February 4, 2011May 12, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

Cross-compiling Python for MIPS and ARM Platforms

Python programming language is used in several open source projects such as Sugar OS and Xibo. Let’s see if we can cross-compile it in Ubuntu 10.10 using a mips compiler.

I’ll use the instructions given at http://randomsplat.com/id5-cross-compiling-python-for-embedded-linux.html.

Let’s download Python 2.7.1 first and extract the source code:

tar xjvf Python-2.7.1.tar.bz2

1	tar xjvf Python-2.7.1.tar.bz2

Then run the following command in Python-2.7.1 in order to build some tools for the host:

./configure
 make python Parser/pgen
 mv python hostpython
 mv Parser/pgen Parser/hostpgen
 make distclean

./configure

make python Parser/pgen

mv python hostpython

mv Parser/pgen Parser/hostpgen

make distclean

There is no patch for Python 2.7.1 cross-compilation in the link above, so let’s just try to configure and build it:

CC=mipsel-linux-gcc CXX=mipsel-linux-g++ AR=mipsel-linux-ar RANLIB=mipsel-linux-ranlib ./configure --host=mipsel-linux --target=mipsel-linux --prefix=/python
make HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython HOSTPGEN=./Parser/hostpgen BLDSHARED="mipsel-linux-gcc -shared" CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes

CC=mipsel-linux-gcc CXX=mipsel-linux-g++ AR=mipsel-linux-ar RANLIB=mipsel-linux-ranlib ./configure --host=mipsel-linux --target=mipsel-linux --prefix=/python

make HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython HOSTPGEN=./Parser/hostpgen BLDSHARED="mipsel-linux-gcc -shared" CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes

If we don’t use a patch the first error is:

Include/pyport.h:243:13: error: #error "This platform's pyconfig.h needs to define PY_FORMAT_LONG_LONG"

1	Include/pyport.h:243:13: error: #error "This platform's pyconfig.h needs to define PY_FORMAT_LONG_LONG"

So I used some older patch to create a new patch: http://www.cnx-software.com/patch/python-2.7.1-cross-compile.patch. You can download it an apply it as follows:

patch -p1 < python-2.7.1-cross-compile.patch

1	patch -p1 < python-2.7.1-cross-compile.patch

And repeat the step above to configure and cross-compile Python for mips.

Finally install Python in ~/Python-2.7.1/install for example:

make install HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython BLDSHARED="mipsel-linux-gcc -shared" CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes prefix=~/Python-2.7.1/install

1	make install HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython BLDSHARED="mipsel-linux-gcc -shared" CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes prefix=~/Python-2.7.1/install

After that copy all necessary files in ~/Python-2.7.1/install to your target board and run the python test:

python lib/Python2.7/test/test___all___.py

1	python lib/Python2.7/test/test___all___.py

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

23 Replies to “Cross-compiling Python for MIPS and ARM Platforms”

novita says:

August 25, 2011 at 12:53

hi,

what should I type for ARM instead of MIPS ?

thank you

Reply
1. cnxsoft says:
  
  August 25, 2011 at 12:58
  
  You need to change that part:
  
  CC=mipsel-linux-gcc CXX=mipsel-linux-g++ AR=mipsel-linux-ar RANLIB=mipsel-linux-ranlib ./configure –host=mipsel-linux –target=mipsel-linux –prefix=/python
  
  make HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython HOSTPGEN=./Parser/hostpgen BLDSHARED=”mipsel-linux-gcc -shared” CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes
  
  But it depends on the name of your ARM cross-compiler. If you are using Linaro gcc: arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc, then it would be something like:
  
  CC=arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc CXX=arm-linux-gnueabi-g++ AR=arm-linux-gnueabi-ar RANLIB=arm-linux-gnueabi-ranlib ./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabi –target=arm-linux-gnueabi –prefix=/python
  
  make HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython HOSTPGEN=./Parser/hostpgen BLDSHARED=”mipsel-linux-gcc -shared” CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes
  
  Reply
maciej walczak says:

October 8, 2011 at 00:04

And how add support for dbus and glib to python running on arm ? I made this procedure and everything works just fine but I need also dbus python module, do you have any guide how to do it ?

Reply
1. cnxsoft says:
  
  October 8, 2011 at 08:17
  
  Sorry, I haven’t done this. But the code for dbus and glib can be downloaded so I suppose it should not be a problem.
  I’ve checked the code at http://dbus.freedesktop.org/releases/dbus-python/
  It seems you can just do something like:
  
  CC=mipsel-linux-gcc CXX=mipsel-linux-g++ AR=mipsel-linux-ar RANLIB=mipsel-linux-ranlib ./configure –host=mipsel-linux –target=mipsel-linux –prefix=/python
  make
  make install
  
  Reply
sai says:

March 23, 2016 at 11:33

@cnxsoft
for arm, make file created successfully without errors. But when i make by using the command
make HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython HOSTPGEN=./Parser/hostpgen BLDSHARED=”arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -shared” CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes

i got the error as

arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -c -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -I. -IInclude -I./Include -DPy_BUILD_CORE -o Modules/python.o ./Modules/python.c
In file included from Include/Python.h:58:0,
from ./Modules/python.c:3:
Include/pyport.h:243:13: error: #error “This platform’s pyconfig.h needs to define PY_FORMAT_LONG_LONG”
make: *** [Modules/python.o] Error 1

Help me to solve the issue..

Reply
sai says:

March 23, 2016 at 11:43

It successfully created make file for arm, But while make by using the command

make HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython HOSTPGEN=./Parser/hostpgen BLDSHARED=”arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -shared” CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes

i get the error as

arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -Xlinker -export-dynamic -o python \
Modules/python.o \
libpython2.7.a -lpthread -ldl -lpthread -lutil -lm
File “./setup.py”, line 316
self.announce(‘*** WARNING: renaming “%s” since importing it’
^
IndentationError: expected an indented block
make: *** [sharedmods] Error 1

Help me to solve..

Reply
cnxsoft says:

March 23, 2016 at 11:47

@sai
Maybe it’s because of the compiler you use.

Reply
sai says:

March 24, 2016 at 18:26

To cross compiling Python 3.5 for arm, what the patch i have to use ? or any other process to cross compile.
Suggest me

Reply
sai says:

March 25, 2016 at 10:53

cnxsoft :
@sai
Maybe it’s because of the compiler you use.

thq

Reply
Steven says:

October 11, 2016 at 13:26

Hi all,

when I’m executing this command “CC=mipsel-linux-gcc CXX=mipsel-linux-g++ AR=mipsel-linux-ar RANLIB=mipsel-linux-ranlib ./configure –host=mipsel-linux –target=mipsel-linux –prefix=/python” I’m getting the following error message:
“configure: error: invalid variable name: `–host'” Do you have any idea whats causing this?

Thank you

Reply
cnxsoft says:

October 11, 2016 at 13:59

@Steven
Sorry there was some problems with the website platform (WordPress) .
where double hyphen

--

1

--

would show as a single hyphen

-

1

-

I’ve now updated the post to fix the issue. The instructions are old so they may not work with the latest version Python, but should still work with Python 2.7.

Reply
Manikanta says:

May 12, 2017 at 17:45

When i am running this command

make install HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython BLDSHARED=”arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -shared” CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes prefix=/home/arm_install

getting the error as

/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 ./LICENSE /home/arm_install/lib/python2.7/LICENSE.txt
PYTHONPATH=/home/arm_install/lib/python2.7 \
./hostpython -Wi -tt /home/arm_install/lib/python2.7/compileall.py \
-d /home/arm_install/lib/python2.7 -f \
-x ‘bad_coding|badsyntax|site-packages|lib2to3/tests/data’ \
/home/arm_install/lib/python2.7
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/home/arm_install/lib/python2.7/compileall.py”, line 17, in
import struct
File “/home/arm_install/lib/python2.7/struct.py”, line 1, in
from _struct import *
ImportError: /u02/python_crosscompile/Python-2.7.1/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/_struct.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32
make: *** [libinstall] Error 1

what is this ? How to solve.

Reply
cnxsoft says:

May 12, 2017 at 17:51

@Manikanta
It could be a 32-bit/64-bit issue. Try to look for “wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32” error on the web.

Reply
1. liucong says:
  
  December 27, 2018 at 16:57
  
  ake install HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython BLDSHARED=”mipsel-linux-gcc -shared” CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes prefix=/home/liucong/Python-2.7.1/install
  Parser/pgen ./Grammar/Grammar ./Include/graminit.h ./Python/graminit.c
  Parser/pgen: Parser/pgen: cannot execute binary file
  make: [Include/graminit.h] Error 126 (ignored)
  Parser/pgen ./Grammar/Grammar ./Include/graminit.h ./Python/graminit.c
  Parser/pgen: Parser/pgen: cannot execute binary file
  make: [Python/graminit.c] Error 126 (ignored)
  /usr/bin/install -c python /home/liucong/Python-2.7.1/install/bin/python2.7
  if test -f libpython2.7.a; then \
  if test -n “” ; then \
  /usr/bin/install -c -m 555 /home/liucong/Python-2.7.1/install/bin; \
  else \
  /usr/bin/install -c -m 555 libpython2.7.a /home/liucong/Python-2.7.1/install/lib/libpython2.7.a; \
  if test libpython2.7.a != libpython2.7.a; then \
  (cd /home/liucong/Python-2.7.1/install/lib; ln -sf libpython2.7.a libpython2.7.a) \
  fi \
  fi; \
  else true; \
  fi
  File “./setup.py”, line 316
  self.announce(‘*** WARNING: renaming “%s” since importing it’
  ^
  IndentationError: expected an indented block
  make: *** [sharedmods] Error 1
  [liucong@centos Python-2.7.1]$ vim setup.py
  [liucong@centos Python-2.7.1]$ uname -a
  Linux centos 2.6.32-696.3.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue May 30 19:52:55 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
  [liucong@centos Python-2.7.1]$
  how to solve this problem,thanks
  
  Reply
  1. cnxsoft says:
    
    December 27, 2018 at 17:12
    
    Linux 2.6.. you are using a really old Linux distribution.
    But anyway, is it a MIPS system? I can see it fails to run Parser/pgen
    
    Reply
    1. tkaiser says:
      
      December 27, 2018 at 17:20
      
      > But anyway, is it a MIPS system?
      
      x64 running CentOS 6.
      
      Reply
      1. cnxsoft says:
        
        December 27, 2018 at 17:25
        
        Yes.. I should have paid more attention to the log.
        The OP should look at Parser/pgen with file or other tools.
      2. liucong says:
        
        December 28, 2018 at 08:02
        
        I want to cross compile Python for mips on x64 running centos 6, how to solve this problem or what should I do?thanks
      3. cnxsoft says:
        
        December 28, 2018 at 09:09
        
        You need to solve this issue:
        “Parser/pgen: Parser/pgen: cannot execute binary file”
        
        Analyze the file with “file” utility, and possibly run the make command in verbose mode:
        
        make V=1 install....
        
        1
        
        make V=1 install....
      4. liucong says:
        
        December 28, 2018 at 10:07
        
        today,I trying . I found this problem to occur after the command was executed.this problem stills exists
        make HOSTPYTHON=./hostpython HOSTPGEN=./Parser/hostpgen BLDSHARED=”mipsel-linux-gcc -shared” CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux- CROSS_COMPILE_TARGET=yes
        
        configure: WARNING: If you wanted to set the –build type, don’t use –host.
        If a cross compiler is detected then cross compile mode will be used.
        checking for –enable-universalsdk… no
        checking for –with-universal-archs… 32-bit
        checking MACHDEP… linux2
        checking EXTRAPLATDIR…
        checking machine type as reported by uname -m… x86_64
        checking for –without-gcc… no
        checking for mipsel-linux-gcc… mipsel-linux-gcc
        checking whether the C compiler works… yes
        checking for C compiler default output file name… a.out
        checking for suffix of executables…
        checking whether we are cross compiling… yes
        checking for suffix of object files… o
        checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler… yes
        checking whether mipsel-linux-gcc accepts -g… yes
        checking for mipsel-linux-gcc option to accept ISO C89… none needed
        checking for –with-cxx-main=… no
        ……………………
        mipsel-linux-gcc -c -fno-strict-aliasing -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -I. -IInclude -I./Include -DPy_BUILD_CORE -DSVNVERSION=”\”LC_ALL=C echo Unversioned directory\”” -o Modules/getbuildinfo.o ./Modules/getbuildinfo.c
        rm -f libpython2.7.a
        mipsel-linux-ar rc libpython2.7.a Modules/getbuildinfo.o
        mipsel-linux-ar rc libpython2.7.a Parser/acceler.o Parser/grammar1.o Parser/listnode.o Parser/node.o Parser/parser.o Parser/parsetok.o Parser/bitset.o Parser/metagrammar.o Parser/firstsets.o Parser/grammar.o Parser/pgen.o Parser/myreadline.o Parser/tokenizer.o
        mipsel-linux-ar rc libpython2.7.a Objects/abstract.o Objects/boolobject.o Objects/bufferobject.o Objects/bytes_methods.o Objects/bytearrayobject.o Objects/capsule.o Objects/cellobject.o Objects/classobject.o Objects/cobject.o Objects/codeobject.o Objects/complexobject.o Objects/descrobject.o Objects/enumobject.o Objects/exceptions.o Objects/genobject.o Objects/fileobject.o Objects/floatobject.o Objects/frameobject.o Objects/funcobject.o Objects/intobject.o Objects/iterobject.o Objects/listobject.o Objects/longobject.o Objects/dictobject.o Objects/memoryobject.o Objects/methodobject.o Objects/moduleobject.o Objects/object.o Objects/obmalloc.o Objects/rangeobject.o Objects/setobject.o Objects/sliceobject.o Objects/stringobject.o Objects/structseq.o Objects/tupleobject.o Objects/typeobject.o Objects/weakrefobject.o Objects/unicodeobject.o Objects/unicodectype.o
        mipsel-linux-ar rc libpython2.7.a Python/_warnings.o Python/Python-ast.o Python/asdl.o Python/ast.o Python/bltinmodule.o Python/ceval.o Python/compile.o Python/codecs.o Python/errors.o Python/frozen.o Python/frozenmain.o Python/future.o Python/getargs.o Python/getcompiler.o Python/getcopyright.o Python/getplatform.o Python/getversion.o Python/graminit.o Python/import.o Python/importdl.o Python/marshal.o Python/modsupport.o Python/mystrtoul.o Python/mysnprintf.o Python/peephole.o Python/pyarena.o Python/pyctype.o Python/pyfpe.o Python/pymath.o Python/pystate.o Python/pythonrun.o Python/structmember.o Python/symtable.o Python/sysmodule.o Python/traceback.o Python/getopt.o Python/pystrcmp.o Python/pystrtod.o Python/dtoa.o Python/formatter_unicode.o Python/formatter_string.o Python/dynload_shlib.o Python/thread.o
        mipsel-linux-ar rc libpython2.7.a Modules/config.o Modules/getpath.o Modules/main.o Modules/gcmodule.o
        mipsel-linux-ar rc libpython2.7.a Modules/threadmodule.o Modules/signalmodule.o Modules/posixmodule.o Modules/errnomodule.o Modules/pwdmodule.o Modules/_sre.o Modules/_codecsmodule.o Modules/_weakref.o Modules/zipimport.o Modules/symtablemodule.o Modules/xxsubtype.o
        mipsel-linux-ranlib libpython2.7.a
        mipsel-linux-gcc -Xlinker -export-dynamic -o python \
        Modules/python.o \
        libpython2.7.a -lpthread -ldl -lpthread -lutil -lm
        libpython2.7.a(posixmodule.o): In function posix_tmpnam': /home/liucong/Python-2.7.1/./Modules/posixmodule.c:7346: warning: the use oftmpnam_r’ is dangerous, better use mkstemp' libpython2.7.a(posixmodule.o): In functionposix_tempnam’:
        /home/liucong/Python-2.7.1/./Modules/posixmodule.c:7301: warning: the use of tempnam' is dangerous, better usemkstemp’
        File “./setup.py”, line 316
        self.announce(‘*** WARNING: renaming “%s” since importing it’
        ^
        IndentationError: expected an indented block
        make: *** [sharedmods] Error 1
      5. willy says:
        
        December 28, 2018 at 13:39
        
        I suspect that this “pgen” utility was built with the cross-compiler instead of being built with your local CC. I’m seeing a HOSTPGEN variable in your build command that makes me think that this utility ought to have been used instead. You should carefully review the makefile to be sure that your variables are properly named and that the resulting utility is usable.

23 Replies to “Cross-compiling Python for MIPS and ARM Platforms”

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