Until now, I used xapt and dpkg-cross to install cross libraries for armel, but since I’ve upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04, it appears to be broken. I’ve contacted Linaro about this issue, and the “cross-building” expert at Linaro (wookey) recommended me to use multiarch instead, as xapt/dpkg-cross will be eventually deprecated.
He provided me an example showing how-to use multiarch to build Chromium. I’ve been looking for a “How-to multiarch”, but haven’t been able to find something really clear and simple, so I thought I would post it here.
In the example, they used a chroot for cross-building, which is probably a good idea to avoid messing up with the system. It’s also possible multiarch is not 100% reliable, and I’ve read stories where people messed up their system when using multiarch with i386 (32-bit) and amd64 (64-bit).
Preparing a chroot for cross-building
I’ll use a 32-bit Ubuntu precise chroot, but you can use an older distribution (e.g. oneric) and 64-bit if needed:
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sudo debootstrap --arch=i386 --variant=buildd precise /srv/precise-i386 sudo chroot /srv/precise-i386/ mount -t proc proc /proc |
Setup the /etc/apt/sources.list:
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deb [arch=i386] http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main universe deb [arch=armel] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports precise main universe deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main universe |
The file above is setup for armel, but you could also set it up for armhf or both [arch=armel,armhf].
Some packages might not be in precise, so it’s better to create /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linaro-maintainers.list to add Linaro ppas:
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deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/linaro-maintainers/overlay/ubuntu precise main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/linaro-maintainers/overlay/ubuntu precise main deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/linaro-maintainers/staging-overlay/ubuntu precise main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/linaro-maintainers/staging-overlay/ubuntu precise main |
Import the public key of the Overlay, to avoid the GPG error while accessing the PPA:
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apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7BE1F97B |
dpkg --add-architecture is not available in the dpkg available in Ubuntu 12.04, so you’ll need to enable multiarch for dpkg manually in /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/multiarch:
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foreign-architecture armel |
Create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10local to disable installing recommended and suggested packages:
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APT::Install-Recommends "0"; APT::Install-Suggests "0"; |
Create /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d file to prevent daemons to start in the chroot:
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echo "exit 101" > /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d chmod a+x /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d |
Install linaro arm cross-toolchain and essentials:
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apt-get update apt-get install g++-arm-linux-gnueabi build-essential |
Installing armel packages
Now that your chroot is ready, it’s pretty simple to install armel packages as you just need to append the architecture after the package name, for example:
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apt-get install libjpeg-dev:armel libpng12-dev:armel |
The libraries are installed in /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabi/ and the header files are shared among all architectures in /usr/include, except for armel specific bits which are in /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabi. If you use armhf instead the libraries will be located in /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/.
If you are building your own software, you can just install the dependencies you need and set the CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS and LDFLAGS to the paths above.
Building known packages
Another great feature of multiarch is that you can build known packages with dpkg-buildpackage. When everything works perfectly, you’ll just need to run something like:
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apt-get build-dep -aarmel chromium-browser apt-get source chromium-browser cd chromium* dpkg-buildpackage -b -B -aarmel 2>&1|tee ../chromium-browser.log |
In the example above, once you’ve configured apt for multiarch, you just need to type 4 commands to retrieve the source and build the chromium-browser for ARM.
I’ve already used this method when building the Linux ARM kernel on Ubuntu 12.04.
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.
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That’s very useful, thanks for sharing the information.
I use schroot for these things. It integrates perfectly in the environment (automatically mounts what’s needed – dev, proc etc.).
Here’s an excerpt from my /etc/schroot/schroot.conf that shows 32bit chroot on my 64 bit box
[precise32]
description=Precise Pangolin 32
directory=/chroots/precise32
type=directory
users=
root-groups=root
personality=linux32
Then as a regular user:
schroot -c precise32
@ Nikolay Nikolaev
Thanks I did not know schroot.
If somebody wants to know more, have a look at the manpage: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man1/schroot.1.html
@ cnxsoft
And this is the ‘Precise” manpage (you gave the ‘Hardy’ one):
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/schroot.1.html
cheers
Small nits in the description:
**
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu price main universe
->
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main universe
**
apt-get update apt-get install g++-arm-linux-gnueabi build-essential
->
apt-get update
apt-get install g++-arm-linux-gnueabi build-essential
Hello
can i install some packages for arm like broser chromium and libxml2 and after can i transfer this to the arm machine ???
thank you
@Aline
If your ARM machine runs the same distro I guess so, but then running apt-get install within the ARM device would be so much simpler.
@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)
i dont have a command apt-get to install in my machine ARM what is the solution ??
@Aline
If you don’t have any package manager such as apt-get, ipkg, zypper, yum… then I suppose you may have to cross-compile the libraries you need.
Using multiarch on your PC, and copying the required ARM binaries to the target board might also work, but it’s likely you’ll have version conflicts with the libs in your board.
Hello,
when i execute apt-get build-dep -a armel chromium-browser
i get an error didnt find chromium-browser package
Reading state information… Done
E: Unable to find a source package for chromium-brwoser
@Aline
Something weird in this log. Did you type “chromium-brwoser” or “chromium-browser” ? I can see both in the log…
Do you really need to build chromium? You could just install it with something like: apt-get install chromium-browser:armel
@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)
My Problem is i need to compile and install the chromium-browser for arm architecture .
when i run apt-get install chromium-browser:armel i dont have any output to make in the target arm
if you have idea about haw can i run apt-get install chromium-browser:arme and befor haw i can make the chromium-browser in my target arm
@Aline
This will install the necessary files, but you’re right, it won’t show which files are necessary. Tools like ldd will help find out which libraries are used by chromium.
You’d better just follow the cross-compilation instructions @ http://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/LinuxChromiumArm
There is a typo in “deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu price main universe”. “price” should be “precise”, I think.
@Byung Jang
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve updated the post.
Hi , when i’m try install armel packages using apt-get install libjpeg-dev:armel libpng12-dev:armel its throwing following error, Can any one suggest me how to resolve those errors Reading package lists… Done Building dependency tree Reading state information… Done Note, selecting ‘libjpeg-turbo8-dev:armel’ instead of ‘libjpeg-dev:armel’ Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: libjpeg-turbo8-dev:armel :… Read more »