Cross Compiling libavg for ARM

libavg is a high-level development platform for media-centric applications using Python as scripting language and written in C++.

Bear in mind that are many dependencies with libavg 1.6. I have not built all the libraries required, but instead simply taken the pre-built binaries and header files in the qemu overo image and copied the files as follows:

mkdir mnt
sudo mount -o loop,offset=$[106496*512] overo_sd_alip.img mnt
mkdir ~/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib -p
mkdir ~/edev/beagleboard/libs/include
cp mnt/usr/lib/* ~/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib/ -rf -d
cp mnt/lib/* ~/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib/ -rf -d
cp /mnt/usr/include/* ~/edev/beagleboard/libs/include -rf -d
sudo umount mnt

The -d flag skips the symlink, so we need to recreate then for all library so that the compiler can find libname.so instead of libname.so.12. Save the following scripts to symlinks.sh:


and run it where the arm libraries are located (in my case in /home/jaufranc/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib, /home/jaufranc/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib/arm-linux-gnueabi and /home/jaufranc/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib/mesa). This will  create symlinks for most libraries, but not all. Some will still have to be created manually, e.g.:

ln -s libboost_thread.so.1.42.0 libboost_thread.so
ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.8 libcrypto.so
ln -s libssl.so.0.9.8 libssl.so

Also delete the symlink between libjpeg.so and libjpeg.so.8 since we use another version of the library.

If a symlink is missing, we would generally get a warning of the type:

/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabi/4.6.1/../../../../arm-linux-gnueabi/bin/ld: warning: libGL.so.1, needed by /home/jaufranc/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib/libGLU.so, not found (try using -rpath or -rpath-link)

Once this is done, here are the instructions to cross-compile libavg 1.6 for ARM:

  1. First build and install MesaLib for ARM (version 7.9.2), as the default Mesa/OpenGL library in the qemu image has more dependencies.
  2. Download libavg 1.6 source code

    wget http://www.libavg.de/raw-attachment/wiki/DownLoad/libavg-1.6.0.tar.gz

  3. Extract it

    tar xzvf libavg-1.6.0.tar.gz
    cd libavg-1.6.0

  4. Install the following development packages:

    sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev libpango1.0-dev libgraphicsmagick++1-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libfaad-dev libgsm1-dev libogg-dev libschroedinger-dev libspeex-dev libswscale-dev libboost-dev libboost-thread-dev

  5. Remove SSE2 options in configure script:

    cat configure | sed s/-msse2// > configure.arm
    mv configure.arm configure
    chmod 755 configure

  6. There is some x86 assembler in the code, we need to disable it.
    Edit src/base/Exception.ccp and comment out the line:

    asm(“int $3”);

  7. To prevent testplayer from failing. Edit src/player/Makefile and make sure your replace occurences of -L/usr/include -lSDL, by -L/home/jaufranc/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib and create a symlink for the SDL library:

    ln -s libSDL-1.2.so libSDL.so

    You may also need to edit the Makefile as above for src/anim and src/wrapper

  8. Configure, build and install libavg:


This was tested in Ubuntu 11.04 (natty) with linaro gcc toolchain.

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12 Replies to “Cross Compiling libavg for ARM”

  1. I’ve also cross-compiled it with Sourcery G++ Lite IA32 GNU/Linux TAR package using ARMEL debian squeeze libraries (used for Raspberry Pi) with the following configure script params:

    CFLAGS=-I/home/jaufranc/edev/raspberry-pi/libs/include CXXFLAGS=-I/home/jaufranc/edev/raspberry-pi/libs/include LDFLAGS="-L/home/jaufranc/edev/raspberry-pi/libs/lib -L/home/jaufranc/edev/raspberry-pi/libs/usr/lib -lGL -lX11 -lXxf86vm -lXdamage -lXfixes -ldrm \
    -lXext -lc -lxcb -lXau -lXdmcp -lz -llcms -ltiff -lfreetype -ljasper -ljpeg \
    -lpng12 -lwmflite-0.2 -lltdl -lSM -lICE -lbz2 -luuid -lgsm -lspeex \
    -ltheoradec -ltheoraenc -lvorbis -lvorbisenc -lschroedinger-1.0 -lorc-0.4 \
    -logg -lcrypto -lssl -lpulse-simple -lpulse -lgdbm -lcap -lasyncns \
    -lpulsecommon-0.9.21 -lXtst -lxcb-atom -ldbus-1 -lwrap -lsndfile \
    -lFLAC -ldl -lm -lexpat -lpcre -lXi -lattr -lgomp -ldirectfb -lfusion -ldirect -ldirac_encoder -lfaad -lopenjpeg -ltheora -lpython2.6" ./configure --target=arm-none-linux-gnueabi --host=arm-none-linux-gnueabi --prefix=/home/jaufranc/edev/raspberry-pi/libs --disable-v4l2 --disable-dc1394 --disable-sdltest

  2. @cnxsoft
    Finally, I had to use Sourcery G++ Lite 2010q1-202 for ARM GNU/Linux (an older version) to avoid problems while avg.so loads related to the toolchain having a more recent libstdc++ than the rootfs.

    I also had to recompile dirac-1.0.2 and install libdirac_encoder.so to the rootfs.

  3. Hi @cnxsoft.

    I have a question about that installation parts. When i tried to use the command:
    sudo mount -o loop,offset=$[106496*512]beagle_sd_alip_x11.img mnt

    I always got the error which is:

    mount: can’t find mnt in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

    If you can give me a hand with that issue i ll be so glad. Thanks in advance.

  4. @ cnxsoft

    Thanks for the quick reply. It is ok now. But again I got a problem while trying to use the command:
    cp mnt/usr/lib/* ~/edev/beagleboard/libs/lib/ -rf -d

    Terminal is complaining about “cp: cannot stat `mnt/usr/lib/*’: No such file or directory”. I am following your instructions to get Xibo run on arm environment from that link:”http://www.cnx-software.com/2011/10/04/xibo-digital-signage-on-arm-beagleboard-overo/” . I created the folder of mnt but am I supposed to create mnt/usr and so on?

    About buiding 1.6. I dont know if 1.7 is compatitable with Xibo display so if it is ok I ll take a look at it other then 1.6.

    Thanks in advance.

  5. When I try to remount it again I got a warning which is: “mount: according to mtab /home/vestel/beagle_sd_alip_x11.img is already mounted on /mnt/ as loop” so i guess it is successful?

    I go over the link that you give and I got the same number too. I have a little info about that linux environment and the reason why I am trying to see the results of Xibo on ARM is we are using arm board on our smart boxes and want to implement a client into them. We got some parts from beagleboard so i ll give it a try on our boxes too. Since writng a new client for Android is gonna take a bunch of time I am hoping to manage it through your articles.

    Thank you for your information.

  6. Yes. I figured it out afterwards too. Wasted a bit time on it tough=). Well I ll give information if i can do it properly.

    Thanks for your patience.

  7. @ Peter
    I’m not sure if it’s better or not, but a lot of development for ARM is done on Ubuntu, so It might be a better idea.
    The instructions above are for libavg 1.6, I’ve posted new ones for libavg 1.7, and if you checkout libavg from svn, it already supports ARM without modifying the code.

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