[Slackbuilds-users] proposal to enable building scripts on ARM

[KB_SBo]

On 3/4/23 09:42, Fernando Lopez wrote:
> willy there are arm VM's.
>
> On Sat, Mar 4, 2023, 9:25 AM Willy Sudiarto Raharjo
> <willysr at slackbuilds.org <mailto:willysr at slackbuilds.org>> wrote:
>
>      > ARM isn't going away, and slackbuilds.org
>     <http://slackbuilds.org> supporting at least a subset
>      > of scripts to be build on ARM would be really nice to have. I'm not
>      > heavily invested in it, I just have some RPis with Slackware on
>     it that
>      > I occasionally use. Just sharing my thoughts, as it's a
>     semi-frequently
>      > discussed topic.
...snip...
>
>     The problem is that we (admins) might not have a machine to test the
>     ARM
>     architecture, so we can't validate the script.
>     Plus it adds more loads to the admins to validate over 8k scripts
>     during
>     development cycle for next release of SlackBuild repository.
>
>     We had issues with failing 32 bit builds for 15.0 since majority of
>     users here are using 64 bit machines only and didn't test on 32 bit
>     machines anymore so some goes undetected.
>
>
>     --
>     Willy Sudiarto Raharjo
>


I use VMs to test x86_64 and x86, although I have been a bit lazy with
32 bit testing.  All my boxes are multicore Ryzen and have too many
customizations on them for SBo reliability.

That said, ARM VMs are problematic.  Which arm?  v7, v8, Cortex? Which
board - RPi, Beagle, Pine, etc?  There is no real standard for these ARM
devices.  ARM (the company) just defines a specification and licenses
the architecture; implementation is up to the various manufacturers.

As Willy stated, it is best for SBo to focus on x86/x86_64.  For
SBo-ARM, fork SBo to a bespoke ARM repository - assuming there is enough
demand and volunteers to step up to run the ARM version.

-Ed