Cross-compilation question--building directfb

mark03 · 06-17-2011, 12:45 PM

Yesterday I used niluje's excellent cross-compilation guide to set up crosstool-ng and generate a toolchain for my K3. I was able to build a simple printf("hello, world\n") app, copy it to my Kindle, and run it successfully from a shell. Thanks guys!

Now I would like to try some framebuffer test code linked against Amazon's modified directfb. So I need to build, with the xc toolchain, directfb and its library dependencies (like freetype). I have Amazon's 3.2.1 source release. Most of these source distributions are set up to use autoconf configure scripts. If I set the proper environment variables, should autoconf "just work" automatically with my arm-gnueabi toolchain? How hard is it to build these guys so I can link against directfb?

(I could use the raw framebuffer, of course, but the application I have in mind would really benefit from font support. I'd rather not have to create my own typeface rasters!)

B_Lizzard · 06-17-2011, 01:05 PM

I use OpenEmbedded for compiling. It's a great environment but it might be a bit too much if you've never used it before.

Start Here for help in setting up OE. Use MACHINE = "bug" and DISTRO = "angstrom-2010.x" in your local.conf, but change the glibc version for Angstrom to version 2.5, which is what the Kindle is running on (change it in openembedded/conf/distro/angstrol-2010.x.conf around line 70).

Good thing with OpenEmbedded is it has a wealth of applications ready for compilation. The Kindle is running on DirectFB 1.2, so make sure you compile applications against directfb-1.2 and not 1.4 in OE.

mark03 · 06-17-2011, 02:04 PM

Thanks. I'm accustomed to building packages on my Linux desktop but I've somehow avoided cross-building until now. I even use a native toolchain on my ARM sheevaplug to keep it simple.

I was using crosstool-ng because of some comments in the forums, and the configuration niluje's published here. I like the kernel-style (menuconfig) interface. But if you think OE would be easier to get some of the libraries built, I'll give it a go. So they have their own repository of pacakges preconfigured for OE?

NiLuJe · 06-17-2011, 08:35 PM

@mark03: If you check the rest of the file, most of the stuff I build uses autotools, so once your cross toolchain is in your path, passing --host=arm-kindle-linux-gnueabi to configure (and apprpriate C/CXX/LDFLAGS in your env) should be enough (provided the project is using autootools correctly, and in a cross-compile friendly way, which might not always be the case ;D).

The only thing that might cause some trouble in my config is that I'm running a somewhat way more recent version of glibc/gcc than the Kindle system, and there's a few cases where I had to tweak things a bit to avoid pulling newer symbols (readelf is you friend to check that kind of stuff in your binaries).

You might want to try a cross toolchain based on glibc 2.5 if you encounter too much issues of this kind.

And, yeah, there's a whole bunch of different tools that can be used, some primarily aimed at bootstrapping embedded systems. I'm using crosstool-ng because it's 'simpler', its goal being just to provide a toolchain, not help bootstrap a full system, and I'm somewhat used to do things manually once I have a reliable toolchain setup (being a gentoo user and all ;p).

liuto · 06-20-2011, 11:59 AM

I use scratchbox, it works just fine.

06-17-2011, 12:45 PM	#1
mark03 Enthusiast Posts: 30 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle 3 wifi	Cross-compilation question--building directfb Yesterday I used niluje's excellent cross-compilation guide to set up crosstool-ng and generate a toolchain for my K3. I was able to build a simple printf("hello, world\n") app, copy it to my Kindle, and run it successfully from a shell. Thanks guys! Now I would like to try some framebuffer test code linked against Amazon's modified directfb. So I need to build, with the xc toolchain, directfb and its library dependencies (like freetype). I have Amazon's 3.2.1 source release. Most of these source distributions are set up to use autoconf configure scripts. If I set the proper environment variables, should autoconf "just work" automatically with my arm-gnueabi toolchain? How hard is it to build these guys so I can link against directfb? (I could use the raw framebuffer, of course, but the application I have in mind would really benefit from font support. I'd rather not have to create my own typeface rasters!)

06-17-2011, 08:35 PM	#4
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,477 Karma: 26012492 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@mark03: If you check the rest of the file, most of the stuff I build uses autotools, so once your cross toolchain is in your path, passing --host=arm-kindle-linux-gnueabi to configure (and apprpriate C/CXX/LDFLAGS in your env) should be enough (provided the project is using autootools correctly, and in a cross-compile friendly way, which might not always be the case ;D). The only thing that might cause some trouble in my config is that I'm running a somewhat way more recent version of glibc/gcc than the Kindle system, and there's a few cases where I had to tweak things a bit to avoid pulling newer symbols (readelf is you friend to check that kind of stuff in your binaries). You might want to try a cross toolchain based on glibc 2.5 if you encounter too much issues of this kind. And, yeah, there's a whole bunch of different tools that can be used, some primarily aimed at bootstrapping embedded systems. I'm using crosstool-ng because it's 'simpler', its goal being just to provide a toolchain, not help bootstrap a full system, and I'm somewhat used to do things manually once I have a reliable toolchain setup (being a gentoo user and all ;p). Last edited by NiLuJe; 06-17-2011 at 08:42 PM.

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06-17-2011, 01:05 PM	#2
B_Lizzard Member Posts: 10 Karma: 24 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle 3	I use OpenEmbedded for compiling. It's a great environment but it might be a bit too much if you've never used it before. Start Here for help in setting up OE. Use MACHINE = "bug" and DISTRO = "angstrom-2010.x" in your local.conf, but change the glibc version for Angstrom to version 2.5, which is what the Kindle is running on (change it in openembedded/conf/distro/angstrol-2010.x.conf around line 70). Good thing with OpenEmbedded is it has a wealth of applications ready for compilation. The Kindle is running on DirectFB 1.2, so make sure you compile applications against directfb-1.2 and not 1.4 in OE.

06-17-2011, 02:04 PM	#3
mark03 Enthusiast Posts: 30 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle 3 wifi	Thanks. I'm accustomed to building packages on my Linux desktop but I've somehow avoided cross-building until now. I even use a native toolchain on my ARM sheevaplug to keep it simple. I was using crosstool-ng because of some comments in the forums, and the configuration niluje's published here. I like the kernel-style (menuconfig) interface. But if you think OE would be easier to get some of the libraries built, I'll give it a go. So they have their own repository of pacakges preconfigured for OE?

06-20-2011, 11:59 AM	#5
liuto Connoisseur Posts: 50 Karma: 70 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kindle DXG / Kindle 3	I use scratchbox, it works just fine.

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