Node.js v22.0.0 for BlackBerry 10

Cross-compiled Node.js v22.0.0 with OpenSSL 3.0.13 for BB10 devices (QNX ARM32). Tested on BlackBerry Passport.

Quick start

# Copy prebuilt/* to device, then in Term49:
cd /accounts/1000/shared/misc/node
chmod +x node
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/accounts/1000/shared/misc/node:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

# IMPORTANT: use --jitless to avoid SIGBUS crashes (see Known Issues #1)
./node --jitless -e "console.log('Hello from BB10!')"

Install on your BB10 device

Prerequisites

• BB10 device with developer mode enabled
• Term49 terminal app installed
• SSH access or file transfer method (e.g. shared folder)

Quick install

1. Download the prebuilt files from the prebuilt/ folder (or clone this repo)

2. Copy all files from prebuilt/ to your device:

# Via SSH (if you have SSH set up)
scp prebuilt/* user@device-ip:/accounts/1000/shared/misc/node/

# Or copy to the device's shared folder via USB/WiFi file sharing
# Place files in: Device Storage > misc > node

3. Open Term49 on your BB10 device and run:

cd /accounts/1000/shared/misc/node
chmod +x node
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/accounts/1000/shared/misc/node:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
./node --jitless -e "console.log('Hello from BB10!')"

Recommended shell setup

Add to ~/.profile for persistent access:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/accounts/1000/shared/misc/node:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
alias node='/accounts/1000/shared/misc/node/node --jitless'
alias npm='/accounts/1000/shared/misc/node/node --jitless /accounts/1000/shared/misc/node/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js'
export HOME=/accounts/1000/shared/misc

npm

npm 10.5.1 works when using --jitless. To set it up:

# On your host machine, extract npm from a Node.js 22.0.0 distribution:
wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v22.0.0/node-v22.0.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
tar xf node-v22.0.0-linux-x64.tar.xz node-v22.0.0-linux-x64/lib/node_modules/npm
tar cf npm-bundle.tar -C node-v22.0.0-linux-x64 lib/node_modules/npm
scp npm-bundle.tar user@device-ip:/accounts/1000/shared/misc/node/

# On the device:
cd /accounts/1000/shared/misc/node
tar xf npm-bundle.tar && rm npm-bundle.tar

# Test:
./node --jitless lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js --version
# 10.5.1

Then use npm:

cd /accounts/1000/shared/misc/myproject
npm init -y
npm install express@4

Note: Use Express 4 (not 5). Express 5 uses Unicode property regex escapes (\p{ID_Start}) which require ICU (see Known Issue #4).

What works

Feature	Status	Notes
V8 JavaScript engine	Working	JIT works for simple scripts; use --jitless for complex workloads
console.log	Working
fs (read, write, stat, readdir)	Working
http client and server	Working	Single requests OK; sustained load may SIGBUS (see #1)
https client (TLS 1.2/1.3)	Working	Verified against httpbin.org
crypto (SHA, AES, RSA, ECDH)	Working	OpenSSL 3.0.13+quic
tls (ChaCha20-Poly1305, AES-GCM)	Working	Full TLS 1.3 cipher suite
child_process (execSync, spawn)	Working
Timers (setTimeout, setInterval)	Working
Promises, async/await	Working
Streams, Buffers	Working
JSON, RegExp, Math	Working
zlib compression	Working
DNS resolution (c-ares)	Working
npm install	Working	Requires --jitless; fetches over HTTPS
Express 4	Working	With --jitless

---

Known issues

Issue #1: SIGBUS in std::string::_M_construct (V8 JIT misaligned access)

Severity: High -- affects REPL tab-completion, npm, any heavy require() workload

Symptom:

Process ... (node) terminated SIGBUS code=1 fltno=5
ip=0126989c(...node@_ZNSt7__cxx1112basic_stringIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEE12_M_constructIPcEEvT_S7_St20forward_iterator_tag+0x9d8ae7)
ref=024a4a8c bdslot=1
Bus error (core dumped)

When it happens:

• REPL tab-completion (e.g. typing console. and pressing Tab)
• Loading npm (1600+ files via require())
• Sustained HTTP server load (many sequential requests)
• Any workload that triggers heavy V8 JIT compilation + string allocation

When it does NOT happen:

• Simple node -e "..." one-liners
• Single HTTP request/response
• File system operations (readdir, read, write)
• crypto operations (hash, encrypt, sign)
• Running with --jitless flag

Root cause: V8's Turbofan JIT compiler generates ARM machine code with memory accesses that are not naturally aligned. When this JIT-compiled code interacts with libstdc++ 9.3.0's std::string::_M_construct (which copies string data), the misaligned address causes a SIGBUS (bus error, fault number 5 = data access alignment fault) on the QNX ARM kernel. Linux ARM silently fixes up unaligned accesses in the kernel; QNX does not.

Workaround: Use --jitless flag. This disables V8's optimizing compiler and uses the interpreter only. Performance is ~2-5x slower for computation but all functionality works correctly.

./node --jitless script.js

Potential fixes for future builds:

1. Build V8 with -munaligned-access -- Tell GCC the target supports unaligned access (Cortex-A7/A15 in Passport does handle it in hardware, but QNX kernel traps it). Would need a kernel-side fix or a V8 patch to avoid unaligned stores.
2. Patch V8's ARM code generator to ensure all memory accesses are naturally aligned. The crash is specifically in Turbofan's MemoryRepresentation for string operations.
3. Use Clang 17 instead of GCC 9.3.0 -- Clang's code generation may produce better-aligned ARM code, and its libstdc++ interaction differs.
4. Patch QNX kernel alignment handler -- Enable transparent unaligned access fixup (like Linux does with /proc/cpu/alignment). BB10's QNX 8.0.0 may support this via procnto options.
5. Replace libstdc++ 9.3.0 with a newer version or libc++ that avoids the problematic _M_construct code path.

---

Issue #2: os.cpus() and os.totalmem() crash

Severity: Medium -- only affects os module info queries

Symptom:

unknown symbol: _SYSPAGE_ELEMENT_SIZE

Followed by crash.

Root cause: libuv's QNX 8 support uses _SYSPAGE_ELEMENT_SIZE macro to read system page information (CPU count, memory). This API exists in modern QNX 8.0 SDP but is not present in BlackBerry 10's specific QNX 8.0.0 kernel (BB10 uses a vendor-customized QNX build from ~2013 that predates the modern QNX 8 SDP).

Workaround: Avoid calling os.cpus() and os.totalmem(). Other os methods (os.hostname(), os.platform(), os.arch(), os.tmpdir()) work fine.

Potential fix: Patch libuv/src/unix/qnx.c to use BB10-compatible syspage APIs (SYSPAGE_ENTRY() macro without the _SYSPAGE_ELEMENT_SIZE helper) or hardcode/detect CPU info via /proc filesystem.

---

Issue #3: No Intl / Unicode property escapes

Severity: Medium -- affects some npm packages

Symptom:

SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: /^[$_\p{ID_Start}]$/u: Invalid property name in character class

What breaks:

• Express 5 (uses path-to-regexp v8 which uses \p{ID_Start})
• Any package using Unicode property regex escapes (\p{...})
• Intl.DateTimeFormat, Intl.NumberFormat, etc.

Root cause: Built with --without-intl to keep the binary small and avoid cross-compiling ICU (which is ~30MB and complex to build for QNX).

Workaround: Use older package versions that don't use Unicode property escapes:

• Express 4 instead of Express 5
• chalk@4 instead of chalk@5 (also avoids ESM issue)

Potential fix: Cross-compile ICU for QNX ARM32 and rebuild with --with-intl=full-icu or --with-intl=small-icu. The Chromium build already has ICU compiled for QNX, so the patches exist.

---

Issue #4: ESM-only packages fail with require()

Severity: Low -- npm ecosystem workaround exists

Symptom:

Error [ERR_REQUIRE_ESM]: require() of ES Module ... not supported.

Root cause: Many modern npm packages (Chalk v5+, node-fetch v3+, etc.) are ESM-only and cannot be loaded with require(). This is a Node.js ecosystem issue, not QNX-specific.

Workaround: Use CommonJS-compatible versions of packages, or use dynamic import() in .mjs files.

---

Issue #5: No V8 snapshot (slow startup)

Severity: Low -- ~466ms startup vs ~60ms with snapshot

Root cause: Built with --without-node-snapshot because V8's mksnapshot tool needs to run on the target architecture. Cross-compiling a snapshot for ARM32 from x86_64 requires either QEMU user-mode emulation or a snapshot-compatible cross-build setup.

Potential fix: Use QEMU to run the ARM32 mksnapshot binary on the host during build, or generate the snapshot on the device itself.

---

Issue #6: REPL crashes on tab-completion

Severity: Medium -- interactive development affected

Symptom: Typing a partial expression (e.g. console.) in the REPL and pressing Tab triggers SIGBUS. This is a specific case of Issue #1.

Observed on device:

> console.
Process 112222480 (node) terminated SIGBUS code=1 fltno=5
ip=0126989c(.../node@...std::string::_M_construct...)
ref=024a4a8c bdslot=1
Bus error (core dumped)

Workaround: Use --jitless for REPL sessions:

./node --jitless

Tab-completion works correctly in --jitless mode.

---

Build configuration summary

Node.js:     v22.0.0
V8:          12.4.254.14 (bundled, patched for QNX)
OpenSSL:     3.0.13+quic (bundled, no-asm)
Target:      arm-blackberry-qnx8eabi (ARMv7, soft-float ABI)
Compiler:    GCC 9.3.0 (QNX cross-compiler)
libuv:       1.x (latest with QNX 8 support, patched for BB10)
Build flags: --openssl-no-asm --without-intl --without-node-snapshot
             --without-inspector --without-corepack --shared-libuv
             --cross-compiling --dest-os=qnx --dest-cpu=arm

Prebuilt files

File	Size	Description
node	35 MB	Node.js v22.0.0 binary with OpenSSL (stripped, ARM32 ELF)
libuv.so.1	105 KB	libuv event loop library
libstdc++.so.6	2.0 MB	GCC 9.3.0 C++ runtime
libgcc_s.so.1	215 KB	GCC runtime support

All four files are required. System libraries (libc.so.3, libsocket.so.3, libm.so.2) are already on the device.

Build from source

Requirements

• x86_64 Linux host
• QNX cross-compilation toolchain (GCC 9.3.0 for arm-blackberry-qnx8eabi)
• Host gcc-multilib and g++-multilib (for 32-bit V8 host tools)
• Python 3, GNU Make, CMake

Build

# 1. Apply the QNX sysroot patch (one-time)
#    Manually apply patches/qnx-sysroot/unique_ptr_ice_fix.patch
#    to $QNX_ROOT/include/libstdc++/9.3.0/bits/unique_ptr.h

# 2. Run the build script
QNX_ROOT=/root/qnx800 ./scripts/build.sh

The build takes ~75 minutes (OpenSSL adds significant compile time). Output goes to $WORK_DIR/deploy/.

What the patches fix

Node.js patches (patches/node/node-v22.0.0-qnx.patch -- 1706 lines):

• Adds QNX as a target OS in the build system (configure.py, common.gypi, gyp files)
• Fixes V8 for GCC 9.3.0: missing C++17 stdlib functions (stoul, stoi, strtoll, etc.), math function ambiguity (fmod, copysign), missing POSIX APIs (SA_ONSTACK, execinfo.h, madvise)
• Fixes GCC 9.3.0 Internal Compiler Errors in complex C++ template SFINAE patterns (v8-memory-span.h)
• Adds QNX support to c-ares (no epoll, no getrandom, no pipe2), zlib (ARM CPU features), OpenSSL
• Configures OpenSSL 3.0.13 for QNX (no-async, no-afalgeng, no-secure-memory, no-asm)
• Adds QNX ARM to 27 OpenSSL config header dispatch files (these default to x86 without __linux)
• Handles QNX-specific errno values (EALREADY == EBUSY), uid_t/gid_t types, missing linker flags (-rdynamic, -lbacktrace)
• Disables V8 Ticker (causes hangs on QNX), stack traces (SA_ONSTACK unavailable)
• Fixes zlib ARMv8 CRC32 SIMD being included in ARMv7 builds

libuv patches (patches/libuv/libuv-qnx-bb10.patch -- 291 lines):

• futime()/utime() instead of utimensat() (unavailable on BB10)
• #include <process.h> instead of <sys/process.h>
• Disabled mem_info_t usage (BB10 syspage incompatibility)
• procfs_mapinfo/DCMD_PROC_MAPINFO for uv_resident_set_memory
• Disabled source-specific multicast (no ip_mreq_source on BB10)
• Moved #include <math.h> outside extern "C" block in uv.h

QNX sysroot patch (patches/qnx-sysroot/unique_ptr_ice_fix.patch):

• Simplifies unique_ptr<T[]> SFINAE that triggers GCC 9.3.0 ICE in strip_typedefs
• Relaxes constructor/reset constraints from __safe_conversion_raw to is_pointer<_Up>

Benchmarks (BlackBerry Passport, Snapdragon 801)

Test	Time	Notes
Startup	466 ms	No snapshot; ~60ms possible with snapshot
100M integer loop	5,833 ms	V8 JIT
fib(35) recursive	570 ms	V8 JIT
JSON (10K parse+stringify)	276 ms
Regex (100K matches)	114 ms
Buffer (1MB alloc+fill x100)	246 ms
FS (1K write+read x1000)	1,429 ms
npm install express@4	~50 sec	65 packages, over HTTPS, --jitless
RSA-2048 keygen	~2 sec

Future work

• Fix SIGBUS: investigate V8 ARM alignment or QNX kernel alignment handler
• Add ICU for full Intl and Unicode regex support
• V8 snapshot for faster startup
• Inspector support for debugging
• Test worker_threads, cluster modules
• Investigate building with Clang 17 instead of GCC 9.3.0

License

Node.js is licensed under the MIT License. Patches in this repository follow the same license.