Electron for LoongArch (Loong64)

This project aims to build a version of Electron that supports the Loong64 architecture.

Note: The Electron binaries require glibc >= 2.38 (i.e. New-World LoongArch) and LSX support.

Usage

1. Check releases for available versions.
2. Install the electron npm package with corresponding version and specify the download mirror like this:

ELECTRON_MIRROR="https://github.com/darkyzhou/electron-loong64/releases/download/" electron_use_remote_checksums=1 npm install electron@THE_VERSION

You may also refer to darkyzhou/electron-builder-loong64 for insturctions on how to build your Electron project with electron-builder.

Branches

• dev: The development branch, containing the latest patches and build scripts.
• X.Y.Z: The release branches, corresponding to the release versions of Electron.

Electron Patches

See darkyzhou/electron.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to @jiegec and AOSC team for their invaluable Chromium patches in AOSC-Dev/chromium-loongarch64, which make this project possible.

Development

Environment Requirements

• Linux host machine with Loong64 architecture
• Docker with docker-buildx installed
• QEMU/binfmt support for running x86_64 Chromium build tools when depot_tools/CIPD fetches Linux x64 host binaries
• System resources: minimum 32GiB RAM and 200GiB free disk space

Available Builder Images

Current local images:

• ghcr.io/darkyzhou/electron-buildtools:crimson-node-24: native Loong64 buildtools image for Electron 42 / Node.js 24, based on Deepin crimson.
• ghcr.io/darkyzhou/electron-builder:crimson-llvm-23-rustc-195: native Loong64 builder image for Electron 42 / Chromium 148, based on Deepin crimson with LLVM 23, Rust 1.95 nightly, Node.js 24.15.0, and the Chromium 148 GN revision.

Older published builder images:

• ghcr.io/darkyzhou/electron-builder:deepin-25-llvm-20-rustc-188: for 37.x.x
• ghcr.io/darkyzhou/electron-builder:deepin-25-llvm-21-rustc-192: for 39.x.x

Building from Source

1. Launch an electron-buildtools:crimson-node-24 container. All subsequent update/sync steps should be executed inside this container. Running scripts/sync.sh requires binfmt support for x86_64 host tools fetched by depot_tools/CIPD.
2. Change the variables inside ./scripts/env.sh according to your environment and needs.
3. Run following scripts in sequence.

# Clone or update the local electron repository
./scripts/update.sh

# Fetch or update the dependencies of electron
# Note: This could take a really long time, grab your coffee or take a sleep!
./scripts/sync.sh

4. Launch a container with the corresponding builder image listed above, for example electron-builder:crimson-llvm-23-rustc-195 for Electron 42. All subsequent build/package steps should be executed inside this container.

5. Run following scripts in sequence.

# Replace binaries with native ones
./scripts/binaries.sh
./scripts/rollup.sh

# Build the electron
# Note: This could also take a long time, better get some sleep.
./scripts/build.sh

# Package the electron
./scripts/package.sh

Updating Patches

1. Launch an electron-buildtools:crimson-node-24 container. All subsequent patch update/export steps should be executed inside this container

2. Update versions and sync sources:

   • Edit ELECTRON_VERSION to point to the new version to build in env.sh
   • Run scripts/update.sh

3. Update dependencies:

   • Run scripts/sync.sh to install dependencies

4. Update Chromium patches:

   1. Prepare the consolidated Chromium patch file (e.g., chromium-131.0.6778.85.diff) from AOSC-Dev/chromium-loongarch64
   2. Run scripts/apply.sh chromium-131.0.6778.85.diff to apply the patches
   3. Resolve any conflicts if any
   4. Run scripts/export.sh to export patches for Chromium and submodule commits

scripts/export.sh supports the following modes:

# Export Chromium main-repo patches only, then run patch lint.
scripts/export.sh --chromium

# Export Chromium patches and patches for submodules listed in the file.
scripts/export.sh changed.submodules

# Export only patches for submodules listed in the file.
scripts/export.sh --submodules changed.submodules

# Export Chromium and selected submodule patches explicitly.
scripts/export.sh --chromium --submodules changed.submodules

# Skip patch lint only when it is known to be blocked by an unrelated checkout issue.
scripts/export.sh --chromium --no-lint

The submodules file should contain paths such as third_party/ffmpeg or third_party/devtools-frontend/src, one per line. Empty lines and # comments are ignored. The script uses electron/patches/config.json to map submodule paths to Electron patch set names, and it does not assume the generated .patch file name.

Patch export notes for newer Electron

Recent Electron versions treat files under electron/patches as reproducible output from the corresponding Chromium and third-party repository commits. When npx e patches <repo> or script/check-patch-diff.ts is used, patch content, patch file names, and patch descriptions are regenerated from the source commits.

If patch lint reports that a patch has no description, do not edit the exported .patch file by hand. Amend the source commit in the corresponding repository instead, and put the justification and removal plan in the commit body. Then rerun the export. For example:

cd src/third_party/ffmpeg
git commit --amend \
  -m "loong64: add LoongArch64 support" \
  -m "This patch adds generated FFmpeg linux/loong64 configs and source lists for Chromium and Chrome brandings." \
  -m "It can be removed once Chromium FFmpeg ships upstream LoongArch64 Linux config generation and generated configs."

cd ../..
npx e patches ffmpeg

scripts/export.sh runs node script/lint.js --patches --only -- by default after exporting.

script/check-patch-diff.ts may export every repository listed in electron/patches/config.json, not only the patch directory currently being changed. If an unrelated checkout has a broken base revision or missing objects, the check can generate a large amount of unrelated patch output. In that case, manually reset and clean the patch directory, export only the repository being updated, and run patch lint directly:

cd src/electron
git reset --hard HEAD
git clean -fd patches

cd ..
npx e patches chromium
npx e patches ffmpeg

cd electron
node script/lint.js --patches --only --

Only commit the intended patch directories. If check-patch-diff.ts is still blocked by an unrelated third-party checkout issue, document the failure and the manual lint result in the commit or release notes.

Troubleshooting

Common compilation errors:

• relocation R_LARCH_B26 out of range: 172745664 is not in [-134217728, 134217727]
  • Root cause: The library was compiled without the -mcmodel=medium flag. For more details, see laelf.adoc.
  • Resolution: Recompile the library with the -mcmodel=medium flag. See Dockerfile.libffi for implementation examples.