Toolchain variants

The toolchain comes in three variants. The following summary will help you select the correct toolchain for you:

  • riscv64-none-linux-gnu – generates code for 64-bit Linux systems based on the GNU C library. Use this for general GNU/Linux development tasks (including kernel builds).
  • riscv64-none-linux-musl+qemu – generates code for 64-bit Linux systems using the musl C library for convenient static linking. Use this for specialist Linux development tasks where static linking is preferred. This variant is bundled with qemu-riscv64 allowing static binaries to be tested, even on x86-64 and AArch64 hosts.
  • riscv32-none-elf – generates code for both 32- and 64-bit microcontrollers. Can be used either for bare-metal programming (using the bundled newlib C library) or to compile an embedded RTOS.

Host requirements

The toolchain is available for three different host architectures:

  • x86-64
  • AArch64
  • RISC-V (RVA23U64 or later)
All RISCstar toolchains require GNU/Linux. Windows users can use WSL2 or a virtual machine to provide this. macOS users, including those with Apple Silicon, should use a virtual machine.

The toolchain binaries are designed to run on a wide variety of host GNU/Linux distributions including Arch, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu and more. The oldest supported host distributions are listed below. The RISCstar toolchain manages its dependencies carefully and should work on any glibc-based distribution released after these examples:

  • x86-64 – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 (2014)
  • AArch64 – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 (2017)
  • RISC-V (RVA23U64) – Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (2024)

Support

We use the RISCstar toolchain in-house at RISCstar and are proud of our work. We love to hear that people find it useful and happily listen to suggestions for changes or new features in the next release (and especially so if libraries optimized for your microcontroller are not included in the embedded toolchain).
We made this toolchain free to download and use. It therefore comes with no warranty and we do not provide free-of-charge support.
If you would like to get in touch with us, please use Contact Us.

Downloads

15.2-r1 (October 2025)

For x86-64 hosts:

For AArch64 hosts:

For RISC-V (RVA23U64 and later) hosts:

Complete corresponding source code:

15.1-r1 (July 2025)

For x86-64 hosts:

For AArch64 hosts:

For RISC-V (RV64GC and later) hosts:

Complete corresponding source code:

14.2-r2 (December 2024)

For x86-64 hosts:

For AArch64 hosts:

For RISC-V (RV64GC and later) hosts:

Complete corresponding source code:

RISCstar Toolchain for RISC-V

The RISCstar toolchain is a pre-compiled family of GNU toolchains for RISC-V developers. It supports the entire RISC-V ecosystem, from the latest 64-bit application processors, right down to tiny RV32E microcontrollers. It is carefully engineered to support a wide variety of host architectures and Linux distributions (including common enterprise distributions).

The RISCstar toolchain is free to download and use. 

Toolchain variants

The toolchain comes in three variants. The following summary will help you select the correct toolchain for you:

  • riscv64-none-linux-gnu – generates code for 64-bit Linux systems based on the GNU C library. Use this for general GNU/Linux development tasks (including kernel builds).
  • riscv64-none-linux-musl+qemu – generates code for 64-bit Linux systems using the musl C library for convenient static linking. Use this for specialist Linux development tasks where static linking is preferred. This variant is bundled with qemu-riscv64 allowing static binaries to be tested, even on x86-64 and AArch64 hosts.
  • riscv32-none-elf – generates code for both 32- and 64-bit microcontrollers. Can be used either for bare-metal programming (using the bundled newlib C library) or to compile an embedded RTOS.

Host requirements

The toolchain is available for three different host architectures:

  • x86-64
  • AArch64
  • RISC-V (RVA23U64 or later)

All RISCstar toolchains require GNU/Linux. Windows users can use WSL2 or a virtual machine to provide this. macOS users, including those with Apple Silicon, should use a virtual machine.

The toolchain binaries are designed to run on a wide variety of host GNU/Linux distributions including Arch, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu and more. The oldest supported host distributions are listed below. The RISCstar toolchain manages its dependencies carefully and should work on any glibc-based distribution released after these examples:

  • x86-64 – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 (2014)
  • AArch64 – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 (2017)
  • RISC-V (RVA23U64) – Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (2024)

Support

We use the RISCstar toolchain in-house at RISCstar and are proud of our work. We love to hear that people find it useful and happily listen to suggestions for changes or new features in the next release (and especially so if libraries optimized for your microcontroller are not included in the embedded toolchain).

We made this toolchain free to download and use. It therefore comes with no warranty and we do not provide free-of-charge support.

If you would like to get in touch with us, please use Contact Us.

Downloads

15.2-r1 (October 2025)

For x86-64 hosts:

For AArch64 hosts:

For RISC-V (RVA23U64 and later) hosts:

Complete corresponding source code:

15.1-r1 (July 2025)

For x86-64 hosts:

For AArch64 hosts:

For RISC-V (RV64GC and later) hosts:

Complete corresponding source code:

14.2-r2 (December 2024)

For x86-64 hosts:

For AArch64 hosts:

For RISC-V (RV64GC and later) hosts:

Complete corresponding source code:

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