diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/dbus.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/dbus.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..69f690e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/dbus.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# dbus: three documentation generators, made mandatory by arch-meson.
+#
+# The build stopped three times in a row, on a different tool each time:
+#
+#   ERROR: Program 'ducktype' not found or not executable
+#   ERROR: Program 'yelp-build' not found or not executable
+#   ERROR: Program 'qhelpgenerator qhelpgenerator-qt5' not found
+#
+# Each looked like its own missing host package, and the first two were duly
+# installed. THE TRAP is that chasing them one at a time is the wrong shape:
+# the third needs Qt, so the chain does not terminate anywhere reasonable, and
+# none of the three was ever really required.
+#
+# meson.build asks for them like this:
+#
+#   doxygen   = find_program('doxygen',      required: get_option('doxygen_docs'))
+#   ducktype  = find_program('ducktype',     required: get_option('ducktype_docs'))
+#   yelpbuild = find_program('yelp-build',   required: get_option('ducktype_docs'))
+#   qhelpgen  = find_program('qhelpgenerator', ..., required: get_option('qt_help'))
+#
+# and all three options are features declared with no value -- 'auto'.
+# arch-meson passes --auto-features enabled, which promotes every one of them
+# to a hard requirement. On Arch that is harmless: the doc tools are in the
+# build chroot. Here it turned optional documentation into three consecutive
+# build failures. Same mechanism as util-linux's translated man pages and
+# expat's docbook converter; dbus is just the clearest instance, because it
+# repeated three times in one afternoon.
+#
+# xml_docs is deliberately LEFT ALONE: it generates the man pages through
+# xsltproc, which is installed, and man pages are worth having.
+#
+# The dbus-docs sub-package goes with the options. Its `_pick docs
+# usr/share/doc` is a mv, so with nothing generated it would fail the way
+# every other _pick on an absent path in this port has failed -- after a
+# successful compile, at the last step, naming a directory rather than a
+# reason. Deferred, not architectural: TODO.md records the way back.
+set -euo pipefail
+python3 - <<'PY'
+import io, re
+s = io.open("PKGBUILD", encoding="utf-8").read()
+
+# (a) pin the three features off, beside the options already being pinned
+anchor = "    -D apparmor=disabled\n"
+assert s.count(anchor) == 1, "dbus: meson_options array not in the expected form"
+s = s.replace(anchor,
+              anchor +
+              "    -D doxygen_docs=disabled\n"
+              "    -D ducktype_docs=disabled\n"
+              "    -D qt_help=disabled\n", 1)
+
+# (b) the sub-package that would have nothing to package
+m = re.search(r"pkgname=\((.*?)\)\n", s, re.S)
+assert m, "dbus: pkgname array not found"
+names = [n for n in re.findall(r"[A-Za-z0-9._+-]+", m.group(1))]
+assert "dbus-docs" in names, "dbus: dbus-docs not in pkgname"
+kept = [n for n in names if n != "dbus-docs"]
+s = s[:m.start()] + "pkgname=(\n" + "".join("  %s\n" % n for n in kept) + ")\n" + s[m.end():]
+
+# (c) and the _pick that feeds it
+old = '  _pick docs "$pkgdir"/usr/share/doc\n'
+assert s.count(old) == 1, "dbus: docs _pick not in the expected form"
+s = s.replace(old, "", 1)
+
+io.open("PKGBUILD", "w", encoding="utf-8").write(s)
+PY
+for o in doxygen_docs ducktype_docs qt_help; do
+    grep -qF -- "-D $o=disabled" PKGBUILD || {
+        echo "dbus: $o not pinned off" >&2; exit 1; }
+done
+grep -qF '_pick docs' PKGBUILD && {
+    echo "dbus: docs _pick survived and would fail on an absent path" >&2; exit 1; }
+python3 - <<'PY'
+import io, re, sys
+s = io.open("PKGBUILD", encoding="utf-8").read()
+m = re.search(r"pkgname=\((.*?)\)\n", s, re.S)
+if not m:
+    sys.exit("dbus: pkgname array unreadable after patching")
+names = re.findall(r"[A-Za-z0-9._+-]+", m.group(1))
+if "dbus-docs" in names:
+    sys.exit("dbus: dbus-docs still declared in pkgname")
+print("dbus: pkgname -> %s" % " ".join(names))
+PY
+echo "dbus: doc generators pinned off (--auto-features made three of them fatal)"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/gettext.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/gettext.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..fbb91ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/gettext.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# gettext: --without-selinux. The sixth package to pick up the host's
+# libselinux, and the first one nothing warned about.
+#
+#   $ readelf -d usr/lib/libgettextlib-1.0.so | grep NEEDED
+#     (NEEDED) Shared library: [libselinux.so.1]
+#
+# Nothing failed. gettext built, passed, and went into the repository with a
+# library linked against something Arch has no package for -- the artefact
+# audit is the only thing that found it, exactly as it found coreutils,
+# findutils, sed and tar before it.
+#
+# WHY IT CAME BACK. Those four were fixed with per-package hooks, and the
+# reasoning at the time was that the same gnulib probe "catches findutils, sed
+# and tar" -- a list of the packages then in the build. gettext was not in the
+# port yet. It arrived with the dependency closure, uses gnulib too, probes
+# selinux/selinux.h unconditionally, and found Ubuntu's libselinux1-dev
+# sitting where it always was.
+#
+# So this is the fifth copy of one three-line fix, and that is the real
+# finding: the per-package hook does not scale to a probe that any gnulib
+# package can trip. The alternative -- exporting
+# ac_cv_header_selinux_selinux_h=no once in build_package -- was considered
+# and rejected when coreutils was fixed, on the grounds that a global cache
+# override is invisible at the point where it acts. That trade has now been
+# paid for five times. TODO.md records it as a decision to revisit rather than
+# leaving the next person to rediscover the arithmetic.
+#
+# Arch's gettext links no libselinux, so this converges with Arch.
+set -euo pipefail
+grep -q '^    --without-included-libunistring$' PKGBUILD || {
+    echo "gettext: configure block not in the expected form" >&2; exit 1; }
+sed -i 's|^\(    --without-included-libunistring\)$|\1 \\\n    --without-selinux|' PKGBUILD
+[ "$(grep -c -- '--without-selinux' PKGBUILD)" = 1 ] || {
+    echo "gettext: --without-selinux not inserted exactly once" >&2; exit 1; }
+echo "gettext: --without-selinux (gnulib found the host's libselinux)"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/krb5.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/krb5.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..4668913
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/krb5.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# krb5: --with-system-ss, and Ubuntu ships no ss headers.
+#
+#   checking whether system ss package works... configure: error: cannot run
+#   test program
+#
+# THE TRAP is that message. "cannot run test program" reads like a broken
+# cross-compile or a missing loader -- the kind of thing that sends you into
+# config.log looking for a link failure on this architecture. It is neither.
+# The subsystem library (ss, from e2fsprogs) has no development package on
+# Ubuntu at all: libss2 is runtime-only, libss-dev does not exist, and
+# e2fslibs-dev has no candidate. There is no ss.h to compile against, so the
+# test program cannot be built, let alone run.
+#
+# Note what IS present, so the two are not confused: --with-system-et works,
+# because comerr-dev ships /usr/include/et/com_err.h. Only ss is missing.
+#
+# krb5 carries its own copy of the subsystem library and uses it when not told
+# otherwise, so dropping the flag costs nothing but a slightly larger binary.
+# Building e2fsprogs to supply one header would be the other answer; it is not
+# worth a package in the closure, and TODO.md records the choice.
+set -euo pipefail
+grep -qE '^\s+--with-system-ss \\$' PKGBUILD || {
+    echo "krb5: --with-system-ss line not in the expected form" >&2; exit 1; }
+[ "$(grep -c -- '--with-system-ss' PKGBUILD)" = 1 ] || {
+    echo "krb5: expected exactly one --with-system-ss" >&2; exit 1; }
+sed -i '/^\s\+--with-system-ss \\$/d' PKGBUILD
+grep -q -- '--with-system-ss' PKGBUILD && {
+    echo "krb5: --with-system-ss survived" >&2; exit 1; }
+echo "krb5: uses its bundled ss (Ubuntu has no ss development package)"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/pinentry.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/pinentry.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..82e826e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/pinentry.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# pinentry: three graphical front ends, on a machine with no display stack.
+#
+#   configure: error:
+#       ***
+#       *** Qt6 (Qt6Core, Qt6Gui, Qt6Widgets) is required.
+#       ***
+#
+# Arch builds every front end pinentry has -- tty, curses, emacs, gnome3 and
+# qt -- and declares qt6-base, gcr, kguiaddons and kwindowsystem as
+# makedepends. None of that exists on this build host, and none of it belongs
+# in a bootstrap: pacman needs a passphrase prompt on a terminal, nothing more.
+#
+# THE HONEST FRAMING. This is not architectural -- Qt runs on s390x perfectly
+# well. It is deferred, and TODO.md says so: a desktop on Z would want these
+# back, and the way back is to build qt6-base and the KDE pieces first. What
+# is not defensible is dragging a GUI toolkit into the closure of a package
+# manager's passphrase prompt.
+#
+# THE SECOND PLACE, and then a THIRD. libsecret and glib2 are in the top-level
+# depends= and exist only to serve the front ends being switched off. --nodeps
+# means makepkg never checks them, so leaving them would ship a pinentry that
+# cannot install -- the same trap as gcc-libs/libhwasan, make/guile and
+# gnutls/leancrypto.
+#
+# The third place is package(), which APPENDS more:
+#
+#   depends+=( libglib-2.0.so libncursesw.so libsecret-1.so )
+#
+# The first version of this hook fixed the array at the top of the file, ran
+# its guard against that array, passed, and shipped the append untouched. The
+# guard checked the place I was thinking about rather than every place the
+# name occurs -- which is exactly the mistake the note above warns against.
+# Only libncursesw.so survives; the other two name libraries this build no
+# longer links.
+#
+# tty, curses and fallback-curses stay, and so does emacs: it is a protocol
+# over a pipe, not a toolkit, and it links nothing extra.
+set -euo pipefail
+python3 - <<'PY'
+import io
+s = io.open("PKGBUILD", encoding="utf-8").read()
+
+for flag in ("--enable-pinentry-gnome3", "--enable-pinentry-qt", "--enable-libsecret"):
+    off = flag.replace("--enable-", "--disable-", 1)
+    assert s.count(flag) == 1, "pinentry: expected exactly one %s" % flag
+    s = s.replace(flag, off, 1)
+
+old = "  'glibc' 'ncurses' 'libassuan' 'libsecret' 'glib2'\n"
+assert s.count(old) == 1, "pinentry: depends block not in the expected form"
+s = s.replace(old, "  'glibc' 'ncurses' 'libassuan'\n", 1)
+
+# package() appends three sonames; two of them are gone with the front ends.
+old = "  depends+=(\n    libglib-2.0.so\n    libncursesw.so\n    libsecret-1.so\n  )\n"
+assert s.count(old) == 1, "pinentry: package() depends+= not in the expected form"
+s = s.replace(old, "  depends+=(\n    libncursesw.so\n  )\n", 1)
+
+# package() renames the GTK binary, which is no longer built.
+old = '  # The -gtk backend has been built to be used with GTK3.\n  mv "${pkgdir}/usr/bin/pinentry-gtk"{-2,}\n'
+assert s.count(old) == 1, "pinentry: gtk rename not in the expected form"
+s = s.replace(old, "", 1)
+
+io.open("PKGBUILD", "w", encoding="utf-8").write(s)
+PY
+for f in gnome3 qt libsecret; do
+    grep -q -- "--disable-pinentry-$f\|--disable-$f" PKGBUILD || {
+        echo "pinentry: $f front end still enabled" >&2; exit 1; }
+done
+grep -qE "^  'glibc' 'ncurses' 'libassuan'$" PKGBUILD || {
+    echo "pinentry: depends not reduced" >&2; exit 1; }
+# EVERY place the names occur -- but as they are actually WRITTEN, not as bare
+# substrings. The first version of this loop grepped for `libsecret` and
+# matched the `--disable-libsecret` it had just inserted, so a correct patch
+# reported failure. Third guard in this port to check something adjacent to
+# what it meant; the lesson is that a guard needs the same care as the edit.
+for n in "'libsecret'" "'glib2'" "libglib-2.0.so" "libsecret-1.so" \
+         "--enable-libsecret" "--enable-pinentry-qt" "--enable-pinentry-gnome3" \
+         'pinentry-gtk"{-2,}'; do
+    grep -qF -- "$n" PKGBUILD && {
+        echo "pinentry: $n still present" >&2; exit 1; }
+done
+grep -q -- "--enable-pinentry-curses" PKGBUILD || {
+    echo "pinentry: curses front end lost -- nothing would prompt" >&2; exit 1; }
+echo "pinentry: tty/curses/emacs only (no Qt, GNOME or libsecret on this host)"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/sqlite.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/sqlite.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..6ee9cc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/sqlite.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# sqlite: the tcl extension installs where Ubuntu's tclConfig.sh says, not
+# where Arch's does.
+#
+#   mv: cannot stat '<pkgdir>/usr/lib/tcl8.6/sqlite*': No such file or directory
+#
+# THE TRAP is that tcl was found. The log says so, plainly:
+#
+#   Checking for tclsh8.6.../usr/bin/tclsh8.6
+#   Using tclConfig.sh: /usr/lib/s390x-linux-gnu/tclConfig.sh
+#
+# so "install tcl-dev" looks like it worked, and the failure looks like a
+# separate problem. It is the same problem one layer down: tclConfig.sh
+# carries TCL_PACKAGE_PATH, and Ubuntu's says share/tcltk while Arch's says
+# lib. Measured in the pkgdir:
+#
+#   usr/share/tcltk/tcl8.6/sqlite3.53.4/libsqlite3.53.4.so
+#
+# and usr/lib/tcl8.6 does not exist at all. This is the multiarch libdir theme
+# again -- a path the BUILD HOST decides -- but one layer out from the library
+# directory itself, which is why --libdir does not reach it.
+#
+# The tree is relocated to Arch's path before package_sqlite() splits it out,
+# so the upstream mv keeps working unchanged. Same shape as the lib64 merge in
+# gcc.sh: move the tree, do not rewrite every path that names it.
+set -euo pipefail
+python3 - <<'PY'
+import io
+s = io.open("PKGBUILD", encoding="utf-8").read()
+anchor = "  # split out tcl extension\n"
+assert s.count(anchor) == 1, "sqlite: expected one tcl split block"
+fix = """  # Ubuntu's tclConfig.sh puts the tcl package tree under share/tcltk;
+  # Arch's puts it under lib. Move it before the split below reads it.
+  if [ -d "$pkgdir"/usr/share/tcltk/tcl8.6 ]; then
+    mkdir -p "$pkgdir"/usr/lib
+    mv "$pkgdir"/usr/share/tcltk/tcl8.6 "$pkgdir"/usr/lib/tcl8.6
+    rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty "$pkgdir"/usr/share/tcltk
+  fi
+"""
+s = s.replace(anchor, fix + anchor, 1)
+io.open("PKGBUILD", "w", encoding="utf-8").write(s)
+PY
+grep -q "tclConfig.sh puts the tcl package tree" PKGBUILD || {
+    echo "sqlite: tcl relocation not inserted" >&2; exit 1; }
+echo "sqlite: tcl extension relocated from share/tcltk to lib (host TCL_PACKAGE_PATH)"