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Mathieu Benoit f7f94f3160 [ADD] test-chroot: the test that proved the port, made repeatable
Sixty-eight successful builds said nothing true about whether the port
worked. One chroot found the missing dynamic linker and the missing
packages in a single run -- and it was done by hand, so "is it still true?"
had no cheap answer.

Three checks, kept apart because they fail for different reasons. RESOLVE
runs pacman's own resolver with --nodeps OFF, the check the whole bootstrap
skips. ARTEFACT greps every package for host contamination that raises no
error. RUN installs for real and executes the binaries -- the only one that
can catch an absent ld.so, since a package whose interpreter is missing
installs perfectly.

It earned itself immediately. ARTEFACT is clean across all 86 packages, and
RESOLVE named the next milestone precisely: about forty packages are still
missing, from pcre2 and libxcrypt to python and perl.

--- FR ---

Soixante-huit compilations réussies n'ont rien dit de vrai sur le
fonctionnement du portage. Un seul chroot a trouvé l'interpréteur dynamique
absent et les paquets manquants — et il avait été fait à la main, si bien
que « est-ce toujours vrai ? » n'avait pas de réponse bon marché.

Trois vérifications, tenues séparées parce qu'elles échouent pour des
raisons différentes. RESOLVE lance le résolveur de pacman avec --nodeps
DÉSACTIVÉ, le contrôle que tout l'amorçage saute. ARTEFACT inspecte chaque
paquet pour les contaminations de l'hôte qui ne lèvent aucune erreur. RUN
installe pour de vrai et exécute les binaires — seul capable de détecter un
ld.so absent, puisqu'un paquet dont l'interpréteur manque s'installe
parfaitement.

Il s'est rentabilisé aussitôt. ARTEFACT est propre sur les 86 paquets, et
RESOLVE a nommé l'étape suivante avec précision : une quarantaine de paquets
manquent encore, de pcre2 et libxcrypt jusqu'à python et perl.

Assisted-by: Claude Opus 5
2026-08-17 02:37:46 -04:00
.github/workflows making the house a home 2026-01-27 23:26:31 +01:00
arch-kernel making the house a home 2026-01-27 23:26:31 +01:00
boot making the house a home 2026-01-27 23:26:31 +01:00
patches [FIX] gcc: a dropped component is removed in a fifth place 2026-08-17 02:37:46 -04:00
scripts [ADD] test-chroot: the test that proved the port, made repeatable 2026-08-17 02:37:46 -04:00
.env.example full boot with systemd 2025-06-05 12:32:34 +02:00
.gitignore making the house a home 2026-01-27 23:26:31 +01:00
CODEOWNERS making the house a home 2026-01-27 23:26:31 +01:00
Containerfile making the house a home 2026-01-27 23:26:31 +01:00
LICENSE use arch kernel patches 2025-06-02 21:53:33 +02:00
Makefile making the house a home 2026-01-27 23:26:31 +01:00
README.md making the house a home 2026-01-27 23:26:31 +01:00
TODO.md [ADD] TODO.md: track every divergence from upstream Arch 2026-08-16 05:47:47 -04:00

Arch Linux s390x

A port of Arch Linux to IBM s390x mainframe architecture with systemd support.

Boots a full Arch Linux system on IBM mainframes (or QEMU s390x emulation) using a hybrid build: cross-compilation for the kernel, native s390x compilation on z/VM for userspace.

Quick Start

make container        # build dev container (first time)
cp .env.example .env  # configure z/VM access
make all              # build kernel + initramfs + systemd
make test-systemd     # boot it

What Works

  • Arch Linux kernel 6.18.6-arch1 with Arch patches, cross-compiled
  • Initramfs via modified mkinitcpio
  • Static busybox built natively on z/VM, 2.3MB
  • Root filesystem with ext4, switch_root to real rootfs
  • Systemd as PID 1

Pacman, bash, and GNU coreutils are not yet ported.

Build System

The build uses two tiers:

Cross-compilation (x86_64 host): Kernel is built in a Fedora 43 container with s390x-linux-gnu-gcc. Initramfs is generated with a patched mkinitcpio that handles cross-architecture binary injection.

Native compilation (s390x z/VM): Busybox and systemd must be built on real s390x hardware. The z/VM system runs RHEL 9.6 with GCC 11.5.0. Scripts handle SSH deployment and retrieval automatically via .env configuration.