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Linux Programmer’s Guide
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[[Category:ToDelete]]
 
 
==Prerequitive==
 
This guide assume ,basic knowlege of Kernel(uImage) and RootFS
 
Please go through Beginners guide ,if you arent aware of this term
 
 
 
==Introduction to Toolchain==
 
Toolchain are Chain or set of programming tools for building an apps , it could include following :
 
*Editor for writing program
 
*Assembler
 
*Compiler
 
*Preprocessor
 
*Linker loader
 
*Debugger
 
*Binutils etc.
 
 
 
 
 
===Toolchain Type===
 
 
 
'''a)Native toolchain'''
 
 
 
Native toolchains are tools which makes binaries for the environment where  toolchain itself is being run.i.e Host and target are same platform.
 
This type of Compilation process is called Native compilation .Meaning that the program is compiled on same platform where it has to be run. Similar to normal PC based program ,they are compiled and run on same machine.
 
 
 
It is much easier to program using this method as it doesn’t involve any Makefile changes.
 
 
 
Earlier embedded devices had very less memory and space and also limited supports of Input-output peripherals, hence Native compilation was not possible or very difficult.
 
But with the advent of powerful embedded ARM processor its now possible to make application on the platform itself. Same can be done in Hawk board too. But still compilation will be slower as compare to that in x86 machine.
 
 
 
e.g. Normal GCC Toolchain in x86  Linux machine is a Native toolchain.
 
 
 
'''b)Croos Toolchain'''
 
 
 
Toolchain which are used to compile the application that will run of different machine(architecture) .This is usually used for embedded apps (e.g ARM programming)
 
You program in x86 environment and run in ARM Board. This type of compiling is called cross compiling
 
 
 
Since native compilation is either not possible or very slow ,Cross compilation present a better alternative for faster development .Only drawback is to properly set build environment and Makefiles.
 
 
 
'''c)Hybrid Toolchain'''
 
 
 
It similar to native toolchain,but infact toolchain run in virtualised  environment
 
on Host.Simple example is QEMU -ARM Running on X86 Linux & you are developing application
 
on this Virtual environment.
 
 
 
This has advantage of both Native and Cross compilation.Speed of cross compilation & Ease
 
of Native development.
 
 
 
Various solution exists, One is scratchbox ,another is ChrootEABI feature in Ubuntu.
 
 
 
==Native Toolchain & Compilation==
 
There are various ways solution to compile the application natively on hawkboard.
 
 
 
==='''1. Using Ubuntu Rootfs'''===
 
Rootstock script in Ubuntu provides a easy way of making Root Filesystem
 
give gcc,vi,g++ as ''seed'' parameter to rootstock command and you will have
 
a GNU Toolchain inside the rootfs.
 
 
 
Then write/compile/run as you do for x86 program.
 
 
 
This needs rootstock to installed on Ubuntu (9.10)
 
 
 
  *apt-get intasll rootstock
 
 
 
  sudo rootstock --fqdn MyRootFS --login <user> --password <password> --imagesize 2G --dist jaunty --serial ttyS2 --seed    ubuntu-minimal,gcc,vim,g++,openssh,subversion,apt
 
 
 
<user> is user name
 
<password> is password
 
that will be required once this rootfs is booted on hawkboard
 
 
 
imagesize is max size allocated to rootfs.you can keep it same as ur USB Drive /SD card .
 
 
 
Seed parameter tells which packages to be included in rootfs.include atleast gcc,vim (any editor),build-essential
 
packages.
 
 
 
This will take couple of hours to completely download packages you have mentioned and
 
to make a rootfs.
 
 
 
After completion of command it will create some file such as
 
armel-rootfs-2010xxxxxxxx.tgz
 
This is compressed rootfilesytem extract it on a SD card or NFS Folder
 
and boot using one of the method described in beginners/guide
 
 
 
''Set proper user group and rights of File''
 
 
 
sudo tar xfp armel-rootfs-**********.tgz
 
chown -R root.root *
 
chmod -R 777 *
 
chmod 440  etc/sudoers
 
chown root:root usr/bin/sudo
 
chmod 4111 usr/bin/sudo
 
 
 
==='''Angstrom Root FS'''===
 
Select Hawkboard from the List
 
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/narcissus/
 
 
 
Angstrom Distribution provides following dev packages
 
#Python
 
#Perl
 
#Mono (C#, .NET)
 
#Toolchain
 
#OProfile
 
#GDB
 
#Busybox replacements
 
 
 
Select atleast ''Toolchain'' to get GCC.
 
 
 
==='''Fedora ARM RootFS'''===
 
Fedora like ubuntu's ''rootstock'' provide a script ''rfsbuild'' that generates rootfs
 
you can include gcc in package list to include it as native toolchain.
 
 
 
More info
 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/RfsBuild
 
 
 
==='''Rootfs without GCC'''===
 
Even though you havent selected gcc as packages in any of the above distribution you can use the native gcc toolchain
 
from Impactlinux.
 
Download from here
 
 
  http://impactlinux.com/fwl/downloads/binaries/native-compiler-armv5l.tar.bz2
 
 
 
Extract and properly set the path and you can compile the apps on hawkboard.
 
 
 
This toolchain uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UClibc uClibc] instead of standard [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glibc glibc] as library
 
which better suited for embedded environment.
 

Latest revision as of 03:00, 28 October 2011