[2024-feb-29] Sad news: Eric Layton aka Nocturnal Slacker aka vtel57 passed away on Feb 26th, shortly after hospitalization. He was one of our Wiki's most prominent admins. He will be missed.

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Considerations around Hardware Models

For the background and context, please see the Slackware ARM / AArch64 Development Model.

This document is intended to provide some guidance to choosing not only an ARM / AArch64 Hardware Model for the end-user, but also as a guide for Hardware Model Custodians to consider before committing to a particular Hardware Model.

Hardware Support

The main hardware components are supported by the mainline Kernel (available on Kernel.org):

  • Storage
  • Wired wetwork
  • Video
  • Serial console support

If the Hardware Model is partly but not entirely supported by the mainline Kernel, you should check that the hardware vendor is actively working to merge any required patches into the mainline Kernel. You can ask them directly. Some are not interested, and these are poor targets for a distribution such as Slackware or any other of the mainstream distributions that work in the classic Open Source enthusiast/hobby development model.

It is acceptable for a few patches to be included for each Hardware Model - particularly if mainline Kernel support is forthcoming and there's a public roadmap.
 slackwarearm:development-hwmodelconsiderations ()