x-arm — X Linux for aarch64

Overlay build of X Linux for 64-bit ARM. It consumes equislinux/x pinned to a commit, applies the overlay/ delta, and produces:

• a UEFI-only live ISO (x-<version>-aarch64.iso) for real hardware and VMs;
• an [x]/aarch64 pacman repository;
• VM images for Apple Silicon (UTM/Parallels/VMware) and generic virt hosts.

Nothing in this directory modifies x, x-repo or web. The x86_64 profile stays untouched: this is a separate tree on purpose, so an ARM change can never be merged into main by accident.

Status

This is the first working iteration. Honest parity map:

Area	State
archiso profile (UEFI/GRUB, arm64-efi)	done
packages.aarch64 against Arch Linux ARM	done
Build pipeline (fetch -> overlay -> repo -> ISO)	done
[x] aarch64 repo (x-release, x-wallpapers, x-dev, xfetch, xtop)	done
QEMU virt launcher and VM image export	done
Installer parity (x-installer)	patch included, needs hardware test
xgen/xkernel (Image, no pkgbase)	not yet (installer degrades gracefully)
Desktop (Hyprland/niri) inside a VM	works with software rendering, no 3D
CI	static checks only; the ISO build needs an aarch64 host
Secure Boot, Raspberry Pi, Asahi, ARMv7	out of scope

Requirements

Build host: aarch64 Arch Linux ARM, root, ~15 GiB free. On a MacBook this means an Arch Linux ARM VM in UTM (see docs/en/build.md).

pacman -S --needed base-devel git grub squashfs-tools libisoburn libarchive \
  dosfstools mtools erofs-utils mkinitcpio-archiso systemd-ukify \
  arch-install-scripts rsync qemu-img qemu-system-aarch64 jq gnupg

archiso is not packaged in ALARM; scripts/fetch-archiso.sh clones upstream archiso, which already supports aarch64 (grub_target=arm64-efi, BOOTAA64.EFI).

Quick start

# 1. resolve inputs
scripts/fetch-x.sh
scripts/fetch-archiso.sh

# 2. overlay onto the pinned x checkout
scripts/apply-overlay.sh

# 3. build the [x]/aarch64 repo (normal user), then the ISO (root)
X_REPO_SIGN_KEY=... scripts/build-repo.sh --sign
sudo scripts/build-iso.sh

# 4. boot it locally (QEMU) or install into a VM disk
scripts/vm.sh --iso out/iso/x-*-aarch64.iso --disk out/vm/x-aarch64.qcow2

build-iso.sh --no-repo uses the published [x]/aarch64 URL instead of the local repo (only valid after a release).

Layout

vendor/x.sha            pinned commit of equislinux/x
vendor/archiso.sha      pinned commit of archlinux/archiso
overlay/                the ARM-only delta
  profiledef.sh
  packages.aarch64
  pacman.aarch64.conf.in
  airootfs/             live system overrides (pacman, keyring, presets)
  grub/                 GRUB config for /boot/Image
  patches/              patches applied to vendor/x
  packages/             aarch64 build overrides for [x] packages
scripts/                fetch, overlay, build, VM, publish
vm/                     UTM/QEMU notes and bundle helpers
docs/                   es/ and en/ build docs, acceptance criteria

Design rules

• x, x-repo and web are consumed read-only; the only writes are in x-arm/out (gitignored).
• The overlay is applied on a clean checkout every time, so builds are reproducible and a stale file can never leak in.
• No ISOs, .qcow2, .raw or .utm bundles in git; they go to SourceForge.
• x86_64 behaviour is untouched by construction.

See docs/en/build.md for the full flow and docs/acceptance.md for the exit criteria of a release.