Distro releases and channels

Verified against

repo.avocadolinux.org as of 2026-09-24, avocado-cli 1.0.0-rc.5 (src/utils/snapshot.rs, src/utils/feeds.rs), meta-avocado branches scarthgap and wrynose.

distro:
  release: 2024
  channel: edge

Release = the Yocto LTS base

release	Yocto base	Notes
2024	scarthgap (5.0 LTS, supported until about April 2028)	The mature one. systemd 258 on the device.
2026	wrynose (6.0 LTS)	Newer, and hardware support is still landing

There is no 2025.

Channel = how settled the builds are

The official docs don’t define the channels. Going by how often each one publishes new snapshots:

Channel	What it looks like
next	Rebuilt constantly; hundreds of snapshots. The newest code, and the least tested.
edge	New snapshots every now and then. Every config in avocado-linux/references uses it.
stable	The most conservative. As of this writing it only exists for 2026 on qemuarm64.

That reading comes from snapshot cadence, not from any official definition.

What’s published per board (2026-09-24)

	Orin Nano devkit	Orin NX	qemuarm64
2024 / next	yes	yes	yes
2024 / edge	yes	yes	yes
2024 / stable	no	no	no
2026 / next	no	yes	yes
2026 / edge	no	no	yes
2026 / stable	no	no	yes

This changes over time. Check it yourself (below) rather than trusting the table.

How feeds and snapshots work

• The feed URL is <repo_url>/<release>/<channel>/..., and the default repo_url is https://repo.avocadolinux.org. The CLI calls <release>/<channel> the releasever.
• Each target publishes numbered snapshots. The CLI pins one in avocado.lock (under repo-snapshot), so builds are repeatable.
• avocado update moves the pin to the newest snapshot and re-resolves every package. If it’s already at the newest, it does nothing.
• Environment variables override the config: AVOCADO_DISTRO_RELEASE, AVOCADO_DISTRO_CHANNEL, AVOCADO_RELEASEVER and AVOCADO_REPO_URL. See Environment variables.

Check what’s published

Each release, channel and target has a pointer to its latest snapshot:

for r in 2024 2026; do for c in next edge stable; do
  t=jetson-orin-nano-devkit
  u=https://repo.avocadolinux.org/$r/$c/target/$t/snapshots-latest.json
  printf '%s/%s: ' "$r" "$c"; curl -fsS "$u" 2>/dev/null || echo "not published"
  echo
done; done

A published combination returns something like {"id": "16", "created": "2026-07-08T02:58:32Z"}.

Peridio’s hardware support matrix is the official view. It lists support per Yocto base, not per channel.

Switching release or channel

What changes when you switch:

1. distro.release and/or distro.channel in avocado.yaml.
2. sdk.image. If it’s written as docker.io/avocadolinux/sdk:{{ config.distro.release }}, it follows the release automatically. Published tags include 2024, 2024-edge, 2026 and 2026-edge, and 2024 currently points at the same image as 2024-edge. Pin a tag, or a digest, if you want builds that are repeatable.
3. Re-resolve with avocado update (or avocado unlock plus avocado install).

What usually breaks:

• Package names with the kernel version typed out. Use {{ avocado.kernel.version }} instead; see Kernel modules.
• Scripts that depend on BSP file layouts or device-tree node paths.
• Package names that differ between Yocto bases.

Try a switch in a copy of the project, and build it from avocado clean.