It's been a big month for open source RISC-V computing

RISC-V is an open source, efficient CPU architecture that can work as an alternative to conventional, proprietary x86 and ARM processors that nearly all computers and smartphones use. Lately, progress on multiple fronts has made a shift to RISC-V devices more feasible.

Official desktop Ubuntu images coming

On October 9, a Canonical developer announced that the upcoming Ubuntu 26.10 "Stonking Stingray" would be available in official RISC-V images for desktop usage.

• We've had access to RISC-V Ubuntu images meant for testing in various forms for years, often headless and custom-built for specific SBCs. This is the first time though that we're getting a live-bootable desktop image meant for RISC-V devices.

Of course, since Ubuntu raised the profile minimum to RVA23 last year, you'll only be able to use the Stonking Stingray image on the latest RISC-V processors that meet that standard, like the SpacemiT K3.

Interestingly, Xubuntu will also offer a RISC-V image, albeit as a "minimal" install. According to Canonical's announcement, this addition is mostly to make testing faster: "the XFCE-based minimal image is far more manageable under emulation (the GNOME desktop can take 30+ minutes to load under QEMU)."

Which Linux distros support RISC-V?

If you’re trying to get a running operating system on your RISC-V board, your options include Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and more.

New In LinuxJordan Gloor

More games work on RISC-V

Here at NIL, we've been tracking the development of felix86, an open source emulator built for RISC-V computers that lets you run programs designed for traditional x86 processors. That's most software, and the catalog of working x86 software grew this past month.

• As detailed in the felix86 October blog post, you can now run the EA Games launcher with the felix86 emulator and then play certain EA Games titles. It now handles games with Denuvo DRM better, and there's also initial support for the Battle.net launcher.

Flashback: When last we checked in on felix86, support for Heroic Games Launcher had just been added. Allowing the operation of such a diverse range of games makes Heroic support that much more meaningful.

• Several other technical improvements make felix86 emulation smoother and more reliable in the 26.10 release.

You can watch a developer play Doom Eternal, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Tekken 7, Hearthstone, and Diablo III on a RISC-V computer using felix86 in the video below.

Zooming out

Why this announcement matters: RISC-V stands to offer a more affordable and power-efficient alternative to x86 and ARM computing. Actual support from software enablement projects like felix86 and influential operating systems like Ubuntu makes the prospect of daily driving a RISC-V device a lot more realistic than it was a few years ago.

My take: I still haven't got my hands on an RVA23-compliant device. When I do though I'm certainly going to be interested in trying the official Ubuntu desktop image.

Diving in

Go further: You can read about the Ubuntu 26.10 images on the Ubuntu Discourse forums.

Get it now: While Ubuntu 26.10 isn't due out with its official RISC-V images until October 15, 2026, you can get experimental versions of the images from the Ubuntu 26.10 daily build or the Xubuntu 26.10 daily build repository.

If you want to try felix86, you can run the automatic install script curl -fsSL https://install.felix86.com | bash on a compatible device. See the felix86 documentation for details on getting started.