Building ARM GNU Cross compiler - linux

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First off "Crosstool" to which nearly everyone refers is a little (2006) out of date and "Crosstool-NG" which seems to now be carrying the torch fails on my machine.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

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 2

Here is the HelenOS arm-32 toolchain installation script, this should do what you want with very little fiddling. I'm using it on Ubuntu now (I'm one of the HelenOS developers). It was written by Martin Decky:
#!/bin/bash
# Cross-Compiler Toolchain for ${PLATFORM}
# by Martin Decky <martin#decky.cz>
#
# GPL'ed, copyleft
#
check_error() {
if [ "$1" -ne "0" ]; then
echo
echo "Script failed: $2"
exit
fi
}
if [ -z "${CROSS_PREFIX}" ] ; then
CROSS_PREFIX="/usr/local"
fi
BINUTILS_VERSION="2.19.1"
GCC_VERSION="4.3.3"
BINUTILS="binutils-${BINUTILS_VERSION}.tar.gz"
GCC_CORE="gcc-core-${GCC_VERSION}.tar.bz2"
GCC_OBJC="gcc-objc-${GCC_VERSION}.tar.bz2"
GCC_CPP="gcc-g++-${GCC_VERSION}.tar.bz2"
BINUTILS_SOURCE="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/"
GCC_SOURCE="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-${GCC_VERSION}/"
PLATFORM="arm"
WORKDIR=`pwd`
TARGET="${PLATFORM}-linux-gnu"
PREFIX="${CROSS_PREFIX}/${PLATFORM}"
BINUTILSDIR="${WORKDIR}/binutils-${BINUTILS_VERSION}"
GCCDIR="${WORKDIR}/gcc-${GCC_VERSION}"
OBJDIR="${WORKDIR}/gcc-obj"
echo ">>> Downloading tarballs"
if [ ! -f "${BINUTILS}" ]; then
wget -c "${BINUTILS_SOURCE}${BINUTILS}"
check_error $? "Error downloading binutils."
fi
if [ ! -f "${GCC_CORE}" ]; then
wget -c "${GCC_SOURCE}${GCC_CORE}"
check_error $? "Error downloading GCC Core."
fi
if [ ! -f "${GCC_OBJC}" ]; then
wget -c "${GCC_SOURCE}${GCC_OBJC}"
check_error $? "Error downloading GCC Objective C."
fi
if [ ! -f "${GCC_CPP}" ]; then
wget -c "${GCC_SOURCE}${GCC_CPP}"
check_error $? "Error downloading GCC C++."
fi
echo ">>> Creating destionation directory"
if [ ! -d "${PREFIX}" ]; then
mkdir -p "${PREFIX}"
test -d "${PREFIX}"
check_error $? "Unable to create ${PREFIX}."
fi
echo ">>> Creating GCC work directory"
if [ ! -d "${OBJDIR}" ]; then
mkdir -p "${OBJDIR}"
test -d "${OBJDIR}"
check_error $? "Unable to create ${OBJDIR}."
fi
echo ">>> Unpacking tarballs"
tar -xvzf "${BINUTILS}"
check_error $? "Error unpacking binutils."
tar -xvjf "${GCC_CORE}"
check_error $? "Error unpacking GCC Core."
tar -xvjf "${GCC_OBJC}"
check_error $? "Error unpacking GCC Objective C."
tar -xvjf "${GCC_CPP}"
check_error $? "Error unpacking GCC C++."
echo ">>> Compiling and installing binutils"
cd "${BINUTILSDIR}"
check_error $? "Change directory failed."
./configure "--target=${TARGET}" "--prefix=${PREFIX}" "--program-prefix=${TARGET}-" "--disable-nls"
check_error $? "Error configuring binutils."
make all install
check_error $? "Error compiling/installing binutils."
echo ">>> Compiling and installing GCC"
cd "${OBJDIR}"
check_error $? "Change directory failed."
"${GCCDIR}/configure" "--target=${TARGET}" "--prefix=${PREFIX}" "--program-prefix=${TARGET}-" --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --disable-nls --disable-threads --enable-languages=c,objc,c++,obj-c++ --disable-multilib --disable-libgcj --without-headers --disable-shared
check_error $? "Error configuring GCC."
PATH="${PATH}:${PREFIX}/bin" make all-gcc install-gcc
check_error $? "Error compiling/installing GCC."
echo
echo ">>> Cross-compiler for ${TARGET} installed."
Sorry for any line wrapping, should be easy to fix. If you want a pastebin or http link to get it, just leave a comment.

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

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 5

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 6

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 7

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.