Additional ARM Packages

ARM Technical Assistance
#1

Hello …

I’m VERY happy with Manjaro on my Pi 4 … nice job!

Now looking at moving to the Pi as a daily system and identifying applications that I still need. Curious what/how is best way to bring packages over from Raspbian (er RaspiOS).

Example: There is a SD Card Copier on Raspbian that is pretty handy.

Question is: How do others fill in the gaps? Request a package here on the forum? Add repositories (perhaps package managers)? or compile stuff and contribute?

What the right/best way?

Feel free to point me to correct forum category if I missed here … thanks

#2

A lot of packages are in the repo and even more is in the AUR.
Often packages in the AUR can be built if you just change the arch=() line in the PKGBUILD to include aarch64.

But it all comes down to what package it is.
Some packages are easier to build than others. And some are nearly impossible to maintain, because of missing dependencies (haskell, I’m looking at you).

We do take requests, but we also reserve the right to say no to including it, based on how popular/useful it is and how hard it is to package and maintain.

#3

Thanks, I’ll start looking around in AUR

Would we request a package add here (this category) or is there a better/proper path?

// probably answered in Archived forums, but I’ll take advantage of this new world! //

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#4

Sure you can request packages here, but not many is going to be accepted. We are a small team and we already maintain about 300 packages, besides testing images and devices. :slight_smile:

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#5

Strit is absolutely correct about the AUR packages and adding aarch64 to the build. It’s quite simple overall and I’ve found in many cases it works very well.

In fact, where it’s not as simple as adding aarch64, and I’ve found a way, I’ve typically responded back on the AUR forums for that package how to get it going – you will find many package maintainers in AUR there quite happy to add/update the package.

I’ve been running Manjaro ARM on the Pinebook Pro now for several months now and have everything I need for my workflow with the exception of games (which still depend heavily on WINE/x86 environments) — however, I never expected, nor wanted to play games on the Pinebook Pro.