Armbian external packages

Purpose of This Repository

Third-party Debian packages for the Armbian apt repository: VS Code, Chromium, Firefox, ZFS, Raspberry Pi userspace, mesa and more. This repository holds the package list, the upstream signing keys and the tool that downloads, builds, checks and sorts the packages; the Armbian repository update takes the result and publishes it.

Package list with versions per release and architecture: https://external.armbian.com/

Layout

mirror/<name>.yaml        built packages to download: apt repository, GitHub release, URL
keys/                     upstream signing keys (binary .gpg)
extpkg/                   the tool (Python package, invoked as `python3 -m extpkg`)
tests/                    unit tests (unittest)
tools/                    helper scripts (compare-incoming, import-os)
docs/                     technical documentation

Build configs live under a build/ directory at the repository root (see CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/technical.md).

What it produces

debs-beta/extra/<release>-<target>/   every package, for the beta repository
debs/extra/<release>-<target>/        packages newer than the published stable version
manifest.json                         source, version and SHA256 of each file

A config can limit itself to one repository with repositories: [beta].

Built with

• Python 3 for the extpkg tool, the helpers in tools/ and the tests.
• YAML for package configs under mirror/ (and build/) and for the GitHub Actions workflows.
• Standard Debian tooling invoked by the tool and the workflows: gpgv, dpkg-deb, dpkg-dev, fakeroot, apt-get, rsync, ssh, patch, xz-utils.
• The archive keyrings debian-archive-keyring and ubuntu-keyring for dependency checks.

Quick start

python3 -m extpkg validate                                 # check all configs
python3 -m extpkg run --dry-run --only gh                  # download and check one package, no upload
python3 -m extpkg plan --configs build --only fastfetch    # resolve the sources of one build

Run the unit tests:

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -t .

A build runs in a container of the target release. See docs/technical.md.

Add a package

Read CONTRIBUTING.md. With Claude Code, run the add-external-package skill (see .claude/skills/add-external-package/SKILL.md).

Short rules:

• Choose the first source that works: apt repository with signed InRelease, then GitHub release with .deb assets, then direct URL.
• Do not add a signing key that you did not verify against a second source.
• Do not turn off verify.signature or verify.checksums.
• Open a pull request. The Check workflow validates the config and does a dry-run download.

Continuous integration

Workflow runs, schedules and status for this repository are listed on the Armbian CI overview:

https://actions.armbian.com/?repo=external

Dry run is the default everywhere. Scheduled Sync runs upload only when the upload secrets are set; scheduled Build runs upload only when the repository variable BUILD_LIVE is true. Pull requests never upload.

More

• CONTRIBUTING.md: how to add a package, step by step.
• docs/technical.md: checks, config reference, builds, state, variables and secrets.
• CLAUDE.md: instructions for AI-assisted contributions.
• Armbian documentation: https://docs.armbian.com/
• Armbian project: https://www.armbian.com/