HOWTO: Compile toolchain to cross-compile Android Kernel

gamanakis · Aug 25, 2014

I did the following because I needed my server, running on FreeBSD, to be able to compile the Android Kernel. A cross-compile toolchain has to be built. For this, binutils, eglibc (or glibc) and gcc are needed components to be manually compiled and consist the canadian cross. Additionally, the Linux kernel headers are needed.

Here I used the ones from Linaro: https://releases.linaro.org/14.07/components/toolchain. The present example builds an ARMv7 gcc cross-compiler able to build the Android Kernel for Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Although a large part of this is written in the EGLIBC.cross-building file in eglibc source, a lot of smaller modifications documented here are needed. The following has been tested on a FreeBSD 9.3p0 up-to-date system.

1) On the HOST machine install the following packages

Code:

# pkg install gettext mpc mpfr gmp gcc49 gsed gmake

2) Replace: /usr/bin/sed with a symlink to gsed

Code:

# mv /usr/bin/sed /usr/bin/sed.org
# ln -s /usr/local/bin/gsed /usr/bin/sed

3) Set working directory and shell variables

Code:

$ mkdir /home/user/src/linaro
$ mkdir /home/user/src/linaro/tools
$ mkdir /home/user/src/linaro/sysroot
$ export TOOLS_PATH=/home/user/src/linaro/tools
$ export SYSROOT_PATH=/home/user/src/linaro/sysroot
$ export TRIPLET=arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi

4) Get the source of the components and extract them in the working directory
https://releases.linaro.org/14.07/c...naro/binutils-linaro-2.24.0-2014.07-1.tar.bz2
https://releases.linaro.org/14.07/c...ibc-linaro/eglibc-linaro-2.19-2014.07.tar.bz2
https://releases.linaro.org/14.07/c...cc-linaro/4.9/gcc-linaro-4.9-2014.07-1.tar.xz
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/longterm/v2.6.32/linux-2.6.32.63.tar.xz

Code:

$ cd /home/user/src/linaro
$ tar xf *.tar*

5) Compile and install binutils

Code:

$ cd binutils-linaro-2.24.0-2014.07-1
$ mkdir build; cd build
$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH ../configure --target=$TRIPLET \
--prefix=$TOOLS_PATH --with-sysroot=$SYSROOT_PATH

$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake
$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake install

6) Compile gcc, a bare one, in order to build eglibc

Code:

$ cd gcc-linaro-4.9-2014.07-1
$ mkdir build; cd build
$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH ../configure --target=$TRIPLET \
--prefix=$TOOLS_PATH --without-headers \
--disable-shared --disable-threads --disable-libssp --disable-libgomp \
--disable-libmudflap --enable-languages=c --disable-libquadmath \
--disable-libatomic --with-arch=armv7-a --with-tune=cortex-a9 --with-fpu=neon \
--with-float=hard

$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake
$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake install

7) Install the Linux Kernel Headers

Code:

$ cd ../..
$ cd linux-2.6.32.63
$ PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake headers_install ARCH=arm \
CROSS_COMPILE=$TRIPLET- INSTALL_HDR_PATH=$SYSROOT_PATH/usr

8) Install the eglibc headers and libs

Code:

$ cd ../..
$ cd eglibc-2.19-2014.07
$ mkdir build; cd build

The source needs to be patched as following:
sunrpc/rpc_main.c replace all stat64 references with stat

Then:

Code:

$ BUILD_CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH RANLIB=$TOOLS_PATH/bin/$TRIPLET-ranlib ../configure \
--prefix=/usr --with-headers=$SYSROOT_PATH/usr/include --host=$TRIPLET --disable-profile \
--without-gd --without-cvs --enable-add-ons
$ DESTDIR=$SYSROOT_PATH gmake install-headers install_root=$SYSROOT_PATH install-bootstrap-headers=yes
$ mkdir -p $SYSROOT_PATH/usr/lib
$ gmake csu/subdir_lib
$ cp csu/crt1.o csu/crti.o csu/crtn.o $SYSROOT_PATH/usr/lib
$ $TOOLS_PATH/bin/$TRIPLET-gcc -nostdlib -nostartfiles -shared -x c /dev/null -o $SYSROOT_PATH/usr/lib/libc.so

9) Compile and install gcc, 2nd level

Code:

$ cd ../..
$ cd gcc-linaro-4.9-2014.07-1
$ mkdir build2; cd build2
$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH ../configure --target=$TRIPLET \
--prefix=$TOOLS_PATH --with-sysroot=$SYSROOT_PATH --disable-libssp \
--disable-libgomp --disable-libmudflap --enable-languages=c \
--disable-libquadmath --disable-libatomic --with-arch=armv7-a \
--with-tune=cortex-a9 --with-fpu=neon --with-float=hard

$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake
$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake install

10) Compile and Install eglibc

Code:

$ cd ../..
$ cd eglibc-2.19-2014.07
$ mkdir build2; cd build2
$ BUILD_CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH RANLIB=$TOOLS_PATH/bin/$TRIPLET-ranlib ../configure \
--prefix=/usr --with-headers=$SYSROOT_PATH/usr/include --host=$TRIPLET --disable-profile \ 
--without-gd --without-cvs --enable-add-ons

$ PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake
$ PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake install install_root=$SYSROOT_PATH

11) Compile and Install the complete gcc

Code:

$ cd ../..
$ cd gcc-linaro-4.9-2014.07-1
$ mkdir build3; cd build3
$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH ../configure --target=$TRIPLET --prefix=$TOOLS_PATH \
--with-sysroot=$SYSROOT_PATH --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-languages=c,c++ --with-arch=armv7-a \
--with-tune=cortex-a9 --with-fpu=neon --with-float=hard

$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake
$ CXX=g++49 CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake install

12) Compile the Galaxy Nexus Kernel:
Get the source according to https://source.android.com/source/building-kernels.html
As in FreeBSD the echo command lacks the -e switch the following needs to be changed:
In kernel-source: script/Kbuild.include, function as-instr, replace echo -e with printf "%s\n"

Code:

$ cd "kernel-source-dir"
$ ARCH=arm SUBARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=$TRIPLET- PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake tuna_defconfig
$ ARCH=arm SUBARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=$TRIPLET- PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake

The compiled kernel should be in "kernel-source-dir"/arch/arm/boot/zImage. It now needs to be converted to boot.img in order to be flashed to the boot partition of the device (hint: mkbootimg).

13) Set back sed

Code:

# rm /usr/bin/sed
# mv /usr/bin/sed.org /usr/bin/sed

gamanakis · Aug 26, 2014

As the eglibc is now deprecated, the following builds the toolchain by using glibc. Only the changing steps are provided.

4) Source:
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libc/glibc-2.19.tar.xz

8) Only the source needs to be patched. No option to install only the headers. Proceed with step 10.
sunrpc/rpc_main.c replace all stat64 references with stat.

9) Not needed.

10) Compile and install glibc

Code:

$ cd glibc-2.19
$ make build; cd build
$ BUILD_CC=gcc49 PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH ../configure --prefix=/usr --with-headers=$SYSROOT_PATH/usr/include --host=$TRIPLET --target=$TRIPLET

$ PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake 
$ PATH=$TOOLS_PATH/bin:$PATH gmake install install_root=$SYSROOT_PATH

11) The --enable-__cxa_atexit parameter is not needed.

HOWTO: Compile toolchain to cross-compile Android Kernel

gamanakis

gamanakis