This tutorial is also available in video form.

If you'd prefer to use UTM, see the Installation Guide.

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Open a shell/terminal on the Mac:

• The Terminal application can be found within Applications → Utilities

We'll download the Slackware Linux distribution into a directory named 'slackware'.

$ cd ## this returns to the root of your home directory
$ mkdir slackware
$ cd slackware

At the time of writing, the only version available is 'current'.

$ SLKVER=current

If you are using a mirror server rather than the master Slackware ARM server, set it here. The format is: <hostname>::<rsync module name>

$ SLKSRV=ftp.arm.slackware.com::slackwarearm

$ rsync -PavL $SLKSRV/platform/aarch64/bootware/installer-aio/slackwareaarch64-${SLKVER}/aarch64_generic.iso.asc slk-aarch64_generic.iso.asc
$ rsync -PavL $SLKSRV/platform/aarch64/bootware/installer-aio/slackwareaarch64-${SLKVER}/aarch64_generic.iso.md5 slk-aarch64_generic.iso.md5
$ rsync -PavL $SLKSRV/platform/aarch64/bootware/installer-aio/slackwareaarch64-${SLKVER}/aarch64_generic.iso slk-aarch64_generic.iso

The Slackware Installer images are approximately 5 GBytes in size.

Since GPG is not provided on MacOS by default, the easiest way to verify the images is using the MD5 hash.

$ openssl md5 -r slk-aarch64_generic.iso ; cat slk-aarch64_generic.iso.md5
380d7a8a06dc575e2d4e3140725f7a12 *slk-aarch64_generic.iso
380d7a8a06dc575e2d4e3140725f7a12

Manually verify that the MD5 sums match.

If you have GPG installed, verify the digital signature of the Slackware Installer.

The Slackware ARM GPG key can be used to verify your downloads.

If you are able to verify the GPG signatures, you can download and import the GPG key like this:

$ curl -sSL https://www.slackware.com/infra/keys/arm/GPG-KEY | gpg --import -

$ gpg --verify slk-aarch64_generic.iso.asc

The output will be similar to this. You are looking for 'Good signature from Slackware ARM…'

gpg: assuming signed data in `slk-aarch64_generic.iso'
gpg: Signature made Mon 24 Mar 2025 06:07:44 PM GMT
gpg:                using RSA key F7ABB8691623FC33
gpg: Good signature from "Slackware ARM (Slackware ARM Linux Project) <mozes@slackware.com>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 36D3 7609 2F12 9B6B 3D59  A517 F7AB B869 1623 FC33

If you do not already have VMWare Fusion Professional installed, download the macOS version and install it.

VMWare Fusion Professional is free for personal use. You will need to create an account, agree to various licences and so on before you can download it.

Version of VMWare Fusion Professional tested: 13.6.3 (24585314)

• If the window offering to create a VM doesn't initially open, you can open the Virtual Machine Library:

• Click Create a custom virtual machine
• Click Continue

• Click Linux
• Select Other Linux 6.x kernel 64-bit Arm
• Click Continue

• Click Create a new virtual disk
• Click Continue

• Click Customize Settings

• Set the file name of your virtual disk
• Click Save

The Settings window should open. If not, open it like so:

• Right-click on the VM name
• Click Settings…

Within the VM Settings window:

• Click Processors & Memory

• Set the memory allowance to 4GB
• Click Show All (at the top of the window) to return to the main Settings window

• Click CD/DVD (SATA)

• Tick Connect CD/DVD Drive
• Click on the drop down menu, select Choose a disc or disc image…

• Select the ISO image you downloaded previously
• Click Open

Return to the VM's Settings window by clicking Show All at the top of the Settings window.

• Click Hard Disk (NVMe)

• Set the hard disk size to 35GB
• Click Apply

• 35GB is sufficient unless you plan on housing large amounts of data.

• Click Show All at the top left of the VM Settings window to return to the main settings
• Close the VM's Settings window

There are other settings that you may wish to experiment with, such as the graphics settings.

The Sharing feature (making directories on the host macOS available within the guest VM) requires a package open-vm-tools. This is not currently packaged within Slackware, and it requires some additional dependencies. For a discussion on this subject, see this forum thread. Sharing works seamlessly out of the box with UTM, so you might prefer to use it if you'd rather not go through the process of getting open-vm-tools set up.

• Click on the Play icon within the VM window

The system will boot into a menu.

Press ENTER on the menu item Install Slackware on all supported Hardware Models

The system will boot within a couple of seconds, and will attempt to acquire an IP address via DHCP. If no DHCP server is available, this will take a little longer to time out.

If you are not using a US key map, select the appropriate key map for you:

You will be presented with a shell prompt:

You need to create the partition table for the OS and your data to live on.

fdisk /dev/nvme0n1

As we're using an EFI system, we'll create a 100MB EFI partition first

Type g and press ENTER:

• Type n and press ENTER
• Press ENTER for both the “partition number” and “First sector”
• For the “Last sector” enter +100M

Set the partition type to uefi:

• Type t and press ENTER
• Type uefi and press ENTER

For the 2nd partition we'll create a 4GB Swap partition.

• Type n and press ENTER
• Press ENTER for the “partition number”
• Press ENTER for the “First sector”
• For the “Last sector” enter +4G

Set the partition type to Swap:

• Type t and press ENTER
• Press ENTER for the “partition number”
• Type swap and press ENTER

This partition will house the OS and your data and will fill the remainder of the allocated storage:

• Type n and press ENTER
• Press ENTER for the “partition number”
• Press ENTER for the “First sector”
• Press ENTER for the “Last sector”

The partition layout must now be saved.

• Type w and press ENTER

You may now begin the Slackware installation process.

At the shell, type the command setup and press ENTER

We'll now perform the initial setup steps:

• Scroll down to ADDSWAP and press ENTER

• Press ENTER to accept the default offered

• Choose No to scanning for bad blocks

• Press ENTER to accept the default partition suggested for use as the root partition.

• Press ENTER to format the partition

• Press ENTER to pick the suggested file system type:

* Press ''ENTER'' to close the information dialog box:

• Press ENTER to format the EFI partition:

• Press ENTER to close the information dialog box:

This edition of the Slackware AArch64 Installer contains the full set of Slackware packages.

Whilst other media installation (locally mounted directory, NFS, HTTP and others) can be selected by choosing No, the recommendation is to accept the defaults, installing the packet set bundled with the Slackware Installer.

Slackware packages are organised into loose groups called “series.” If you're an experienced Slackware user, you can customize which series to install. However, to keep things simple and avoid potential issues with dependencies (as Slackware does not manage them automatically), it's recommended to install all packages—at least for the initial setup.

• Press ENTER to proceed

• Press ENTER to accept the suggested prompting mode

The packages will now install. This takes approximately 10 minutes.

If you're short of things to occupy yourself whilst the packages install, you can play the bundled bricktick game!

• Hold down the alt key and press the RIGHT arrow key.

• Press ENTER

• Type bricktick and press ENTER

Read the on-screen instructions and begin playing!

When you've had enough, and would like to check on the status of the installation:

• Hold down the alt key and press the LEFT arrow key.

Once the packages have completed installing, there are some post configuration actions:

• Select USB mouse and press ENTER

• Choose Yes to load the mouse driver for the Linux virtual console

• Press ENTER to configure the network

• Enter a host name for this machine

• Enter a domain name for this machine. If you don't have a local domain, pick example.com

• Choose No in response to configuring a VLAN ID:

• Pick the default suggestions to configure the network using Network Manager

• Press ENTER on both dialog boxes to proceed

Slackware uses the System-V init system, which uses a collection of rc (run control) scripts to control which daemons (services) start at boot time.

You can use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to move through the menu and press SPACE bar to select or de-select any services. In this example, we're selecting the rc.rpc service as we want to mount NFS shares.

While optional, selecting a console font is recommended—otherwise, the default text may appear quite small and hard to read.

It's generally best to choose the font currently used by the installer, though you're free to select any font you prefer.

• Use the LEFT arrow key to move the selection to Yes and press ENTER

• Press t to jump to the fonts named 't', and the DOWN arrow to locate the font ter-728b

If you like this font, type 1 and press ENTER. If you'd prefer to use a different font, type 2 and press ENTER to return to the font selection menu.

If you'd like to select a specific time zone (rather than UTC), select NO and press ENTER

Select the appropriate time zone for your locale:

• Use the arrow keys to select your appropriate time zone
• Press ENTER to select the time zone

Select the implementation of the vi editor that you prefer. This is the default that will be used to edit crontabs and so forth.

• Unless you have a preference, press ENTER to choose the default of vim

Select the window manager of your choice. KDE and Xfce are both solid options when running under paravirtualization, but you may prefer one of the classic lightweight window managers if you’re looking for a more minimal setup.

• Press ENTER to set the root password

• Type the password in once, press ENTER
• Re-enter the password to confirm it, and press ENTER

• Press ENTER to proceed

• Select EXIT from the menu
• Press ENTER

• Select Reboot
• Press ENTER

The system will reboot into the GRUB boot loader menu.

• Press ENTER on the Slackware menu option

You can now login as root and perform some post installation tasks.

There are a few post-installation configuration tasks to complete.

You should add a plebeian (non-root) user using the adduser tool.

This is documented here.

Once you have added your plebeian user, you can login to another virtual console:

• Hold down the ALT key and press the RIGHT arrow key

• Login with your plebeian user
• Type startx and press ENTER

One of the preferred tools to keep your system up to date is slackpkg.

Often Kernel modules for discovered hardware will be automatically loaded, but occasionally you will need to manually configure the loading of some modules.

/etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local

This file is a shell script that is run as one of the last steps before the OS has fully booted. You can enter modprobe commands here to load the specific modules you require.

Configuration files within the directory /lib/modprobe.d/ can be used to configure the parameters of the modules. Existing files within that directory serve as reference examples should you need them.

There are a number of peripherals that may require Kernel modules loading early on in the boot sequence. An example of this would be RTCs (Real Time Clocks) or storage controllers that are required to access the file systems on which the OS lives.

To load Kernel modules during the early boot sequence, read:

/boot/local/README.txt

As root, the easiest way to begin is by renaming the example script:

mv /boot/local/load_kernel_modules.post.sample /boot/local/load_kernel_modules.post

Then add the appropriate module loading commands to: /boot/local/load_kernel_modules.post You can also add shell code here to initialise a peripheral - writing something to the peripheral's Kernel interface, for example.

During the installation, you configured which services to start at boot time.

You can start or disable other services either manually or by using pkgtool

As root:

root@slackware:# cd /etc/rc.d

To enable CUPS:

root@slackware:/etc/rc.d# chmod +x rc.cups

To disable CUPS:

root@slackware:/etc/rc.d# chmod -x rc.cups

root@slackware:# pkgtool

• Select Setup from the menu and press ENTER

• Select services and press ENTER

• Choose the service you want and press ENTER

If you prefer to use a graphical login manager, you can configure the default runlevel as 4:

su - 
sed -i 's?id:3:?id:4:?g' /etc/inittab
reboot

If you'd like to customise the Linux Kernel, the easiest way is to follow the HOWTO guide and use the Slackware AArch64 Kernel build script to create new packages.

Slackware AArch64 ships with a generic OS InitRD (Operating System Initial RAM Disk - the environment that prepares the machine to boot the Operating System Proper), so as to support a wide range of Hardware Models.

However, this isn't the optimal setup once the Slackware OS has been installed because the generic OS InitRD typically exceeds 40MB, which in some cases can add a couple of seconds to the boot time whilst it's loaded from the SD card.

The os-initrd-mgr (Operating System Initial RAM Disk Manager) tool has an option to synchronize the OS InitRD's Kernel modules with only those presently loaded within the Operating System.

To do this:

$ su -c 'os-initrd-mgr --sync-loaded-kmods' -  # note the final -

This option isn't the default, but you can make it so by following the instructions within /etc/os-initrd-mgr.conf.sample

This way when you upgrade the Kernel packages in the order described above, it'll automatically synchronize the modules.

Slackware comes with a good base of software applications, but there are plenty more available in the Open Source Ecosystem.

The best way to add new software is to use the build scripts from SlackBuilds.org.

• Slackware ARM Support Forum

• No currently known issues.

More details on the development Road Map here.