ARM cross compilers [WAS: Re: 200+ packages up for grabs]

[Lennert Buytenhek]

On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 10:04:03AM +0200, Hans de Goede wrote:

> >>>As for bochs you are very welcome to take over maintainership of that I 
> >>>never use it, just say the word and I'll release it in pkgdb.
> >>I'll mull it over. I don't use it much myself tbh, but it's the kind of
> >>thing I'm interested in in general so wouldn't mind. Will let you know.
> >
> >I have a set of Fedora -> Fedora cross toolchains, built for ARM (one
> >toolchain targeting Fedora/ARM glibc, and one targeting ARM/uClibc), but
> >it can also build x86 -> ia64 cross toolchains for example:
> >
> >	http://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/arm/fedora/cross/latest/
> >
> >
> >Wiki page detailing the ARM side of it:
> >
> >	http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/CrossToolchain
> >
> 
> Nice,
> 
> I would like to give this a try to see if it can replace the upper (glibc, 
> binutils, gcc) part of the arm-gp2x-linux chain.
> 
> The current normal way to build gp2x binaries is to statically link them as 
> the glibc included in the gp2x firmware is ancient.
> 
> This thus only leaves the kernel as a potential problem, which on the gp2x 
> is ancient too: 2.4.25, yes you've read that correct, no typos 2.4.25, so 
> will the glibc that is used for Fedora-arm support this kernel?

If you build it old-ABI, it probably will.  But note that the
Fedora/ARM port itself is built entirely EABI, which needs at least
a 2.6.12-ish kernel to run -- so it'll be hard to run binary packages
built for Fedora/ARM on your gp2x device.


> Would it be possible to add support for this kernel to the Fedora-arm glibc?

If you build old-ABI, it shouldn't need anything special.


> Would the person responsible for glibc on Fedora arm be willing to enable 
> support for this kernel?

As I said above, if your board runs an old-ABI userland, it is unlikely
that you'll be able to run Fedora/ARM binaries on it.