HOWTO for setting up a Cross Development Environment on Debian GNU/Linux
By Mobilab Research Group
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Preparations
- Setting up binutils, libc and the compiler
- Setting up additional cross development libraries
- Reference
Introduction
In this HOWTO, we 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.
Preparations
First, install toolchain-source and dpkg-cross. Because toolchain-source depends on dpkg-cross, the following command will do:Optionally, install the package toolchain-source-gdb, if you believe in debugging.
# 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.
The dpkg-cross package is a tool for installing libraries and headers for cross compiling in special directories.
We had a problem with building gcc with autoconf version 2.54, so we 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
Setting up binutils, libc and the compiler
binutils
Now unpack and build binutils and compilers.
# cd /usr/src/; tpkg-make arm-linux
New directories binutils-arm-linux-2.13.90.x.y/ and gcc-arm-linux-3.2.z/ appear.
Adjust the user name in {binutils-arm-linux-2.13.90.x.y,gcc-arm-linux-3.2.z}/debian/{changelog,control}, if necessary. You might get an error when signing the package, if the user name is not correct. You may use pga tool for creating a secret key, if you haven’t one.
If you have to pass parameters to the configure or make process of binutils, change the files binutils-arm-linux-2.13.90.x.y/debian/rules.
Now do:
# cd binutils-arm-linux-2.13.90.0.4/; 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
libc
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.uk.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.
Creating dummy packages
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 fix your address and the target platform), you can build the dummy package:
<a name="mkXdummy"></a>#!/bin/sh <span>EMAIL='You <[email protected]>'</span> <span>TARGET=arm-cross</span> <span>if [ -z "$1" ]; then echo "no package"; exit -1; fi</span> <span>PACKAGE=$1</span> <span>VERSION=`dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Version}' $PACKAGE | sed 's/-.*/-1/'`</span> <span>echo "Section: devel</span> <span>Priority: optional</span> <span>Standards-Version: 3.6.1.0</span> <span>Package: $PACKAGE-$TARGET</span> <span>Version: $VERSION</span> <span>Maintainer: $EMAIL</span> <span>Depends: $PACKAGE</span> <span>Architecture: all</span> <span>Description: Dummy $PACKAGE for $TARGET" > $PACKAGE-$TARGET.$$</span> <span>equivs-build $PACKAGE-$TARGET.$$ && rm -rf ./equivs/ $PACKAGE-$TARGET.$$</span>
$ mkXdummy pkg-config
Then, 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.
gcc
Now do:
# cd ../gcc-arm-linux-3.3.z/ <span># debuild</span>
Again, the package installs via:
# debi
Now you should have a cross development environment for C language.
g++
You have to enable C++ language in gcc-arm-linux-3.3.z/debian/rules file:
--enable-languages=c++
Rebuild gcc :
# debuild <span># debi</span>
Install arm-linux libstdc++ library:
# cd /usr/arm-linux/lib <span># tar xvzf <PATH>/libstdc++.tar.gz</span>
Install templates and header files:
# cd /usr/arm-linux/include <span># tar xvzf <PATH>/include_g++.tar.gz</span>
Now you should have a cross development environment for C++ language.
Setting up additional cross development libraries
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: <span>Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.1-1)</span> <span>$apt-cache show libglib2.0-dev|grep ^Depends:</span> <span>Depends: libglib2.0-0 (= 2.0.7-1), libc6-dev | libc-dev, pkg-config</span>
The dependency on pkg-config-arm-cross can be fulfilled by a dummy package (see above). The output of pkg-config depends only on the contents of the .pc files.
Install libraries
Try to install libglib2.0-0 and libglib2-dev:
# tpkg-install-libc arm-linux 'libglib2.0-0$ libglib2-dev$'
The dollar signs are necessary for the tool as are the single quotes.
The cross compilation environment should now be complete.
Try it out
You can see the CFLAGS for cross compilation easily:
$ PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/arm-linux/lib/pkgconfig pkg-config --cflags glib-2.0 <span>-I/usr/arm-linux/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/arm-linux/lib/glib-2.0/include</span>
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 <span>PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/arm-linux/lib/pkgconfig make</span>
For packages based on autoconf, it should be easy as well:
$ CC=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc <span>PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/arm-linux/lib/pkgconfig ./configure; make</span>
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.
Reference
This HOWTO is based on this article.
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