This document shows you how to compile and install the GNU Tools for
the ARM microcontroller under the Linux or Unix operating systems. Please
note that it is much easier to install the precompiled binary image for
Linux (as found on this CD-ROM). If you do choose to recompile the
GNU Tools, as explained in this document, expect to spend about two to
three hours doing so (depending, of course, on the speed of your
machine).
There are three main methods of compiling the GNU Tools: by compiling a
set of combined sources (as described in this document), by compiling the individual source
directories, or by recreating
the binary package. In general, the simplest of these three methods
is the one described here: it tends to be less problematic, slightly
faster and somewhat more convenient, as it involves less steps. The individual sources method should
only be used when this one fails (and that should be quite rare indeed).
Recreating the binary package
should be undertaken by system administrators wanting to retain complete
control of their system… or those wanting to update this CD-ROM.
In order to successfully compile, install and run the GNU Tools, you
will need to meet at least the following requirements:
| 1. |
A Linux, Unix or Unix-like operating system, with all of the usual
utilities, system header files and libraries, as well as the X11 Window
System (with header files and libraries), Perl, GNU gzip and bzip2, |
| 2. |
An ANSI-compatible C compiler tool-set, such as the GNU Compiler
Collection (gcc), |
| 3. |
At least 850 MB of free disk space, |
| 4. |
At least two to three hours of free time, and |
| 5. |
The password to the root superuser’s account on your
system. |
Compiling and installing the GNU Tools is not that complicated
(although there are rather a lot of steps), but be careful that you type
in the commands exactly as shown. These instructions assume that you have
already mounted the CD-ROM on your computer, and that the mount
point (where the CD-ROM can be found within the file system) is /mnt/cdrom. See the instructions for mounting the
CD-ROM for more details.
| 1. |
Log in as an ordinary user, not as the root superuser. This is
highly recommended and is standard Unix practice. In fact, you should
never directly log in as the root superuser; this helps save you
from your own mistakes and/or any viruses that can destroy the working of
your system! |
| 2. |
Create a directory to contain the sources. Note that at least
740 MB of space is required for both the source code and build files.
In this document, /var/tmp/src will be used for the
sources: |
|
$ | mkdir /var/tmp/src |
$ | cd /var/tmp/src |
|
| 3. |
Locate the appropriate sources, either on this CD-ROM, or by downloading the source code archives from the
Internet. Assuming the CD-ROM is mounted on /mnt/cdrom, the source code archives can be found in ![[List]](../../misc/file-icons/folder-open.png) /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src. |
| 4. |
Unpack the sources: |
|
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/binutils-2.14.tar.gz | tar xv |
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/gcc-core-3.3.tar.gz | tar xv |
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/gcc-g++-3.3.tar.gz | tar xv |
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/insight-5.3.tar.gz | tar xv |
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/newlib-1.11.0.tar.gz | tar xv |
|
|
If your version of tar is compatible with GNU tar, you can use
tar xzvf ... instead of gzip -dc ... | tar xv: this
will save a couple of minutes… |
|
If you are using sources that you downloaded from the Internet,
you would replace /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src with the
location of those sources, of course. Archives having .tar.gz on the end of their filename require GNU gzip;
those with .tar.bz2 require
bzip2. |
| 5. |
Apply the appropriate patches (on this CD-ROM, or from the Internet) to the sources: |
|
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/binutils-2.14.patch.gz | patch -p0 |
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/gcc-3.3.patch.gz | patch -p0 |
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/insight-5.3.patch.gz | patch -p0 |
$ | gzip -dc /mnt/cdrom/gnutools/src/newlib-1.11.0.patch.gz | patch -p0 |
|
|
Please note that parts of these patches may not need to be applied
to later versions of the GNU Tools. You are on your own if you decide to
use versions of software different from those described in this document!
However, you might like to see if later versions of
the patches exist on the Internet before giving up. |
| 6. |
Create a directory that will contain the combined sources and
change to it: |
|
$ | mkdir combined |
$ | cd combined |
|
| 7. |
Create symbolic links to the real source code files for the
binutils, gcc and
newlib packages, using the symlink-tree script
that is supplied on the CD-ROM: |
|
$ | /mnt/cdrom/utils/unsw/src/symlink-tree ../binutils-2.14 ../gcc-3.3 ../newlib-1.11.0 |
|
|
Please note that you may need to insert a corrective step (essentially, step 7a) at this
point to fix up certain symbolic links, depending on the version numbers
of the archive files. See the section on common
problems for more details. This corrective step is not
necessary with gcc 3.3 and binutils 2.14. |
| 8. |
Create a separate directory in which to build the sources. In
this document, /var/tmp/build will be used: |
|
$ | mkdir /var/tmp/build |
$ | cd /var/tmp/build |
$ | mkdir combined insight-5.3 |
|
| 9. |
Configure the combined sources: |
|
$ | cd /var/tmp/build/combined |
$ | /var/tmp/src/combined/configure --target=arm-elf --with-newlib |
|
| 10. |
Configure insight. This package requires the X11
Window System header files and libraries: |
|
$ | cd ../insight-5.3 |
$ | /var/tmp/src/insight-5.3/configure --target=arm-elf |
|
| 11. |
Compile the combined sources. Once you have issued this command,
you can go for an extended coffee break… |
|
$ | cd ../combined && make all && cd ../insight-5.3 && make all |
|
|
(If the compilation terminates with an error, read the section on
common problems for some suggestions of what you
should check.) |
| 12. |
As the root superuser, install the compiled combined sources. You
will need the root superuser’s password: |
|
$ | /bin/su |
# | cd ../combined && make install && cd ../insight-5.3 && make install |
|
| 13. |
Still as the root superuser, clean up a number of installation
issues and reduce the size of the final installation: |
|
# | cd /usr/local/bin |
# | strip arm-elf-* |
# | cd /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/arm-elf/3.2.1 |
# | strip cc1 cc1plus collect2 cpp0 tradcpp0 |
# | exit |
|
| 14. |
(Optional) Remove the source code and build files to reclaim about
740 MB of disk space (the final binaries take about 110 MB of
space): |
|
$ | cd /var/tmp |
$ | rm -fr src build |
|
| 15. |
You have successfully compiled and installed the GNU Tools for the
ARM microcontroller! |
In most cases, you will not encounter any problems in compiling and
installing the GNU Tools. There might be exceptions, however. The
following is a list of things you should check if the compilation (the
“make all” step) terminates with an error:
| 1. |
Check that you entered all commands exactly as specified.
Please note that your browser may split up commands over a number of lines
(depending on the width of your browser window); that does not mean you do
the same! Each shell prompt (“$” or
“#”) indicates a single command
line. |
| 2. |
One of the non-obvious things to check is that the /usr/local/arm-elf/sys-include directory does not exist
on your system. If it does exist, remove it and reissue make
all. If that still fails, type rm -fr
/var/tmp/build/combined/*, then jump back to step 9. |
| 3. |
The method of compilation described in this document sometimes
fails due to version mismatches of files in shared directories. The usual
symptom is an error message that a particular function or include file
could not be found (an “undefined reference”). Fixing this
requires you to experiment a little with the symlink-tree
program (used in step 7). It helps to
understand just what is going on. |
|
All of the individual components (source code archives) that form
part of the GNU Tools are generated from a single
CVS repository. Parts of these archives are directories that are
shared between various components. Sometimes these shared directories can
become “out of sync” with each other: this happens if the
individual components are released at different times, and development
continues on files in those shared directories in the meantime. |
|
This problem is a real one for some versions of
binutils and gcc! You may need to rearrange the
order of directories listed in the symlink-tree command line
(step 7) before you proceed to step 9: in general, the package that was released
later (by date) is listed before an older package. Alternatively, you can
experiment with the following command lines to fix the problem: |
|
$ | cd /var/tmp/src/combined |
$ | for d in include libiberty; do (cd $d; for q in `ls -lA | grep gcc | awk '{print $9}'`; do if [ -e ../../binutils-version/$d/$q ]; then echo $d/$q; rm $q; ln -s ../../binutils-version/$d/$q; fi; done); done |
|
|
(Remember that the line beginning with “for d
in” above is a single line! Note the use of the back-tick
character “`” in this line. You also need to
replace version with the version number of the
binutils package, such as 2.13.2.1) |
|
If you get as far as step 10 before you
realise that you need to perform these acrobatics, you will need to delete
everything in /var/tmp/build/combined (try rm
-fr /var/tmp/build/combined/*), fix what is needed, then jump to step 9. |