Native Compiler: Installation Instructions

Raspberry Pi GCC Native-Compiler ARM Toolchains Setup Guide

These ARM toolchains can be used directly on any Raspberry Pi 32-bit OSes for compiling programs for it.

• Stretch: Used and generate code for Raspbian Stretch OS (Debian Version 9) and equivalent OS only.
• Buster: Used and generate code for Raspbian Buster OS (Debian Version 10) and equivalent OS only.
• Bullseye: Used and generate code for Raspbian Bullseye OS (Debian Version 11) and equivalent OS only.

 

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Important ⚠️

• These instructions are exclusively for GCC version 9.2.0 but will work with any compiler version available with this project.

• These instructions are Linux-machines specific only.

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Table of content

• A. Prerequisites
• B. Download Binary
• C. Extracting and Linking Binary
  • C1. Temporary Installation
  • C2. Permanent Installation
• D. Advanced Information

 

 

A. Prerequisites

• Update your environment:

  sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

• Install Important Packages(including default gcc):

  sudo apt-get install build-essential gawk gcc g++ gfortran git texinfo bison  wget bzip2 libncurses-dev libssl-dev openssl zlib1g-dev

 

 

B. Download Binary

Compressed pre-compiled GCC Toolchain binaries can be easily be downloaded from the project's SourceForge Repository by clicking links given in the following table:

References:

• Host OS: on which the toolchain is executed/used.
• Target OS: for which the toolchain generates code.

Toolchains	Host OS	Target OS	Current Status	Precompiled GCC versions available
Raspberry Pi GCC Native-Compiler Toolchains (Stretch)	Stretch 32-bit OS (Debian Version 9) only	Stretch 32-bit OS (Debian Version 9) only	Stable/Production	9.4.0, 10.3.0
Raspberry Pi GCC Native-Compiler Toolchains (Buster)	Buster 32-bit OS (Debian Version 10) only	Buster 32-bit OS (Debian Version 10) only	Stable/Production	9.4.0, 10.3.0
Raspberry Pi GCC Native-Compiler Toolchains (Bullseye)	Bullseye 32-bit OS (Debian Version 11) only	Bullseye 32-bit OS (Debian Version 11) only	Stable/Production	10.3.0

 

 

C. Extracting and Linking Binary

These Raspberry toolchains have the same standardized headers with no hardcoded paths, thereby can be directly used for an immediate application OR can be installed permanently for on a daily basis usage.

C1. Temporary Installation: Use these binaries directly (Recommended)

• Extraction: Extract using tar terminal command as follows:

  tar xf <filename e.g native-gcc-9.2.0-pi_2-3.tar.gz>

• Linking:

  • Setup paths as follows:

    PATH=/<extracted folder-name e.g native-pi-gcc-9.2.0-1>/bin:$PATH
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/<extracted folder-name e.g native-pi-gcc-9.2.0-1>/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

  • Setup Important Symlinks as follows:

    Our toolchains requires few additional symbolic links to work properly. Therefore, to create all required symbolic link reliably, we need to download SSymlinker bash script as follows:

    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abhiTronix/raspberry-pi-cross-compilers/master/utils/SSymlinker

    Once it is downloaded, you just need to make it executable, and then run it for each path manually using the following commands:

    sudo chmod +x SSymlinker
    ./SSymlinker -s /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/asm -d /usr/include
    ./SSymlinker -s /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/gnu -d /usr/include
    ./SSymlinker -s /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/bits -d /usr/include
    ./SSymlinker -s /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/sys -d /usr/include
    ./SSymlinker -s /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/openssl -d /usr/include
    ./SSymlinker -s /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/crtn.o -d /usr/lib/crtn.o
    ./SSymlinker -s /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/crt1.o -d /usr/lib/crt1.o
    ./SSymlinker -s /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/crti.o -d /usr/lib/crti.o

 

C2. Permanent Installation:

• Extraction: Extract using tar terminal command as follows:

  tar xf <filename e.g native-gcc-9.2.0-pi_2-3.tar.gz>

• Configuring: Move extracted folder to any location (for e.g. /opt) by using following command:

  sudo mv <extracted folder-name e.g native-pi-gcc-9.2.0-1> /opt

• Linking: Properly link Path/Environment Variables permanently with either of the following given methods:

  • Appending variables to your .profile: (Recommended)

     echo 'export PATH=/opt/<extracted folder-name e.g native-pi-gcc-9.2.0-1>/bin:$PATH' >> .profile  
     echo 'export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/<extracted folder-name e.g native-pi-gcc-9.2.0-1>/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH' >> .profile
     source .profile

  • Appending variables to your .bashrc: ⚠️ Some Linux users reported some trouble with configuring path variables at .profile that doesn't seem to work for them. If you encounter a similar problem, try setting/configure by adding paths to your .bashrc file instead of as follows:

     echo 'export PATH=/opt/<extracted folder-name e.g native-pi-gcc-9.2.0-1>/bin:$PATH' >> .bashrc
     echo 'export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/<extracted folder-name e.g native-pi-gcc-9.2.0-1>/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH' >> .bashrc
     source .bashrc

• Setup Important Symlinks as follows:

    
   sudo ln -sf /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/asm/* /usr/include/asm
   sudo ln -sf /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/gnu/* /usr/include/gnu
   sudo ln -sf /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/bits/* /usr/include/bits
   sudo ln -sf /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/sys/* /usr/include/sys
   sudo ln -sf /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf/openssl/* /usr/include/openssl
   sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/crtn.o /usr/lib/crtn.o
   sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/crt1.o /usr/lib/crt1.o
   sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/crti.o /usr/lib/crti.o

 

 

D. Advanced Information

• Extra Step to use these binaries(temporarily) as your default native GCC Compiler(instead of default GCC 6.3.0) at the time of compilation: (For more info. refer #16, thanks @krcroft)

  export AR="gcc-ar-9.2.0"
  export CC="gcc-9.2.0"
  export CXX="g++-9.2.0"
  export CPP="cpp-9.2.0"
  export FC="gfortran-9.2.0"
  export RANLIB="gcc-ranlib-9.2.0"
  export LD="$CXX"

• Further, To enable Link-time-optimization (LTO):

  GCCPATH="/<extracted folder-name e.g native-pi-gcc-9.2.0-1>/libexec/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/9.2.0"
  export ARFLAGS="--plugin $GCCPATH/liblto_plugin.so"
  export RANLIBFLAGS="--plugin $GCCPATH/liblto_plugin.so"

  NOTE: 💡 LTO also needs g++ to be the linker, and it can be enabled at compile-time by setting -flto=$(nproc) and -fno-fat-lto-objects flags in CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, and LDFLAGS respectively.