Windows C/C++ Cross Compilation Toolchain for Raspberry Pi

Hi Bryan,

We are looking at the same thing at the moment - it's clear there's no easy way to programming the Raspberry Pi in C/C++ currently which is crazy.  We're hoping to crack this and then create some kind of example set-up people can download for free.

However we're not there yet so bear with us!

Cheers

Richard

Hitex UK

I've had good luck with CodeSourcery's (now part of Mentor Graphics) "Sourcery C++ Lite 2011.03-41 for ARM GNU/Linux".  I think this is the current Sourcery Lite page, but it's been a while since I downloaded 2011.03-41.  The Lite edition is free-as-in-beer and liberates you from dealing with a GUI by sticking to the command line as Thompson and Ritchie intended. 

Some specifics:

1.  I only use Sourcery Lite for BeagleBoard/Bone, but it ought to work for RasPi by specifying ARMv6 instead of ARMv7.

2.  I currently run Sourcery Lite on an Ubuntu GNU/Linux machine, so there's no nonsense with having to deal with Windows file names and paths.

3.  I have run Sourcery Lite on a Windows 2000 machine under Cygwin, which gives me "make" (not included with Sourcery Lite) and Unix tools such as "diff", "grep", and "sed".  However, I did have to play some tricks to make this work: BeagleBoard FAQs.

You might also check the "ARM Compilers" page at eLinux.org.

I've found it easiest to program RasPi in C on the machine itself.  I think this is called "happy compiling" instead of "cross compiling".  The standard Debian-based releases come with gcc (already configured for ARM) as well as the Unix command-line tools you need.  Sure, it's a little slow (probably mostly because I'm still running Debian "Squeeze" and I believe the SD card driver has improved a lot since then) but that encourages you to write small, efficient programs

[Edit: you might also try going to http://www.raspberrypi.org/ and entering "cross compiling" in the Google search box on the home page.]

Hi Richard,

  Thank you for your effort. Good luck to you

Cheers,

Bryan

Hi John,

  I have tried Sourcery Code Bench Lite for ARM EABI to create a simple C++ Hellow World program. The compiler complaint of not finding the _start and other symbols as well.

  Here is the compilation messages,

make all

Building file: ../src/hellow.cpp

Invoking: Cross G++ Compiler

arm-none-eabi-g++ -mfpu=vfp -mfloat-abi=hard -march=armv6zk -mtune=arm1176jzf-s -mfpu=vfp -mfloat-abi=softfp -O3 -g3 -Wall -c -fmessage-length=0 -MMD -MP -MF"src/hellow.d" -MT"src/hellow.d" -o "src/hellow.o" "../src/hellow.cpp"

Finished building: ../src/hellow.cpp

Building target: hellow

Invoking: Cross G++ Linker

arm-none-eabi-g++ --verbose  -o "hellow"  ./src/hellow.o  

Using built-in specs.

COLLECT_GCC=d:\tools\Sourcery_CodeBench_Lite_for_ARM_EABI\bin\arm-none-eabi-g++.exe

COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../libexec/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/lto-wrapper.exe

Target: arm-none-eabi

Configured with: /scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/src/gcc-4.7-2013.05/configure --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu --host=i686-mingw32 --target=arm-none-eabi --enable-threads --disable-libmudflap --disable-libssp --disable-libstdcxx-pch --enable-extra-sgxxlite-multilibs --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --with-specs='%{save-temps: -fverbose-asm} -D__CS_SOURCERYGXX_MAJ__=2013 -D__CS_SOURCERYGXX_MIN__=5 -D__CS_SOURCERYGXX_REV__=23 %{O2:%{!fno-remove-local-statics: -fremove-local-statics}} %{O*:%{O|O0|O1|O2|Os:;:%{!fno-remove-local-statics: -fremove-local-statics}}}' --enable-languages=c,c++ --disable-shared --enable-lto --with-newlib --with-pkgversion='Sourcery CodeBench Lite 2013.05-23' --with-bugurl=https://sourcery.mentor.com/GNUToolchain/ --disable-nls --prefix=/opt/codesourcery --with-headers=yes --with-sysroot=/opt/codesourcery/arm-none-eabi --with-build-sysroot=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/install/host-i686-mingw32/arm-none-eabi --with-libiconv-prefix=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/pkg-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi/arm-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi.extras/host-libs-i686-mingw32/usr --with-gmp=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/pkg-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi/arm-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi.extras/host-libs-i686-mingw32/usr --with-mpfr=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/pkg-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi/arm-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi.extras/host-libs-i686-mingw32/usr --with-mpc=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/pkg-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi/arm-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi.extras/host-libs-i686-mingw32/usr --with-ppl=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/pkg-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi/arm-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi.extras/host-libs-i686-mingw32/usr --with-host-libstdcxx='-static-libgcc -Wl,-Bstatic,-lstdc++,-Bdynamic -lm' --with-cloog=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/pkg-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi/arm-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi.extras/host-libs-i686-mingw32/usr --with-libelf=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/pkg-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi/arm-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi.extras/host-libs-i686-mingw32/usr --disable-libgomp --disable-libitm --enable-poison-system-directories --with-build-time-tools=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/tools-i686-pc-linux-gnu-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi-i686-mingw32/arm-none-eabi/bin --with-build-time-tools=/scratch/jbrown/2013.05-arm-eabi-release/obj/tools-i686-pc-linux-gnu-2013.05-23-arm-none-eabi-i686-mingw32/arm-none-eabi/bin

Thread model: single

gcc version 4.7.3 (Sourcery CodeBench Lite 2013.05-23)

COMPILER_PATH=d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../libexec/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/;d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../libexec/gcc/;d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/

LIBRARY_PATH=d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/;d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/;d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib/;d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../arm-none-eabi/lib/

COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-o' 'hellow' '-D' '__CS_SOURCERYGXX_MAJ__=2013' '-D' '__CS_SOURCERYGXX_MIN__=5' '-D' '__CS_SOURCERYGXX_REV__=23'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../libexec/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/collect2.exe --sysroot=d:\tools\sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi\bin\../arm-none-eabi -X -o hellow d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/crti.o d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/crtbegin.o -Ld:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3 -Ld:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc -Ld:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib -Ld:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../arm-none-eabi/lib ./src/hellow.o -lstdc++ -lm --start-group -lgcc -lc --end-group d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/crtend.o d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/crtn.o

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; defaulting to 00008018

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-abort.o): In function `abort':

abort.c:(.text+0x10): undefined reference to `_exit'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-fstatr.o): In function `_fstat_r':

fstatr.c:(.text+0x1c): undefined reference to `_fstat'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-openr.o): In function `_open_r':

openr.c:(.text+0x20): undefined reference to `_open'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-sbrkr.o): In function `_sbrk_r':

sbrkr.c:(.text+0x18): undefined reference to `_sbrk'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-signalr.o): In function `_kill_r':

signalr.c:(.text+0x1c): undefined reference to `_kill'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-signalr.o): In function `_getpid_r':

signalr.c:(.text+0x44): undefined reference to `_getpid'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-writer.o): In function `_write_r':

writer.c:(.text+0x20): undefined reference to `_write'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-closer.o): In function `_close_r':

closer.c:(.text+0x18): undefined reference to `_close'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-isattyr.o): In function `_isatty_r':

isattyr.c:(.text+0x18): undefined reference to `_isatty'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-lseekr.o): In function `_lseek_r':

lseekr.c:(.text+0x20): undefined reference to `_lseek'

d:/tools/sourcery_codebench_lite_for_arm_eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.7.3/../../../../arm-none-eabi/lib\libc.a(lib_a-readr.o): In function `_read_r':

readr.c:(.text+0x20): undefined reference to `_read'

collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status

make: *** [hellow] Error 1

09:06:10 Build Finished (took 3s.981ms)

   Similarly in building a C Hello World project.

   It would be helpful if you can give a pointer here. Thank you John.

Cheers,

Bryan

Part of your problem is that you are using the baremetal version of GCC. The arm-none- basically means that there is no os support.

You probably want to find arm-linux-gnueabi or something like that.

I haven't done it under windows, but I have under linux.

When developing on the pi I use vi and the command line as John says like Thompson and Ritchie intended.

Good luck, I'm sure you can get the arm-linux for windows, and get some version of eclipse to work for you if you really must compile on pi.

Mike

Richard Gledhill wrote:

it's clear there's no easy way to programming the Raspberry Pi in C/C++ currently which is crazy. 

If by easy you mean a gui dev environment, you are right, but all the dev tools are available on the pi for c, c++ programming. If they don't come with it they are certainly available via apt-get. And they are free. All my pi development consists of 3 or 4 terminal windows ssh'd into the pi. Just like my linux development on x86.

You kids today and your fancy GUIs

Mike

Wouldn't real men do it with punch tape...?

Mark

Michael Conners wrote:

 

Part of your problem is that you are using the baremetal version of GCC. The arm-none- basically means that there is no os support.

 

You probably want to find arm-linux-gnueabi or something like that.

Yes, the CodeSourcery version I use is "arm-none-linux-gnueabi".  Its gcc command is "arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc".

Mark Beckett wrote:

 

Wouldn't real men do it with punch tape...?

 

Mark

I've always thought of Unix as a very efficient way to process virtual decks of cards.  The whole stdin/stdout approach is like a card reader blasting in text and a card punch blasting out object code, with a teletype sitting on the side for stderr.

When I used CMS at IBM in the 1980s you actually used a virtual card reader to receive e-mail and a virtual card punch to send e-mail.  IBM still had a fondness for punched cards since they used to make a large part of their income manufacturing and selling them.

I once had a boss that told me the tales of doing development on their mainframe after the normal day finsihed.

They would have to load the new programme/configuration with punch tape, which wasn't quick.

The older guys at work remember (with some fondness ...) the AFTN system (think teletype) where it spat out on punch tape, and then got loaded into wherever it needed to go.

They could read the messages directly off the tape .....

I guess that was their gui.

We have come a long way in a short time...

mark