Loongnix is LoongArch’s reference Linux distribution. Since it’s derived from Debian, it should not be hard to make a rootfs using debootstrap(8). However, it turns out to be less straightforward than expected.

There is a paragraph in Loongnix’s official documentation about how to make a rootfs. However, it’s outdated and contains bad practices.

Since we’re using systemd-nspawn(1) in this post, we create the rootfs at /var/lib/machines/loongnix, thus naming the container “loongnix”.

$ sudo pacman -S debootstrap
$ sudo ln -s sid /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts/loongnix-stable
$ sudo cd /var/lib/machines
$ sudo debootstrap --no-check-gpg --variant=minbase --components=main,non-free,contrib --include=dbus,libpam-systemd --arch=loong64 --foreign --verbose loongnix-stable ./loongnix https://pkg.loongnix.cn/loongnix/25
$ sudo arch-chroot ./loongnix /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage

As this is a minimal installation, many essential services and utilities are missing. One of them is systemd-networkd.service(8). Start it inside the container for network access:

$ sudo machinectl start loongnix
$ sudo machinectl shell loongnix
# systemctl enable --now systemd-networkd.service

Then, in the host, set up appropriate networking in /etc/systemd/nspawn/loongnix.nspawn.

Some other utilities are needed for normal operation inside the container.

# apt update
# apt install -y bash-completion \
    dialog apt-utils libterm-readline-perl-perl ncurses-term \
    locales \
    vim \
    iputils-ping curl wget iproute2 systemd-resolved ca-certificates
# dpkg-reconfigure locales
# ln -sf ../usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Shanghai /etc/localtime
# dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata
# echo 'export TERM=xterm-256color' >>~/.bash_profile
# systemd-machine-id-setup

Finally can you enjoy this non-rolling, official, standard distribution for LoongArch. Remember to backport fixes to LLVM/Clang/GCC, binutils, linkers, and runtimes. It’s better build a newer stable version of those from scratch for anything serious.

# fastfetch
        #####            root@loongcatbox
       #######           ----------------
       ##O#O##           OS: Loongnix GNU/Linux 25 (loongnix) loongarch64
       #######           Host: Loongson-3B6000x1-7A2000x1-XB612B0_v1.2
     ###########         Kernel: Linux 7.0.12-arch1-2-csmantle-aosc-main-16k
    #############        Uptime: 6 days, 1 hour, 32 mins
   ###############       Packages: 322 (dpkg)
   ################      Shell: bash 5.2.37
  #################      Display (NanoKVM): 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz in 22" [External]
#####################    Terminal: xterm-256color
#####################    CPU: Loongson-3B6000 (24) @ 2.20 GHz
  #################      GPU: AMD Device 67C7 (VGA compatible) [Discrete]
                         Memory: 6.07 GiB / 31.60 GiB (19%)
                         Swap: 2.38 GiB / 23.10 GiB (10%)
                         Disk (/): 359.95 GiB / 928.87 GiB (39%) - btrfs
                         Local IP (host0): 198.18.1.43/24
                         Locale: en_US.UTF-8