crux-toolchain-arm-linux-gnueabihf

arm-linux-gnueabihf is a cross-compilation toolchain designed for targeting ARM processors running Linux, specifically for systems that support hardware floating-point operations (hard-float). It includes tools like the GCC compiler (GNU Compiler Collection) and other utilities for building software that can run on an ARM-based Linux system with hard-float support.

Download the Toolchain

Toolchain releases can be downloaded from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/crux-arm/files/toolchain/

Setting Up the Toolchain

1. Install to /opt/arm-linux-gnueabihf

   Once you have download the toolchain (e.g: crux-toolchain-arm-linux-gnueabihf-VERSION.tar.gz) you need to extract it to /.

   sudo tar -xzvf crux-toolchain-arm-linux-gnueabihf-VERSION.tar.gz -C /

   When you extract the tarball to /, it will install it to /opt/arm-linux-gnueabihf due to the prefix in the tarball contents. The internal opt/arm-linux-gnueabihf/ directory structure in the tarball is likely there for a reason. Many software packages, especially cross-compilation tools or embedded system libraries, follow this structure to:

   • Ensure correct installation: These tools expect to be located in specific directories.
   • Avoid conflicts with system directories: By placing the tools in a custom directory.

2. Add the bin directory to PATH:

   After extracting the toolchain, you need to add the bin directory where cross-tools of the toolchain are located to your PATH so you can use the ARM tools from anywhere.

   export PATH=$PATH:/opt/arm-linux-gnueabihf/cross-tools/bin

3. Set cross-compilation variables:

   If you're cross-compiling, you may want to set some environment variables for convenience:

   export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
   export ARCH=arm

   • CROSS_COMPILE is used by many build systems to specify the cross-compilation toolchain prefix.
   • ARCH is used to set this to specify the architecture you're targeting.

4. Verify the toolchain:

   To confirm that the toolchain is installed and accessible, try checking the version of the ARM GCC compiler:

   arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc --version

   If the setup is successful, you should see the version of arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc. You can also verify other tools like the assembler (as) or linker (ld):

   arm-linux-gnueabihf-as --version
   arm-linux-gnueabihf-ld --version

Using the Toolchain

Now your ARM toolchain should be set up correctly, and you can use it to cross-compile for ARM architectures. For example, to compile a C program, run:

arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc -o my_program my_program.c