The deepin-ports Special Interest Group (SIG) within the deepin community has been proactively engaging with various manufacturers to collaborate on the adaptation of RISC-V architecture and devices. Through persistent efforts, they have now achieved support for the majority of mainstream platforms and development boards on the RISC-V architecture, contributing significantly to the Linux operating system's ecosystem.
Recently, the deepin community has successfully completed the adaptation for the MilkV Mars development board and has successfully run the RISC-V version of deepin V23. They are also on the verge of releasing the deepin V23 Preview edition for MilkV Mars, marking another important milestone for deepin in the multi-architecture ecosystem. The attainment of this achievement not only signifies deepin's active exploration and breakthrough in the field of multi-architecture but also injects new energy into the ongoing development of the RISC-V ecosystem.
MilkV Mars
Milk-V Mars is a high-performance RISC-V single-board computer (SBC) the size of a credit card, featuring the StarFive JH7110 chip.
Equipped with a four-core high-performance RISC-V processor—the JH7110—and up to 8GB of LPDDR4 memory, Milk-V Mars supports PoE (Power over Ethernet) for power supply and an external M.2 module for WiFi and Bluetooth, providing users with extensive expansion capabilities suitable for a variety of application scenarios.
deepin V23 Running On MilkV Mars
The deepin image adaptation for the MilkV Mars device is based on the latest deepin V23 RC mainline, using the JH7110 6.6 kernel that has been newly adapted by deepin. After comprehensive testing by the deepin team, it was found that all functions of deepin V23 on MilkV Mars perform well, including wired and wireless networking, USB interfaces, and HDMI output. The DDE desktop environment and various built-in applications also run normally and support updates following the mainline version. This achievement is due to the meticulous efforts and professional technical support of the deepin-ports SIG team.
Demonstration Screenshots
1）deepin Desktop Environment:
2）Firefox Browser, deepin Launcher:
3）deepin Built-in Mini-game "Lianliankan", glmark2 Test, deepin Built-in Video Player:
Pre-installed Software List
To facilitate quick start for users and developers, the following software is pre-installed in the image:
- Kernel and Drivers: 6.6.20-visionfive2-66y, with integrated GPU drivers and common hardware drivers.
- System Basics: sudo, networkmanager, etc.
- Desktop Experience: Complete deepin Desktop Environment (DDE).
- Utility Tools: fastfetch, tmux, vim, bash-completion, etc.
Note: Due to the need to reduce the image size for easy user writing, not too many applications are installed in the image. If you want to experience other applications, please use apt for online installation.
Continuous Maintenance by the deepin-ports SIG
The deepin-ports SIG has added MilkV Mars to the list of devices supported by deepin V23 RISC-V (see appendix) and will continue to update the image for MilkV Mars devices, provide software updates, and optimize performance to ensure a stable and smooth user experience.
During the adaptation process for RISC-V devices such as MilkV Mars, the deepin-ports has specially established an additional supplementary repository for these devices, aimed at supporting some proprietary drivers and customized features, thereby achieving support for onboard GPU graphics acceleration and the deepin customized kernel.
deepin will continue to increase its support for RISC-V in the future, adapt more devices with the RISC-V architecture, and enhance stability and performance across various architectures and platforms, providing strong support for the application and promotion of open-source technology.
Launch Schedule
| Testing | Preview | Stable |
| For software and hardware adaptation and preliminary testing. | Release version adapted for the ports architecture (riscv64/loong64). | Release version adapted for the official architecture (amd64/arm64). |
| Primarily targeted at developers and early adopters. | Aimed at a broader range of developers, as well as users who wish to experience the software ahead of the general release. | With higher stability and reliability, suitable for users who need it for daily use. |
This release is for testing purposes only. The official preview (Preview) image will be released along with other RISC-V devices after the release of deepin V23 RC2. Subsequent Preview versions will be updated based on the official version and the support status of the corresponding devices.
Appendix:
1）Preview Image Download Link : https://ci.deepin.com/repo/deepin/deepin-ports/cdimage/20240604/riscv64/
2) deepin Previous Versions（include deepin V15）: https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=deepin
Content source: deepin community
Reprinted with attribution