Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004 W. Borgert
2002-11-10
| Revision History | |
|---|---|
| Revision 0.7 | 2004-08-29 |
| Link to scratchbox, updated to current state of affairs. | |
| Revision 0.6 | 2004-02-14 |
| Mention bugs 222168 and 222562. | |
| Revision 0.5 | 2004-01-11 |
| Fixed linux-kernel-headers handling. | |
| Revision 0.4 | 2003-12-15 |
| Removed last patch, added script to build dummy patches. | |
| Revision 0.3.1 | 2003-12-10 |
| Added copyright, removed unnecessary patch. | |
| Revision 0.3 | 2003-03-11 |
| Update to current versions of toolchain-source and dpkg-cross, patch removed. | |
| Revision 0.2 | 2002-11-10 |
| Added example for use with glib-2.0 and some explanations. | |
| Revision 0.1 | 2002-11-09 |
| Initial version. | |
Table of Contents
Important
New developments: The way of setting up a cross development environment presented in this documented might be outdated soon. Look for scratchbox and their approach.
You have a new shiny GNU/Linux-based PDA? Or a new embedded controller board running a PowerPC processor? Now you want compile your favourite software for the gadget on your PC? Depending on the target and complexity of your software, this might be a difficult task to accomplish, but it can be relatively easy, if the target happens to be compatible with Debian GNU/Linux. You just need Debian and some of its tools, most importantly toolchain-source and dpkg-cross.
In this article, I will explain how to set up a cross development environment for the ARM platform including the use of libglib2.0. The ARM processor can be found in a number of embedded devices and PDAs, e.g. the Zaurus and the iPAQ.
Note
All packages and versions are related to Debian SID (a.k.a. stays in development, a.k.a. unstable). Things may change. I am working on the i386 platform, but I have the hope, that things are not entirely different on other platforms.
Note
I use the traditional # for the root prompt and $ for the non-root prompt.
First, install toolchain-source and dpkg-cross. Because toolchain-source depends on dpkg-cross, the following command will do:
# apt-get install toolchain-source
The toolchain-source package contains the source code of the current gcc and binutils. Additionally, it provides commands assisting in building cross compilers and binutils.
Optionally, install the package toolchain-source-gdb, if you believe in debugging.
The dpkg-cross package is a tool for installing libraries and headers for cross compiling in special directories.
I had a problem with building gcc with autoconf version 2.54 ("configure.in:2118: /usr/bin/m4: ERROR: Recursion limit of 1024 exceeded, use -L<N> to change it"), so I recommend to:
# apt-get install autoconf2.13
For building the actual cross development packages, you will need fakeroot or a similar program. Because fakeroot will be used by default, just do this:
# apt-get install fakeroot
The only configuration, that is necessary now, is to change
the crossbase in the file
/etc/dpkg/cross-compile. The default value
/usr/local should be changed:
crossbase = /usr
As root, add the user to the group src:
# adduser theuser src
Now unpack and build binutils and compilers.
$ cd /usr/src/; tpkg-make arm-linux
New directories
binutils-arm-linux-2.15/ and
gcc-arm-linux-3.4.1/ appear.
Adjust the user name in
{binutils-arm-linux-2.15,gcc-arm-linux-3.4.1}/debian/{changelog,control},
if necessary. You might get an error when signing the package,
if the user name is not correct. If you have to pass parameters
to the configure or make process of binutils or make, change the
files
{binutils-arm-linux-2.15,gcc-arm-linux-3.4.1}/debian/rules.
E.g. the default configuration builds only the C compiler, which
is just what I want. The generation of the C++ compiler failed
for me, because of compilation errors in the
libstdc++-v3, but if want to try it, you
have to add C++ support to the configuration options in
gcc-arm-linux-3.4.1/debian/rules:
--enable-languages="c,c++"
Now do:
$ cd binutils-arm-linux-2.15/; debuild -uc -us
This will configure, compile and build the cross binutils. To build the compiler, you have to install the resulting package first:
# debi
The compiler needs also the target system C library to build. This library can easily be installed using tpkg-install-libc.
# tpkg-install-libc arm-linux
This command will download the libraries for the arm-linux
platform from the british Debian server
ftp.debian.org, but the server can be changed
via the environment variable TPKG_SERVER.
The downloaded packages will automatically converted and
installed by dpkg-cross. Fortunately, two
little issues, bug
#222168 (The linux-kernel-headers package requires a
patch to dpkg-cross) and bug
#222562 (tpkg-install-libc now requires
linux-kernel-headers) have been fixed.
The dependencies of libc6 and libc6-dev are already
fulfilled by libc6-arm-cross and libc6-dev-arm-cross, the
dependency libglib2.0-0 will be fulfilled anyway. That leaves
pkg-config. A cross version of pkg-config does not make sense,
because the only important thing is the output of the command
itself. This depends on the contents of the
.pc files. Therefore it is sufficient to
create a dummy package that depends on pkg-config. Install the
equivs package:
# apt-get install equivs
With this little script (just call it with your address and the target platform), you can build the dummy package:
#!/bin/sh
EMAIL='You <you@your.isp>'
TARGET=arm-cross
# long options not yet implemented
args=`getopt 'e:t:' $*`
for o
do case "$o" in
-e | --emai*) EMAIL="$2"; shift; shift;;
-t | --targ*) TARGET="$2"; shift; shift;;
--) shift; break;;
esac
done
if [ -z "$1" ]; then echo "no package"; exit -1; fi
PACKAGE=$1
VERSION=`dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Version}' $PACKAGE | sed 's/-.*/-1/'`
echo "Section: devel
Priority: optional
Standards-Version: 3.6.1.0
Package: $PACKAGE-$TARGET
Version: $VERSION
Maintainer: $EMAIL
Depends: $PACKAGE
Architecture: all
Description: Dummy $PACKAGE for $TARGET" > $PACKAGE-$TARGET.$$
equivs-build $PACKAGE-$TARGET.$$ && rm -rf ./equivs/ $PACKAGE-$TARGET.$$
$ make-cross-dummy -e me@here.org -t arm-linux pkg-config
Alternatively, create the control file
pkg-config-arm-linux manually:
Section: devel Priority: optional Standards-Version: 3.0.1 Package: pkg-config-arm-cross Version: 0.15.0-2 Maintainer: You <you@there.org> Depends: pkg-config Architecture: all Description: Dummy pkg-config for arm-linux
$ equivs-build pkg-config-arm-linux
Either way, you have to install the dummy package:
# dpkg -i pkg-config-arm-cross_0.15.0-2_all.deb
Similar actions are necessary for tools, that are not platform-dependent, such as bison, flex, indent.
Your have to
# apt-get install autoconf2.13 automake1.4 dejagnu libgmp3-dev
Now do:
$ cd ../gcc-arm-linux-3.4.1/ $ debuild -uc -us
Again, the package installs via:
# debi
Now you should have a perfect cross development environment:
$ dpkg -l "*arm-cross*" "*arm-linux*" Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Description +++-==============-==============-============================================ ii binutils-arm-l 2.13.90.0.4-1 Binary utilities for cross-developing for ar ii gcc-arm-linux 3.2-1 The GNU C compiler as cross compiler for arm ii libc6-arm-cros 2.2.5-14.3 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone ii libc6-dev-arm- 2.2.5-14.3 GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea ii libdb1-compat- 2.1.3-7 The Berkeley database routines [glibc 2.0/2.
You may test the newly installed environment by unpacking a simple, but famous program:
$ cd /usr/src/ $ apt-get source hello $ cd hello-2.1.1 $ CC=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc ./configure --host=arm-linux $ make -k
Don't get fooled by the fact that the last step of the build process will produce one error. The build process of hello is not completely cross compile enabled. The manual page can only build after a native compile. Just don't care:
$ file ./src/hello ./src/hello: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (ARM), for GNU/Linux 2.2.0, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped
Copy the binary to your target system and enjoy the friendly greeting.
There are not many programs a user really wants without the need for more library dependencies than just the standard C library. A typical additional library is glib2 which is used by GTK+ and GNOME.
Before you can start with the library, you have to analyse its dependencies:
$ apt-cache show libglib2.0-0|grep ^Depends: Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.1-1) $apt-cache show libglib2.0-dev|grep ^Depends: Depends: libglib2.0-0 (= 2.0.7-1), libc6-dev | libc-dev, pkg-config
The dependency on pkg-config-arm-cross can be fulfilled by a
dummy package (see above). The
output of pkg-config depends only on the contents of the
.pc files.
Try to install libglib2.0-0 and libglib2-dev:
# tpkg-install-libc arm-linux 'libglib2.0-0$ libglib2-dev$'
The dollar signs are necessary for the tool as are the single quotes.
The cross compilation environment should now be complete:
$ dpkg -l "*arm-cross*" "*arm-linux*" Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Description +++-==============-==============-============================================ ii binutils-arm-l 2.13.90.0.4-1 Binary utilities for cross-developing for ar ii gcc-arm-linux 3.2-1 The GNU C compiler as cross compiler for arm ii libc6-arm-cros 2.2.5-14.3 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone ii libc6-dev-arm- 2.2.5-14.3 GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea ii libdb1-compat- 2.1.3-7 The Berkeley database routines [glibc 2.0/2. ii libglib2.0-0-a 2.0.6-1 The GLib library of C routines (for cross co ii libglib2.0-dev 2.0.6-1 Development files for the GLib library (for ii pkg-config-arm 0.14.0-1 Dummy pkg-config for arm-linux
You can see the CFLAGS for cross compilation easily:
$ PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/arm-linux/lib/pkgconfig pkg-config --cflags glib-2.0 -I/usr/arm-linux/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/arm-linux/lib/glib-2.0/include
For packages, that come with a simple
Makefile, use CC and
CFLAGS=`pkg-config --cflags glib-2.0` etc.,
compilation is straight forward:
$ CC=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc \ PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/arm-linux/lib/pkgconfig make
For packages based on autoconf, it should be easy as well:
$ CC=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc \ PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/arm-linux/lib/pkgconfig ./configure; make
Unfortunately, not all packages are build in a way, that supports cross compilation. For these packages, you should fix the build process and send patches to the packages authors.
To Roman Hodek for dpkg-cross, to Jeremy Nimmer and John Zaitseff for patches to dpkg-cross, and to Hakan Ardo for toolchain-source and his help.