I have a RPI 4 with 8GB of RAM and I would like to install Slackware 15.0 on it.

It seems that aarch64 is only available for current (which I do not want to use, since I'm setting up a server). At least on x86 one could not use more than 4GB of RAM with a 32bit OS. Since the address space of a 32bit OS is 4GB by design, I assume that this also applies for for Slackware 15.0 on ARM?

The raspberry pi os documentation says:

Our default operating system image uses a 32-bit LPAE kernel and a 32-bit userland. This allows multiple processes to share all 8GB of memory, subject to the restriction that no single process can use more than 3GB

Does Slackware do something similar?

Yes. RPi 4 is 64bit, so PAE doesn't apply. It's a 64bit kernel. There is a 32bit version of 15.0 available also.

Thanks. But I'm not sure if I fully understand you. I know that RPI is 64bit, but there is no 64bit version of Slackware 15.0. So the question was if I can run the 32bit OS Slackware 15.0 on the 64bit RPI and still use all 8GB of memory.

Yes, you can run a 32bit OS with a PAE kernel and see 8G and more. No need to adjust anything.

There is also Slarm64, an unofficial slackware port which is a 64bit compiled OS. You should be able to grab from slarm64.org

Thanks, but I can only find Slackware current there. Note, that I want to run 15.0.

PAE is x86 only. CONFIG_IOMMU_IO_PGTABLE_LPAE is enabled in the armv5 15.0 Kernel, but I have no idea if it's useful for the RPi. The best idea would be to use SARPi to boot its version of the Slackware ARM installer and check whether 8GB RAM is available.

Just curious, why? stability? current x86_64 and arm are very stable and it's worth the learning curve to install.

I think there's less of a learning curve than installing 32bit ARM :-) I revisited reinstalling a machine a few months ago and to be honest, I am surprised anybody installed it at all - the documentation is hard core (and I wrote it!!) :-)
It made me realise that you guys must love Slackware as much as I do!

On the server front, the thing (at least for me and probably the OP) is that especially if you build your own packages (as I do, which I don't publish), then you need to regularly recompile them when their dependencies have a major library upgrade; and it's just a pain for a server.

aarch64 -current *is* for me 100% stable though, but still the effort involved for a hands-off low-maintenance server isn't for me either, which is why I'm still running 15.0 on mine.

Once 15.1 aarch64 is released as stable, the Orange Pi Plus2E will be living in the big bin of old ARM equipment and in its place will be the RockPro64 in its NAS case and PCI SATA board.

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That's 80% of why I went for slarm64 instead of Slackware Arm. sndwvs distributes images. The have a partition table enclosed and make 2 partitions

1. /boot
2. ext2

because you don't install an Arm SBC the same as you install an x86_64 PC. I do make the ext2 disk an ext4, enlarge it, and configure some stuff.

Yep, disk images are incredibly useful - I've used them in the past for specific things - usually to boot Ubuntu in a VM to quickly get something done for a job, where Slackware would be too onerous.
For Slackware users though, the hard core people want to run the Slackware Installer, select the packages, and customise the partition layout and numerous other things.
It's also one of the reasons I haven't set up as many of the Slackware servers in Linode yet -- tadgy got the Slackware Installer running in Linode, and I need to improve and automate a bit, as we want to run our own Slackware installs rather than the one Linode provides (not that there's anything wrong with them, but we are the Slackware developers ;-) )

This is why Slackware doesn't distribute images. I am glad you find slarm64 useful though - I deeply respect the developer - mara - for his dedication, skill and effort (he's *incredibly* talented). I know how much work is involved in this, and he must love Slackware like all of us here; and if he's able to help users get going the variety of boards, I think that's great.

Cheers
s.

He has some use of one of those Solid Run mini-servers using the NXP Arm chip with 16×A-72 cores. That probably helps him along. He also has a number of Orange Pi 5s with the RK3588 8 core SoC. He has SlackBuilds for everything, and probably a single script to recompile his OS for any SBC. No watching stuff compile.

Personally, I find the Slackware installer a major PITA. I did install Slackware Arm, and found the x86 aspects of the install process just get in the way. And then I had a mountain of configuration to climb. Don't you guys install lilo, elilo, grub, or something? When would an RPi use those? All you want is u-boot for an Arm, and I can't even use that on my RPi 4 because of my monitor. Nothing I do keeps the picture on screen, so I can never see the task bar.

We've been through this before, and you ask the same questions and state the same experiences, which don't reflect reality and never have.
What x86 aspects? There's no lilo, no elilo and no grub for the RPi. If you'd have actually installed it or even read the documents, you'd know. I've answered it before.

I don't believe you have ever installed Slackware at this point, not have any interest in doing so. I'm not sure why you continue to look at this forum since you don't like Slackware, as far as I can tell.

If you find the installer so difficult and don't take heed of the responses you've received to clarify your misaprehensions, I don't think Slackware is the right distribution for you and you should look for something more simple.

I did install slackware arm. I installed everything and got to the stage when I had over a day of configuring to do. I work slowly, as I'm an invalid. I was having difficulty with everything at this stage (x86_64 & sbc). What really stuck with me was that I then had to go to another site to grab the boot stuff. and get them on before the OS would boot. I was having difficulty with everything at that time (PC & SBC). The simple expedient of dd-ing a slarm64 image to an sdcard, setting up network and running on my sdcard for a few days beckoned. I have been taught by experience not to run on sdcard for long.

You are right in my having bellyached before. I accept many of your criticisms. I just want to be a user at this stage, because the physical difficulty for me involved in tasks you mightn't think about incline me that way. Most of your users are engineering types, as was I. I don't check your forum, but don't always check which forum a post is in before I reply. It certainly wasn't my intention to end up here.

Watch the videos - you pretty much hit enter and type in a host name. This takes less than 2 minutes.

Show me in the instructions where this is necessary. It's not and never has been. I know because I designed it, wrote the code, wrote the instructions AND recorded the installation videos. How many times have we been through this even on this forum?

All I see from you is trash talking this project with your incorrect assersions, and I'm sick and tired of it. What's worse is your "LQ Guru" status, where people would be inclined to believe your assertions. You by your own admission don't even use Slackware ARM, so just stop frequenting this forum: what is your purpose of being here?
I see no purpose apart from you want to trash talk the project with your nonsense.

Cheers
s.