Dandan Zhang

From November 2022, I have been porting loong64 to the Debian community. The main steps include working on creating the loong64 port and getting it included in Debian. And I am able to continue working on this throughout the lifetime of the port. And I have been continuously contributing to the Debian community for over three years, focusing on submitting 329 bugs and patches to help packages build successfully. I have adopted 2 packages and learn the skills of packaging and maintain them in salsa . Currently, the two source packages have been uploaded to the Debian FTP and are being built. Let me provide a general summary of the main work I've done for Debian loong64 port.

1. Discuss the bootstrap stage on the #debian-bootstrap IRC, add patches to debootstrap and keep working on the bootstrap process until the build-essential package set is installable with debootstrap --variant=buildd. Thanks Helmut Grohne.

2. Contact the Debian Ports archive and request for adding loong64 to debian ports. With the help of Aurelien Jarno(Through email communication, he can always give me the right guidance), I duploaded local initial packages( the initial package set is enough to run a buildd chroot) to Debian ports repository via my GPGkey, in compliance with the Upload policy. With the help of John Paul Adrian Glaubitz, loong64 is added Debian Package Auto-Building.

3. Continuously maintaining the Debian web-pages, some of them are as follows, https://wiki.debian.org/ArchitectureSpecificsMemo#Summary https://wiki.debian.org/Ports/loong64 https://www.debian.org/ports/ https://salsa.debian.org/webmaster-team/webwml/-/merge_requests/939 https://wiki.debian.org/ArchiveQualification/loong64 https://release.debian.org/testing/arch_qualify.html

4. Apply for the #debian-loongarch IRC channel and the debian-loongarch mailing list for loong64. During the process of applying for the mailing list, actively and proactively collect the needs of Debian developers and Debian users for the loongarch mailing list. Please check the link https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1023585

5. Responsible for donating loongarch64 buildd machines to the Debian official ports, responsible for unofficial Debian buildd machines, responsible for providing machines for debci, responsible for providing machines for reproduce.net, and responsible for donating loongarch machines to Debian developers, etc.

6. As of January 2026, a total of 329 bugs (more than 310, some patches submitted to salsa) and patches have been submitted to Debian, with only 28 remaining unmerged. For example, Submitted loong64 patch to Debian dpkg. Completed the basic support for debian-installer adaptation and successfully created the cdimge iso, submitted my local patch to Debian BTS. Submit commit to debian-cloud-images and so on. Continuously maintained the Debian loong64 package build status and added loong64 support. The bugs and patches I have submitted(I also help to solve the public problems), Please see https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?archive=both;submitter=zhangdandan%40loongson.cn

7. Responsible for adding loong64 to the arch_qualify page (https://release.debian.org/testing/arch_qualify.html), and currently ensuring that the package coverage for loong64 remains above 98%.

8. I applied for a bursary and attended DebConf24 in Busan, South Korea, where I had the opportunity to communicate face-to-face with those who helped me and obtained signatures from many people. My GPGkey can be found at http://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?search=49C2D12C7ED334FA&fingerprint=on&op=index

9. I have been requesting for adding loong64 to Debian official port. I am delighted that the loong64 port has been recognized by Debian and is planned to be supported in Debian 14. Now loong64 is loong64 is an official architecture. I would like to express my gratitude to all the developers who have offered advice and assistance during the process of porting Debian to loong64.

10. I have adopted 2 packages and learn the skills of packaging and maintain them in salsa . Currently, the two source packages have been uploaded to the Debian FTP and are being built.

All in all, about creating and adding a new port(loongarch64) to Debian, I have been primarily responsible for completing the various tasks related to Upstreaming, Downstreaming, Bootstrap, Unofficial port and Official port. The assistance of relevant Debian developers has been indispensable at each stage. Adrian and I are currently in the process of working on the tasks for the Official port phase.

The above information is only part of the Debian Loong64 work that I can recall. Please help to advocate me and guide me. My English expression is not very good. If there are any improper expressions, please be tolerant.