Installing Emdebian ARM Cross Toolchain in Debian
I had previously installed Sourcery G++ ARM Linux toolchain in Ubuntu to build some software running in Debian, but I encountered some issues with some libraries (libavg) that use gethostbyname in static libraries without any easy way to make it dynamic. In that case, the library in the rootfs and cross-compiler must match. So I decided to install Debian Squeeze (6.0.3) and the corresponding cross-toolchain by Emdebian (short for Embedded Debian).
First to use this toolchain, add the URL to get Emdebian packages to /etc/apt/sources.list:
#
# — Emdebian cross toolchains
#
deb http://www.emdebian.org/debian/ squeeze main
Then install Emdebian public key:
apt-get install emdebian-archive-keyring
apt-get update
If you don’t install the key, you’ll get the following error:
W: GPG error: http://www.emdebian.org squeeze Release: The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY B5B7720097BB3B58
Search and install packages for the architecture that you need, in this case ‘armel’:
apt-cache search armel
This command will return a long list of armel packages.
Install the relevant package (you can check the version you want in the list returned above):
apt-get install linux-libc-dev-armel-cross
apt-get install libc6-armel-cross libc6-dev-armel-cross
apt-get install binutils-arm-linux-gnueabi
apt-get install gcc-4.4-arm-linux-gnueabi
apt-get install g++-4.4-arm-linux-gnueabi
The ARM toolchain is now installed:
# arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: arm-linux-gnueabi
Configured with: ../src/configure -v –with-pkgversion=’Debian 4.4.5-8′ –with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.4/README.Bugs –enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ –prefix=/usr –program-suffix=-4.4 –enable-shared –enable-multiarch –enable-linker-build-id –with-system-zlib –libexecdir=/usr/lib –without-included-gettext –enable-threads=posix –with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/include/c++/4.4.5 –libdir=/usr/lib –enable-nls –enable-clocale=gnu –enable-libstdcxx-debug –enable-objc-gc –disable-sjlj-exceptions –enable-checking=release –program-prefix=arm-linux-gnueabi- –includedir=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/include –build=i486-linux-gnu –host=i486-linux-gnu –target=arm-linux-gnueabi –with-headers=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/include –with-libs=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/lib
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.4.5 (Debian 4.4.5-8)
If you need to install more pre-built ARMEL libraries, you’ll need to install xapt and dpkg-cross:
apt-get install pdebuild-cross dpkg-cross
Finally, to install an ARMEL library (e.g. libpng12-0), run xapt as follows:
/usr/share/pdebuild-cross/xapt -a armel libpng12-0 --force-yes
Most of the instructions come from http://wiki.debian.org/EmdebianToolchain#Get_the_binaries for Debian Lenny.
Thank you for this tutorial.
It helped me a lot.
But I have troubles retrieving libcv2.1 for arm.
I need to compile a program for ARM and using opencv for arm.
When I do : xapt -a armel libcv2.1 it says some package are not installed (ex libcv2.1:i386).
I’ve got Linux Mint 12 Lisa 64 bit.
Any tips or hints? Thanks!
I’m running Debian right now,
and “aptitude search opencv” only returns:p opencv-doc – OpenCV documentation and examples
p python-opencv – Python bindings for the computer vision li
v python2.6-opencv –
So opencv may not be available in the binary repositories.
So you’d probably have to cross-compile OpenCV by yourself, following instructions such as http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Building_OpenCV_for_ARM_Cortex-A8.Edit: Sorry I should have looked for libcv, not opencv.
Running “sudo /usr/share/pdebuild-cross/xapt -a armel libcv2.1 –force-yes” works for me in Debian Squeeze. I’m no sure what’s the problem on your side. It does not seem right that xapt is looking for libcv2.1:i386 for armel..
@cnxsoft
Thank you for the reply.
Are you running on Debian 64bits?
I’m on Linux Mint 12 64bits.
Here it’s what i got :
libcv2.1:i386 : Depends: libc6:i386 (>= 2.4) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libgcc1:i386 (>= 1:4.1.1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: liblapack3gf:i386 but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libstdc++6:i386 (>= 4.1.1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: zlib1g:i386 (>= 1:1.1.4) but it is not going to be installed
I ‘ve got pdebuild (2.2.18) and xapt (2.2.18).
Also, I can’t use “sudo /usr/share/pdebuild-cross/xapt -a armel libcv2.1 –force-yes”, there isn’t xapt in this folder…
@kurky18
I’m using Debian 32 bits.
Have you been able to install other armel libs with xapt?
The images are for Debian, so I’m not sure if it would work on Mint. You might want to try something like:
xapt -a armel -M http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian -S squeeze libcv2.1 –force-yes
@ cnxsoft
Yeah! It’s seems to be working
Thank you for the help
Hi!
I tried to install apt-get install gcc-4.4-arm-linux-gnueabi and apt-get install g++-4.4-arm-linux-gnueabi, but i got an error.
gcc-4.4-arm-linux-gnueabi depends on cpp-4.4-arm-linux-gnueabi (= 4.4.5-8) but shouldn’t be installed.
If i try to install cpp-4.4-arm-linux-gnueabi directly, it says “depends on libgmp3c2 but it is not installable.
Same with g++-4.4-arm-linux-gnueabi.
Any tips? Thanks!
@ quintusfelix
When I run into this kind of issues, I usually run “sudo apt-get install -f” and everything is miraculously fixed (most of the time).