Setting up cross compiler under OS X 10.11 / El Capitan

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1

I’ve found some great resources out there that help us Mac folk out with building an arm toolchain on the OS X platform. Here they are if any others stumble across this thread looking for the same:

http://www.benmont.com/tech/crosscompiler.html
http://will-tm.com/cross-compiling-mac-os-x-mavericks/

http://hansbot.blogspot.com/p/beaglebone-black-mac-os-x-toolchain.html (this one is the most detailed)

I’ve gotten through a few of the stumbling blocks but I’m currently stuck. I get this far:

[INFO ] Performing some trivial sanity checks

[INFO ] Build started 20151023.200552

[INFO ] Building environment variables

[00:03] /

So, after that, if I look at the activity monitor, bash is around 100% processor utilization on one of the cores. I figure “great, it’s doing something”. I left it to do its thing and after an hour, I killed the process. I changed a few settings… ran it again… same thing. Okay… maybe it just takes a really long time. I left it overnight. This morning it was still near 100% processor utilization and nothing had changed in the build.log file. Here’s the last few lines from the build log:

[DEBUG] =================================================================

[DEBUG] Checking that we can run gcc -v

[DEBUG] ==> Executing: ‘x86_64-build_apple-darwin15.0.0-gcc’ ‘-v’

[DEBUG] Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1

[DEBUG] Apple LLVM version 7.0.0 (clang-700.1.76)

[DEBUG] Target: x86_64-apple-darwin15.0.0

[DEBUG] Thread model: posix

[DEBUG] Checking that we can run gcc -v: done in 0.00s (at 00:03)

[DEBUG] =================================================================

[DEBUG] Checking that gcc can compile a trivial program

[DEBUG] ==> Executing: ‘x86_64-build_apple-darwin15.0.0-gcc’ ‘-O2’ ‘-g’ ‘-pipe’ ‘/Volumes/CaSe/.build/arm-JoesBeaglebone-linux-gnueabi/build/test.c’ ‘-o’ ‘/Volumes/CaSe/.build/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/build/.gccout’

[DEBUG] Checking that gcc can compile a trivial program: done in 0.00s (at 00:03)

[EXTRA] Installing user-supplied crosstool-NG configuration

[DEBUG] ==> Executing: ‘mkdir’ ‘-p’ ‘/Volumes/CaSe/prefix/bin’

[DEBUG] ==> Executing: ‘install’ ‘-m’ ‘0755’ ‘/usr/local/Cellar/crosstool-ng/1.21.0/lib/ct-ng.1.21.0/scripts/toolchain-config.in’ ‘/Volumes/CaSe/prefix/bin/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi-ct-ng.config’

[ERROR]

[ERROR] >>

[ERROR] >> Build failed in step ‘(top-level)’

[ERROR] >>

[ERROR] >> Error happened in: CT_DoExecLog[scripts/functions@216]

[ERROR] >> called from: main[scripts/crosstool-NG.sh@564]

[ERROR]

[ERROR] (elapsed: 756:57.00)

Any suggestions on how to debug this? Obviously it’s attempting to do something given the processor utilization but… what the heck is it hung up on?

One thing worth noting… early in the process the build log had an error with regards to not being able to find the ginstall tool. Since this was at the beginning of the test process I figured it hadn’t gotten to building anything yet and as such, ct-ng clean was not needed (maybe I’m wrong). As part of running ct-ng build it creates a directory structure (running clean deletes this structure and all the tools included) at /YourCaseSensitiveDirectory/.build/tools/bin. My solution was to just cp install ginstall, and that got me past that error. Not sure if that’s contributing to anything but I thought it worth mentioning. Is there another way around the missing ginstall problem?

Cheers, Joe

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Getting an arm cross-compiler hosted on OS X isn't too bad. But being able to cross-build binaries for linux will be more challenging. I've never been able to do it, but would love to.

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Dear Joe,

I see you are running os 10.11, me too.
I’m not getting the BBB to be recognized by my mac.
And when i’m trying to install the Serial driver, i get an error
Can you help me?

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test builds here:

https://github.com/jwise/HoRNDIS/issues/42

Regards,

5

I gave up on using OS X El Cap and Xcode for development on the Beaglebone. I posted to the crosstool-ng list to see if anyone could help with the errors I was seeing and I didn’t get any responses (even though it’s a pretty active list, I just suspect very few people are trying to do cross platform development for the arm on a Mac). I ended up installing Debian Jessie on an old Macbook (the original one actually, version 1,1) and everything just works great with it. After playing around a bit on the Mac I decided to buy a new Dell XPS 13 for development (warning there… you’ll need to run Debian unstable with the 4.3 experimental kernel in order to support the new Skylake architecture but figuring all that out was MUCH easier than trying to build a cross compiler toolchain for Xcode). As for getting get the USB working… I never did but it looks like there’s been some progress in the past few weeks. Check out Robert’s post.

As for connecting to it via ethernet (which is pretty easy)… you can either connect it directly to the ethernet port on your Mac, or you can connect it to your router. To log in all you have to do is open a terminal and ssh in…

ssh root@beaglebone.local

You don’t have to fool around with IP addresses etc. as most of the tutorials indicate. Much easier that way. Once you’re in though, create a new user so that you’re not using root all the time.

If you want to go the Debian route, I highly recommend this video from Derek Molloy to get things started. It will show you how to get the Eclipse IDE up and running which will allow you to do cross compilation, remote deployment of your binaries, and remote debugging. It’s pretty slick!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9yFyWsyyGk

Cheers, Joe

6

Hi Joe,

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion. It seems easier to just install Debian/Ubuntu under Parallels and avoid all the confusion. BTW, MacPorts or HomeBrew (I don’t remember which) did manage to get ARM cross compilers to work under OSX, but they are now outdated.

Regards,
John

7

I ended up installing Debian Jessie on an old Macbook (the original one actually, version 1,1) and everything just works great with it. After playing around a bit on the Mac I decided to buy a new Dell XPS 13 for development (warning there… you’ll need to run Debian unstable with the 4.3 experimental kernel in order to support the new Skylake architecture but figuring all that out was MUCH easier than trying to build a cross compiler toolchain for Xcode). As for getting get the USB working… I never did but it looks like there’s been some progress in the past few weeks. Check out Robert’s post.

This is probably the best move anyone could make. That is using an i386 / i386-64 Linux ( and why not debian ? ) system for development. There are simply too many factors to consider when using anything else, and while probably not impossible. It is simply too much of a hassle.

So, I run Windows, and have the capability to use Linaro’s Windows binaries for a cross toolchain - But I don’t. I’ve actually set this up with code:blocks, and it works fine. But there are so many dahmed hoops to jump through for even the simplest things like using a third party library. It’s just not worth it.

Passed that though . . .

  1. Mount an NFS share on the Beglebone from this dev system.
  2. Set up a Samba share from that NFS share root.
  3. Map that Samba share on your host system.
  4. Use editor of choice, on host to write code that seems local, but is actually remote.
  5. Compile natively on the Beaglebone using ssh / gcc, etc.

Definitively there are simply ways to get a single file, or a few files over to the target(Beaglebone ). But for multiple files / projects this is the method that I personally find the best / easiest.

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Hi William,

I don’t want to prompt an argument here, but I am curious. Where is it that you believe Windows adds value here? I accept that you have a windows machine, but why not run Debian or Ubuntu on Virtualbox or VMWare and avoid all the complications of Windows? I use OSX for all my Nodejs/Angularjs/HTML development and then I use Ubuntu for my embedded development. The only reason I use Windows is to run Solidworks and Altium, and my only hope is that one day I can run these on OSX or Linux.

Regards,
John

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re read what he said. i think you misunderstood him.

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Hi William,

I don’t want to prompt an argument here, but I am curious. Where is it that you believe Windows adds value here? I accept that you have a windows machine, but why not run Debian or Ubuntu on Virtualbox or VMWare and avoid all the complications of Windows? I use OSX for all my Nodejs/Angularjs/HTML development and then I use Ubuntu for my embedded development. The only reason I use Windows is to run Solidworks and Altium, and my only hope is that one day I can run these on OSX or Linux.

Regards,
John

Like wulf said, you misunderstood what I was saying. I have two systems that are completely dedicated to Beaglebone development. Both run Debian wheezy, and one is i386, where the other is x64. Both are headless, and do not run any GUI garbage at all. Why 2 ? Imagine for a minute compiling the kernel from a 8-12G tmpfs . . . that requires an X64 system, where the i386 system is mostly a storage repository . . .

So why do I write code from Windows ?

  1. I get to use the editor I prefer.
  2. I do not have to crap up the other systems with GUI garbage.
  3. After having been using MS OSes since the early 90’s ( Linux this long too ) I’ve become accustomed to the Windows GUI.

In, short. It’s a matter of preference.

Honestly though, I very seriously wonder why OSX users think OSX adds value to this sort of thing myself. . .

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Not to mention the main point I was trying to put across is that Linux is not necessarily my primary Desktop OS either . . .

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Hi William,

With a smile on my face; why OSX? Watch any video training on web development and 95% use OSX (Lynda, Pluralsight, Udemy, Infiniteskills, etc). Watch any web development conference presentation and again about 95% are presented on OSX. When I say 95%, I mean in the vast majority of cases. I don’t recall the last time I saw someone using Windows.

OSX is just Unix with a easy to use GUI, but most important, the hardware works great (long battery life, no fan noise, does not get hot, stable, beautify display, thunderbolt and very fast). OSX doesn’t use slow SATA hard drives, they use PCI express interfaces to SSD so you get way faster disk access. For backups, you just cannot beat Time-Machine. I have two external Thunderbolt disks running Time-Machine so the backups alternate each hour between both disks. Monitors disk SMART parameters to detect potential disk failure.

Most important, I don’t see those annoying, shitty updates each time I shutdown or startup. Oh, I forgot, I almost never shutdown. Several years ago my family (wife, kids, dad, etc) made the transition to OSX and every since, I don’t get those daily calls about system crashes or files missing or some other crappy windows error dialog.

Sorry for the rant. I just hate Windows and I love OSX.

BTW, watch Jason Kridner’s presentations on BBB. He uses OSX.

Regards,
John

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Sorry for the rant. I just hate Windows and I love OSX.

To sum things up. Any OS is only as good as the user using it. None are perfect, and they all have major flaws. I refuse to use OSX because it comes attached to hardware that is ridiculously priced. That’s a personal decision aside from all the flaws OSX has. Never mind the high end laptop I own for half the cost of a MBP, that will outperform a MBP in every thing. It only gets better, because if for some reason I decide I do not like Windows an longer. I do not have to pretend I’m running BSD, I can install and run the real thing. Or Linux, or whatever OS I like. Bootcamp ? pffft, such a silly notion. How about boot disk ?

As far as what other people use for an OS. I could care less. I’m not an OS crony . . . But I will say I can not remember the last time I’ve seen anyone in person who uses OSX. A friends wife has an MBP, that was given to her for her birthday a couple years ago . . . and shes a Windows person.

Anyway, you can blame Windows for your problem all you want. Bottom line is, either the hardware running said Windows was garbage, or you just did not know how to use it . . .I know, I know, Windows looks simple. But in order to use it correctly one needs to understand how it works, and how to do things.

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The point is however. It does not matter which OS, anyone uses for a desktop. A development system that should be separate, and a tool, that in this case is best used with Linux.

But apparently that does not stop people from trying . . . and we’re seeing how that works out - aren’t we ?

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A development system that should be separate, and a tool, that in this case is best used with Linux.

A development system is a system that should be separate, and is a tool that should run Linux in this case.

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I think you made my point. You have to know what you are doing to use Windows. For everyone else, they can use OSX without issues. After moving my family over to OSX, I no longer spend hours a week fixing issues. The feedback I got was why didn’t I do this years before. Anyway, we are way off topic and I apologize for hacking this conversation.

Regards,
John