OpenMandriva Can Now Clang Its Linux Kernel Build For This LLVM Focused Distribution

OpenMandriva is one of the few Linux distributions (and arguably the only prominent one) that uses LLVM Clang as its default compiler toolchain over GCC for building its packages and the preferred C/C++ compiler exposed to its users. One of the last hold outs for this Clang'ed Linux distribution has been the kernel build but that is now no longer a blocker.

With the new LLVM Clang 9.0 release, it's now possible to use LLVM Clang to compile the mainline Linux kernel for x86_64 and Arm without needing any out-of-tree patches. In my testing of Clang 9 + Linux 5.3 it's worked out well with a few exceptions like the AMDGPU driver having issues, but those few remaining headaches are being worked out so Clang'ing the Linux kernel works well for users and helps ensure code/compiler portability of the kernel.

The OpenMandriva folks have indeed been successful as well in now using Clang 9.0 to build their kernel. They have LLVM/Clang Linux kernel builds for OpenMandriva users on x86_64, the AMD Zen optimized build (znver1), and ARMv7. They are waiting on bug fixes for AArch64 and RISCV64 for delivering those Clang-built kernels.

OpenMandriva users wanting to try out one of these Clang'ed kernel builds can find download links via this GitHub ticket.