iLiad How-to: build a toolchain for the iliad using crosstool - Page 2

ericshliao · 09-18-2008, 11:21 AM

The crosstool mentioned above has a newer version: 0.43. Any update to this thread?

Antartica · 09-20-2008, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericshliao

The crosstool mentioned above has a newer version: 0.43. Any update to this thread?

An updated crosstool gives more supported libc/compilers/platforms. There is no need to rebuild the toolchain.

BUT it could help for the people who had trouble because they were not using linux-x86 (i.e. OS X, PowerPC, etc). Is thereanyone in that situation?

Anyway, I update the first post to add a link to the wiki page, as it's a lot more detailed than the instructions here.

ericshliao · 09-20-2008, 03:43 PM

I see that ScratchBox also provide some arm toolchain. Are they working for iLiad development? Why choose crosstool? Can the kernel patch provide by iRex applied to toolchain provide by ScratchBox?

BTW, I tried to incorporate the official SDK with ScratchBox but failed. Any one succeeded?

Sorry for all the questions. I found it really difficult (for me) to build a cross-compiling environment if I want to try a different path.

Antartica · 09-21-2008, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericshliao

I see that ScratchBox also provide some arm toolchain.

Some background:

Scratchbox is a development environment built around Qemu and a user-supplied toolchain.

Scratchbox was developed by the folks at Nokia and is used as a development tool for the arm-and-linux-based nokia internet tablet (N770, N800 and N810). Scratchbox has also some tools for integration with Debian GNU/Linux (that is, there are advantages using ScratchBox under Debian/Ubuntu that you miss if you use RedHat/Fedora or Novell/OpenSuSE).

[QUOTE=ericshliao;256111 Are they working for iLiad development? Why choose crosstool? Can the kernel patch provide by iRex applied to toolchain provide by ScratchBox?[/QUOTE]

Nope. ScratchBox folks are realated to the Nokia Internet Tablet development, not with the Iliad.

When I built the unofficial toolchain I used scratchbox because I had some experience with it and being able to native-compile instead of simply cross-compile eliminates a lot of headaches :-).

OTOH, crosstool is the right tool for the job when building crosscompilers. I've built crosscompilers in the past without crosstool and is not something too pleasant. With crosstool is something quick and works well.

The integration of the toolchain with scratchbox was done following the instructions on the scratchbox website.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericshliao

BTW, I tried to incorporate the official SDK with ScratchBox but failed. Any one succeeded?

I've not tried it...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericshliao

Sorry for all the questions. I found it really difficult (for me) to build a cross-compiling environment if I want to try a different path.

Path?

ericshliao · 10-08-2008, 07:20 AM

Now, I have incorporated iRex official SDK with ScratchBox and built some working apps. Too bad many others not working on iLiad even though I can build it.
I just found that some apps need GCC >=4.10. So, I am trying to build a GCC4.11 with crosstools for ScratchBox. Please give some suggestion or anything might be of help. Thanx.

Antartica · 10-08-2008, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericshliao

Now, I have incorporated iRex official SDK with ScratchBox and built some working apps. Too bad many others not working on iLiad even though I can build it.

About the apps not working on iliad althugh you can build them:

1. They work in the scratchbox environment? (i.e. you can execute them if the display is correctly set)

2. Have you checked there are no missing libraries in the iliad for them? (executing them from the command line doesn't complain about a not found libary)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericshliao

I just found that some apps need GCC >=4.10. So, I am trying to build a GCC4.11 with crosstools for ScratchBox. Please give some suggestion or anything might be of help. Thanx.

You may find that the minimum version of the libc that works with gcc4.1 is greater than the one on the iliad (2.3.3 beta, if I'm not mistaken). Anyway, look at the tested gc/libc combination matrix at crosstool site. If you have to use a newer libc, that would mean that you have to include that libc with your app (Adam did this for one of his ports; gnumeric IIRC), and then your package would be rather big...

ericshliao · 10-08-2008, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antartica

1. They work in the scratchbox environment? (i.e. you can execute them if the display is correctly set)

I didn't test my app in sb environment. Becasue I was too lazy then. I am figuring how to start vnc now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antartica

2. Have you checked there are no missing libraries in the iliad for them? (executing them from the command line doesn't complain about a not found libary)

I think I have put needed lib to the same dir by specifying --prefix=. I also set LD_LIBRARY_PATH in script. I also tried to execute it from command prompt and fix missing lib, if any. Finally, I got "Segmentation Fault".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antartica

You may find that the minimum version of the libc that works with gcc4.1 is greater than the one on the iliad (2.3.3 beta, if I'm not mistaken). Anyway, look at the tested gc/libc combination matrix at crosstool site. If you have to use a newer libc, that would mean that you have to include that libc with your app (Adam did this for one of his ports; gnumeric IIRC), and then your package would be rather big...

What you said above is just what I want to know. Dependency is so compilcated for me that I can't be sure if my environment is qualified to build.

I still got plenty unsolved questions. But I have to think it over before asking.

ericshliao · 10-08-2008, 03:42 PM

I just found that the tutorial: building a toolchain for the iliad using crosstool (https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Note...sing_crosstool) takes crosstool 0.43 for demonstration, not past 0.42. Who made this update? When?

Antartica · 10-09-2008, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericshliao

I just found that the tutorial: building a toolchain for the iliad using crosstool (https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Note...sing_crosstool) takes crosstool 0.43 for demonstration, not past 0.42. Who made this update? When?

By the diffs, it was on 18 March 2007, see

https://wiki.mobileread.com/index.php...ool&oldid=3331

And it was probably by me, as that is the first version of the page and I was the original author of that page O

.

ericshliao · 11-23-2008, 03:48 AM

Antartica,
in your Notes about building a toolchain for the iliad using crosstool, there is no step for downloading kernel source from iRex. Is it needed?
I tried to follow your instruction, but the patch failed.
The attached file is the output write to stdout when I execute "./demo-iliad-softfloat-29.sh".
Besides, your instruction is based on FW2.09, is any update needed for FW2.11? There is a patch for FW2.11 in iRex. Is it useful for building toolchain?

Added:
in "./demo-iliad-softfloat-29.sh", there is a line

Code:

eval `cat arm-softfloat.dat gcc-3.4.4-glibc-2.3.3.dat` LINUX_DIR=linux-2.4.19 sh all.sh --notest

But "the Note" seems to be based on gcc-3.4.2. For example, the patch is put in gcc-3.4.2 directory.

Code:

mv crosstool/gcc-3.4.2/patches/fix-fixincl-3.4.2.patch crosstool-0.43/patches/gcc-3.4.2/

Is there any discrepancy?

ericshliao · 11-23-2008, 08:57 AM

I modified

Code:

eval `cat arm-softfloat.dat gcc-3.4.4-glibc-2.3.3.dat` LINUX_DIR=linux-2.4.19 sh all.sh --notest

to

Code:

eval `cat arm-softfloat.dat gcc-3.4.2-glibc-2.3.3.dat` LINUX_DIR=linux-2.4.19 sh all.sh --notest

and removed the kernel patch downloaded from iRex.
Crosstool can build gcc now. But I don't know if it does build working app for iLiad. Further test is needed.

Added:

Just had a thought.
Crosstool will download required files and put them in /home/crosstool. For example, kernel 2.4.19 is downloaded as "linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2". Since I iRex's kernel patch is not working on crosstool, if I replace it with patched kernel source from iRex, maybe it will work.

Antartica · 11-24-2008, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericshliao

ICrosstool can build gcc now. But I don't know if it does build working app for iLiad. Further test is needed.

Don't worry, they should work.

The reason the kernel is needed is that the GNU libc needs the kernel sources to obtain some structs to "talk" with the kernel. But the generated libc will work in that kernel and newer ones.

And the executables generated with that libc will work with that version of the libc and newer ones, regardless of the kernel .

So for this case it doesn't really matters as you are building an (slightly) older libc than the one that comes with the iliad, and the executables you generate will be using the libc of the iliad, not the one you compiled..

P.S.: about the instructions in the wiki, I'll try to have a look at them sometime to fix that, but right now I would rather focus on xepdmgr... In the meantime, could you add to the wiki page a note with your fixes? Thanks

ericshliao · 11-24-2008, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antartica

In the meantime, could you add to the wiki page a note with your fixes? Thanks

I am glad to do it.

Added:
just made some modification and addon in Wiki.

jhench · 12-13-2008, 07:09 AM

Hi guys,

I am coming from a slightly different, yet similar low power ARM platform, namely NAS devices like the LaCie EDmini which I am using as my multi-purpose server. Since there is a big community (nas-central.org) community around these devices, and there has been a native toolchain to compile on the devices themselves for quite a time. Storage space on the root file system is not that much of an issue on gigabyte-NAS drives, I would say that's the main difference between them and the iLiad. Otherwise, most of today's NAS machines are based on an ARM CPU and 64 MB of RAM, just like our iLiad.

Since I have been compiling all software I needed directly on the NAS (e.g. over night

due to the slow CPU) I am wondering if this was an option for the iLiad as well. Does anyone of you know how I could arrange it to put e.g. antarctica's native toolchain on the iLiad to get a compiler on the iLiad? I think it should be possible, but I just want to make sure that this would not break the whole system due to built-in software components that might get changed. It should also be stored on the CF card as the toolchain (maybe even a minimalistic one) would not really fit on the root file system.

Is there anyone out there who has already compiled things ON the iliad directly? It would be really nice if one could compile a bit in the background while reading

.

hansel · 12-13-2008, 07:43 AM

Hi Jhench,

I think 64MB ram is not enough to run gcc
What you CAN do is run arm-gcc on an emulated computer.

I've experimented with Qemu: you can set- up a virtual ARM computer runing Linux (I used Debian etch). I was able to install and run arm-gcc-3.4. What stopped me was the fact that the stuff on the Iliad uses software floating point and the Debian gcc uses hardware floating point (binary incompatible object files). Didn't have time to investigate further...

Here are some QEMU links; hope it helps...

http://www.aurel32.net/info/debian_arm_qemu.php
http://technowizah.com/2007/02/debia...l-machine.html

Hansel.

09-20-2008, 03:43 PM	#18
ericshliao Guru Posts: 976 Karma: 687 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Dell X51v; iLiad v2	I see that ScratchBox also provide some arm toolchain. Are they working for iLiad development? Why choose crosstool? Can the kernel patch provide by iRex applied to toolchain provide by ScratchBox? BTW, I tried to incorporate the official SDK with ScratchBox but failed. Any one succeeded? Sorry for all the questions. I found it really difficult (for me) to build a cross-compiling environment if I want to try a different path. Last edited by ericshliao; 09-20-2008 at 03:50 PM.

11-23-2008, 08:57 AM	#26
ericshliao Guru Posts: 976 Karma: 687 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Dell X51v; iLiad v2	I modified Code: eval `cat arm-softfloat.dat gcc-3.4.4-glibc-2.3.3.dat` LINUX_DIR=linux-2.4.19 sh all.sh --notest to Code: eval `cat arm-softfloat.dat gcc-3.4.2-glibc-2.3.3.dat` LINUX_DIR=linux-2.4.19 sh all.sh --notest and removed the kernel patch downloaded from iRex. Crosstool can build gcc now. But I don't know if it does build working app for iLiad. Further test is needed. Added: Just had a thought. Crosstool will download required files and put them in /home/crosstool. For example, kernel 2.4.19 is downloaded as "linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2". Since I iRex's kernel patch is not working on crosstool, if I replace it with patched kernel source from iRex, maybe it will work. Last edited by ericshliao; 11-23-2008 at 09:54 AM.

12-13-2008, 07:09 AM	#29
jhench Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2008 Device: irex iliad (black)	really native toolchain? Hi guys, I am coming from a slightly different, yet similar low power ARM platform, namely NAS devices like the LaCie EDmini which I am using as my multi-purpose server. Since there is a big community (nas-central.org) community around these devices, and there has been a native toolchain to compile on the devices themselves for quite a time. Storage space on the root file system is not that much of an issue on gigabyte-NAS drives, I would say that's the main difference between them and the iLiad. Otherwise, most of today's NAS machines are based on an ARM CPU and 64 MB of RAM, just like our iLiad. Since I have been compiling all software I needed directly on the NAS (e.g. over night due to the slow CPU) I am wondering if this was an option for the iLiad as well. Does anyone of you know how I could arrange it to put e.g. antarctica's native toolchain on the iLiad to get a compiler on the iLiad? I think it should be possible, but I just want to make sure that this would not break the whole system due to built-in software components that might get changed. It should also be stored on the CF card as the toolchain (maybe even a minimalistic one) would not really fit on the root file system. Is there anyone out there who has already compiled things ON the iliad directly? It would be really nice if one could compile a bit in the background while reading .

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09-18-2008, 11:21 AM	#16
ericshliao Guru Posts: 976 Karma: 687 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Dell X51v; iLiad v2	The crosstool mentioned above has a newer version: 0.43. Any update to this thread?

10-08-2008, 07:20 AM	#20
ericshliao Guru Posts: 976 Karma: 687 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Dell X51v; iLiad v2	Now, I have incorporated iRex official SDK with ScratchBox and built some working apps. Too bad many others not working on iLiad even though I can build it. I just found that some apps need GCC >=4.10. So, I am trying to build a GCC4.11 with crosstools for ScratchBox. Please give some suggestion or anything might be of help. Thanx.

10-08-2008, 03:42 PM	#23
ericshliao Guru Posts: 976 Karma: 687 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Dell X51v; iLiad v2	I just found that the tutorial: building a toolchain for the iliad using crosstool (https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Note...sing_crosstool) takes crosstool 0.43 for demonstration, not past 0.42. Who made this update? When?

12-13-2008, 07:43 AM	#30
hansel JSR FFD2 Posts: 305 Karma: 1045 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands, Europe, Sol 3 Device: iliad	Hi Jhench, I think 64MB ram is not enough to run gcc What you CAN do is run arm-gcc on an emulated computer. I've experimented with Qemu: you can set- up a virtual ARM computer runing Linux (I used Debian etch). I was able to install and run arm-gcc-3.4. What stopped me was the fact that the stuff on the Iliad uses software floating point and the Debian gcc uses hardware floating point (binary incompatible object files). Didn't have time to investigate further... Here are some QEMU links; hope it helps... http://www.aurel32.net/info/debian_arm_qemu.php http://technowizah.com/2007/02/debia...l-machine.html Hansel.

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