diff --git a/base/linux26/arch/shared.in b/base/linux26/arch/shared.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e4de675b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/base/linux26/arch/shared.in
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# --- SDE-COPYRIGHT-NOTE-BEGIN ---
+# This copyright note is auto-generated by ./scripts/Create-CopyPatch.
+#
+# Filename: package/.../linux26/arch/shared.in
+# Copyright (C) 2008 The OpenSDE Project
+#
+# More information can be found in the files COPYING and README.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License. A copy of the
+# GNU General Public License can be found in the file COPYING.
+# --- SDE-COPYRIGHT-NOTE-END ---
+
+# This copyright note is auto-generated by ./scripts/Create-CopyPatch.
+#
+# Filename: package/.../linux26/arch/shared.in
+# Copyright (C) 2008 The OpenSDE Project
+#
+# More information can be found in the files COPYING and README.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License. A copy of the
+# GNU General Public License can be found in the file COPYING.
+
+case "$arch" in
+	x86-64)
+		if [ $lx_ver -ge 2006024 ]; then
+			lx_cpu=x86
+		fi
+		;;
+esac
diff --git a/base/linux26/linux-conf.in b/base/linux26/linux-conf.in
index f9deb30d9..1e21015bc 100644
--- a/base/linux26/linux-conf.in
+++ b/base/linux26/linux-conf.in
@@ -22,9 +22,12 @@ for x in $(echo "$ver" | cut -d. -f1-3 | tr '.' ' '); do
 	lx_ver=$( expr $lx_ver \* 1000 + $x )
 done
 
-[ "$lx_cpu" ] ||
-# powerpc and mips share the same arch for 32/64, maybe more follow
-lx_cpu=`echo $arch | arch2uname | sed -e s/ppc.*/powerpc/ -e s/mips64/mips/`
+lx_cpu="$arch_machine"
+if [ -s "$lx_confdir/arch/$arch.in" ]; then
+	. "$lx_confdir/arch/$arch.in"
+else
+	. "$lx_confdir/arch/shared.in"
+fi
 
 lx_extraversion=
 lx_kernelrelease=
@@ -240,6 +243,9 @@ lx_filter_patch ()
 
 lx_patch ()
 {
+	# validate ARCH
+	[ -d "arch/$lx_cpu/" ] || abort "architecture ($lx_cpu) not known by this kernel."
+
 	echo "Generic linux patching ..."
 
 	# grab extraversion from vanilla