on SpacemiT K3 Pico-ITX
Download
Docs and videos
- How to install openRuyi Server Doc en
- How to install openRuyi Workstation Doc en
- Install on QEMU Doc en
- 2026.09 release notes Doc en
Pitfalls
- Rolling release with no LTS; monthly builds can change a lot, so it is a poor stable production base
- Images come in RVA20 and RVA23 sets; the wrong one won't boot on cores without that profile
- K3 needs the matching Ruyi Firmware (coreboot+OpenSBI+EDK2), and most ordinary U-Boot boards have no ready image
- The installer wipes the whole disk and targets servers/workstations by default — not an out-of-the-box Chinese desktop
- Docs are all English with very little Chinese material, and the community is small
Sources8
- releases.openruyi.cn/creek/
- releases.openruyi.cn/creek/2026.09/
- releases.openruyi.cn/creek/2026.09/rva23/
- releases.openruyi.cn/creek/2026.09/rva20/
- openruyi.cn/docs/guide/how-to-install/server/
- openruyi.cn/docs/guide/how-to-install/workstation
- openruyi.cn/docs/guide/how-to-install/qemu
- openruyi.cn/news/2026-09/release
The full source list and how each claim is judged: Sources