Architectures

With regards to the information in Build Host Constraints, one requirement between the build host and the image, when it comes to architecture support, is that the image architecture should match the build host architecture. Cross-arch building would require any core tool that is used to build an image to be cross-arch capable.

To patch, e.g., an x86_64 system such that it can build an aarch64 image would require some work on binutils and hacks as well as performance tweaks, which is all not worth the effort and can still lead to broken results. Thus, we recommend providing native systems for the target architecture and building there. One possible alternative is to use the KIWI NG boxbuild command (see Building in a Self-Contained Environment), together with a box created for the desired architecture. However, keep in mind the performance problems when running a VM of a different architecture.

The majority of the image builds are based on the x86 architecture. As mentioned, KIWI NG also supports other architectures, as shown in the table below:

Architecture	Supported
x86_64	yes
ix86	yes note:distro
s390/s390x	yes note:distro
arm/aarch64	yes note:distro
ppc64	yes note:distro

distro

The support status for an architecture depends on the distribution. If the distribution does not build its packages for the desired architecture, KIWI NG will not be able to build an image for it.