How to install the Raspberry Pi cross compiler on my Linux host machine?

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I’m gonna try to write this as a tutorial for you so it becomes easy to follow.

NOTE:
This tutorial only works for older raspbian images. For the newer Raspbian based on Debian Buster see the following how-to in this thread: https://stackoverflow.com/a/58559140/869402

Pre-requirements

Before you start you need to make sure the following is installed:

apt-get install git rsync cmake libc6-i386 lib32z1 lib32stdc++6

Let’s cross compile a Pie!

Start with making a folder in your home directory called raspberrypi.

Go in to this folder and pull down the ENTIRE tools folder you mentioned above:

git clone git://github.com/raspberrypi/tools.git

You wanted to use the following of the 3 ones, gcc-linaro-arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian, if I did not read wrong.

Go into your home directory and add:

export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/raspberrypi/tools/arm-bcm2708/gcc-linaro-arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian/bin

to the end of the file named ~/.bashrc

Now you can either log out and log back in (i.e. restart your terminal session), or run . ~/.bashrc in your terminal to pick up the PATH addition in your current terminal session.

Now, verify that you can access the compiler arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc -v. You should get something like this:

Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/home/tudhalyas/raspberrypi/tools/arm-bcm2708/gcc-linaro-arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian/bin/../libexec/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7.2/lto-wrapper
Target: arm-linux-gnueabihf
Configured with: /cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/builds/arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian-linux/.b
 uild/src/gcc-linaro-4.7-2012.08/configure --build=i686-build_pc-linux-gnu --host=i686-build_pc-
 linux-gnu --target=arm-linux-gnueabihf --prefix=/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/builds/arm-l
 inux-gnueabihf-raspbian-linux/install --with-sysroot=/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/builds/
 arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian-linux/install/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc --enable-languages=c,c++,fo
 rtran --disable-multilib --with-arch=armv6 --with-tune=arm1176jz-s --with-fpu=vfp --with-float=
 hard --with-pkgversion='crosstool-NG linaro-1.13.1+bzr2458 - Linaro GCC 2012.08' --with-bugurl=
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/gcc-linaro --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-libmudflap --enable-libgom
 p --enable-libssp --with-gmp=/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/builds/arm-linux-gnueabihf-rasp
 bian-linux/.build/arm-linux-gnueabihf/build/static --with-mpfr=/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-
 ng/builds/arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian-linux/.build/arm-linux-gnueabihf/build/static --with-mpc
 =/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/builds/arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian-linux/.build/arm-linux-
 gnueabihf/build/static --with-ppl=/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/builds/arm-linux-gnueabihf
 -raspbian-linux/.build/arm-linux-gnueabihf/build/static --with-cloog=/cbuild/slaves/oort61/cros
 stool-ng/builds/arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian-linux/.build/arm-linux-gnueabihf/build/static --wi
 th-libelf=/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/builds/arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian-linux/.build/a
 rm-linux-gnueabihf/build/static --with-host-libstdcxx='-L/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/bui
 lds/arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian-linux/.build/arm-linux-gnueabihf/build/static/lib -lpwl' --ena
 ble-threads=posix --disable-libstdcxx-pch --enable-linker-build-id --enable-plugin --enable-gol
 d --with-local-prefix=/cbuild/slaves/oort61/crosstool-ng/builds/arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian-li
 nux/install/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc --enable-c99 --enable-long-long
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.7.2 20120731 (prerelease) (crosstool-NG linaro-1.13.1+bzr2458 - Linaro GCC 2012.08
 )

But hey! I did that and the libs still don’t work!

We’re not done yet! So far, we’ve only done the basics.

In your raspberrypi folder, make a folder called rootfs.

Now you need to copy the entire /liband /usr directory to this newly created folder. I usually bring the rpi image up and copy it via rsync:

rsync -rl --delete-after --safe-links [email protected]:/{lib,usr} $HOME/raspberrypi/rootfs

where 192.168.1.PI is replaced by the IP of your Raspberry Pi.

Now, we need to write a cmake config file. Open ~/home/raspberrypi/pi.cmake in your favorite editor and insert the following:

SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)
SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION 1)
SET(CMAKE_C_COMPILER $ENV{HOME}/raspberrypi/tools/arm-bcm2708/gcc-linaro-arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc)
SET(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER $ENV{HOME}/raspberrypi/tools/arm-bcm2708/gcc-linaro-arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-g++)
SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH $ENV{HOME}/raspberrypi/rootfs)
SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)
SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY)
SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY)

Now you should be able to compile your cmake programs simply by adding this extra flag: -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$HOME/raspberrypi/pi.cmake.

Using a cmake hello world example:

git clone https://github.com/jameskbride/cmake-hello-world.git 
cd cmake-hello-world
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$HOME/raspberrypi/pi.cmake ../
make
scp CMakeHelloWorld [email protected]:/home/pi/
ssh [email protected] ./CMakeHelloWorld

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