Building ARM GNU Cross compiler

Question

A similiar (less descriptive) post is here.

I'm trying to roll my own tool chain using recent releases on Ubuntu and was hoping there was enough of a Linux community here that I could get specific advice on certain problems as they come up.

With everyone's help I'd like to see this turn into a useful reference eventually.

First off "Crosstool" to which nearly everyone refers is a little (2006) out of date and "Crosstool-NG" which seems to now be carrying the torch fails on my machine. I'd rather debug the process itself than a script (which it would seem requires me to understand the process).

Below are basic steps of what I've got working so far; at present I'm stuck trying to compile the first pass GCC.

Where it's failing ...

It's failing because the cross compiled library containing "crti.o" is missing:

# ./gcc-4.4.1/configure --target=arm-linux --disable-thread --enable-langauges=c 
/bin/bash ../../../gcc-4.4.1/libgcc/../mkinstalldirs .
/usr/src/gnu-4.4.1-build/./gcc/xgcc -B ........
/usr/local/arm-linux/bin/ld: crti.o No such file: No such file or directory
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [libgcc_s.so] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/gnu/gcc-4.4.1-build/arm-linux/libgcc'
make[1]: *** [all-target-libgcc] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/gnu/gcc-4.4.1-build'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Build steps

On a 'freshly' configured Ubuntu 9.04 installation, here are the steps I've done so far:

#New configuration of Ubuntu 9.04
sudo updatedb
sudo apt-get install build-essential subversion
# For kernel configuration
sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev
# For building GCC
sudo apt-get install libgmp3-dev libmpfr-dev

#Get Linux Headers for GCC/GLIBC compilations
# I use a hacked Linux from Artilla, 
pushd ~ && svn co http://.../linux m501-linux && cd !$
make ARCH=arm m501_defconfig
make ARCH=arm menuconfig
sudo mkdir /usr/local/arm-linux/include
sudo cp -dR include/asm-arm /usr/local/arm-linux/include/asm
sudo cp -dR include/linux /usr/local/arm-linux/include/linux
cd /usr/local/arm-linux/
sudo ln -s include sys-include
popd

#Get sources:
cd /usr/src/
sudo su root
mkdir gnu
ftp ftp.gnu.org
# get gnu/binutils/binutils-2.19.1.tar.bz2
# get gnu/gcc/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-4.4.1.tar.bz2
# get gnu/glibc/glibc-2.10.1.tar.bz2
# get gnu/gdb/gdb-6.8.tar.bz2

#Build Binutils
bzcat binutils-2.19.1.tar.bz2 | tar -xv
mkdir binutils-2.19.1-build && cd !$
cp ../binutils-2.19.1/gas/config/tc-arm.c ./tc-arm.c 
sed -r 's/(as_bad[ \t]*\()(.+\[.+\]\))/\1\"%s\",\2/' < ./tc-arm.c > ../binutils-2.19.1/gas/config/tc-arm.c 
rm ./tc-arm.c    
../binutils-2.19.1/configure --target=arm-linux
make && make install && cd ..

#Build GCC
bzcat gcc-4.4.1.tar.bz2 | tar -xv
mkdir gcc-4.4.1-build && cd !$
../gcc-4.4.1/configure --target=arm-linux --disable-thread --enable-langauges=c -with-headers=/usr/local/arm-linux/include
make

Answer 1

If you're really want to build entire toolchain for yourself:
http://frank.harvard.edu/~coldwell/toolchain/
http://ftp.snapgear.org/pub/snapgear/tools/arm-linux/build-arm-linux-3.4.4
Take in mind, though, as you should search for toolchain compatibilty matrix or you may run into weird compilation errors.

If you still have the option for crosstool-ng, this is what I'm was working on for last few days:
http://blog.stranadurakov.com/2009/08/04/how-to-arm-linux/
Here you will find my crosstool-ng configuration file, which had worked for me.

Answer 2

I recently built a GNU toolchain for ARM using crosstool-ng. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out which versions of the toolchain components would play nice together, but I finally got it working with the following versions:

• binutils 2.19.1
• gcc 4.3.2
• gmp 4.2.2
• linux kernel 2.6.29.1
• mpfr 2.3.1
• uClibc 0.9.30.1

See if these work for you too.

Also, OpenWrt as a part of it's build process creates a cross-compiling toolchain. You may want to try that, selecting one of the ARM-based boards as a target, even if you aren't interested in making a wireless router.

Answer 3

You should really have put more effort with using crosstool-NG, since the crosstool mailing list is very reactive. Since understanding the whole process is a huge task, understanding how to use a tool that you might reuse is IMHO more interesting.

Answer 4

Welcome, you're not alone.

The story

I don't know why ARM cross-compiling is such a nightmare. It's not my opinion, let's see, what others say...

Building a gcc / glibc cross-toolchain for use in embedded systems development used to be a scary prospect, requiring iron will, days if not weeks of effort, lots of Unix and Gnu lore, and sometimes willingness to take dodgy shortcuts. ( http://www.kegel.com/crosstool/ )

My ARM computer (GuruPlug) is running on Debian, so I just need a standard G++ compiler, without any tweaks.

I'm using 32-bit Ubuntu on my notebook. There are deb packages for AVR cross-compiler, or even for Z80, but none for ARM - why? OK, we have to compile one. Let's go. The compilation process of the toolchain is a bit confusing for me. 14k lines long Makefile, thank you.

After some days (and nights) I've failed.

The solution

Finally, I've found an out-of-the box soluion. I've just downloaded the lite edition of this stuff: http://www.codesourcery.com/sgpp/lite_edition.html and now I'm happy. It has an ugly installer, but it works. It says: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ (Sourcery G++ Lite 2010q1-202) 4.4.1, which is an up-to-date G++ version.

(My friend has a Mac, and he has also failed compiling the toolchain after fighting with it for a week. He is now using this compiler on a VM running Ubuntu.)

Answer 5

I've had good luck using buildroot to build toolchains and libraries for cross-compiling Linux. Buildroot uses the lightweight uclibc C library rather than glibc, so it might not work for your purposes. (And getting the toolchain this way might not be quite as exciting and compiling it yourself.)

Answer 6

This was a bit of red-herring. Apparently cross-compling a tool chain for an existing system with a working GLIBC doesn't require GLIBC to be recompiled. I honestly don't know how I ignored this fact.

So even though I still don't know how to cross compile GCC and GLIBC, as I only need GCC I'm going to mark this as closed.

If I can, I'll come back to this post and mark what I eventually did.

EDIT:

Checkout this.