arm-linux-gnueabi cross compiler for OS X

04 Dec 2011

I spent some time getting a decent cross compiler toolchain for arm-linux-gnueabi running on Mac OS X, including GNU binutils 2.22, gcc 4.6.2 and OCaml 3.12.1. The cross compiler toolchain targets ARM boards running Debian/armel squeeze or later.

The stuff is available from my local MacPorts repository. To get it working on your Mac, make sure to update to the latest MacPorts first, using:

sudo port selfupdate
sudo port upgrade outdated

Continue by cloning my MacPorts repository and editing the MacPorts sources.conf file (as superuser):

git clone git://github.com/bmeurer/MacPorts.git
cd MacPorts/ports
sudo vim /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf

Add a new line to the file before the line with the [default] tag

file:///path/to/MacPorts/ports [nosync]

where /path/to/MacPorts is the path to the MacPorts repository clone. Once done, run

portindex

in the MacPorts/ports subdirectory to add the ports from my local MacPorts repository to the list of available ports (remember to rerun portindex everytime you pull from my repository). Now you can continue installing the cross compiler ports, using either

sudo port install arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc

to install just the binutils, gcc and the basic runtime, or

sudo port install arm-linux-gnueabi-ocaml-compiler

to also install the OCaml cross compiler and its runtime. Installing the toolchain will take some time depending on the available bandwidth and the overall speed of your machine.

Once done, your new cross compiler will be ready in /opt/local, with its system root in /opt/local/arm-linux-gnueabi/sysroot and related tools in /opt/local/bin, prefixed with arm-linux-gnueabi-, i.e.

$ arm-linux-gnueabi-as --version
GNU assembler (MacPorts 2011/12/02) 2.22
Copyright 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software; you may redistribute it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License version 3 or later.
This program has absolutely no warranty.
This assembler was configured for a target of `arm-linux-gnueabi'.

$ arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc --version
arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc (MacPorts 2011/12/02) 4.6.2
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

$ arm-linux-gnueabi-ocamlopt -config
version: 3.12.1
standard_library_default: /opt/local/arm-linux-gnueabi/sysroot/usr/lib/ocaml
standard_library: /opt/local/arm-linux-gnueabi/sysroot/usr/lib/ocaml
standard_runtime: /opt/local/arm-linux-gnueabi/bin/ocamlrun
ccomp_type: cc
bytecomp_c_compiler: arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc -fno-defer-pop -Wall -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_REENTRANT -fPIC
bytecomp_c_libraries: -lm  -ldl -ltermcap -lpthread
native_c_compiler: arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc -Wall -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_REENTRANT
native_c_libraries: -lm  -ldl
native_pack_linker: arm-linux-gnueabi-ld -r  -o
ranlib: arm-linux-gnueabi-ranlib
cc_profile: -pg
architecture: arm
model: default
system: linux
asm: arm-linux-gnueabi-as
ext_obj: .o
ext_asm: .s
ext_lib: .a
ext_dll: .so
os_type: Unix
default_executable_name: a.out
systhread_supported: true

To help with cross compilation of OCaml projects using ocamlfind, the arm-linux-gnueabi-ocaml-compiler port also installs a custom ocamlfind configuration file /opt/local/etc/arm-linux-gnueabi-ocamlfind.conf, which you can use to utilize the cross compiler toolchain by setting the environment variable OCAMLFIND_CONF to point to this file.