ARM64 toolchain

Most of the components of the 64-bit ARM toolchain have been released, so I've put together some details on building a cross compiler for aarch64. At present, this is only binutils & compiler (ie, no libc), so is probably not useful for applications. However, I have a 64-bit ARM kernel building without any trouble.

Update: looking for an easy way to install a cross-compiler on Ubuntu or debian? Check out aarch64 cross compiler packages for Ubuntu & Debian.

pre-built toolchain

If you're simply looking to download a cross compiler, here's one I've built earlier: aarch64-cross.tar.gz (.tar.gz, 85MB). It's built for an x86_64 build machine, using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, but should work with other distributions too.

The toolchain is configured for paths in /opt/cross/. To install it, do a:

[jk@pecola ~]$ sudo mkdir /opt/cross
[jk@pecola ~]$ sudo chown $USER /opt/cross
[jk@pecola ~]$ tar -C /opt/cross/ -xf aarch64-x86_64-cross.tar.gz

If you'd like to build your own, here's how:

initial setup

We're going to be building in ~/build/aarch64-toolchain/, and installing into /opt/cross/aarch64/. If you'd prefer to use other paths, simply change these in the commands below.

[jk@pecola ~]$ mkdir -p ~/build/arm64-toolchain/
[jk@pecola ~]$ cd ~/build/arm64-toolchain/
[jk@pecola ~]$ prefix=/opt/cross/aarch64/

We'll also need a few packages for the build:

[jk@pecola ~]$ sudo apt-get install bison flex libmpfr-dev libmpc-dev texinfo

binutils

I have a git repository with a recent version of ARM's aarch64 support, plus a few minor updates at git://kernel.ubuntu.com/jk/arm64/binutils.git (or browse the gitweb view). To build:

Update: arm64 support has been merged into upstream binutils, so you can now use the official git repository. The commit 02b16151 builds successfully for me.

[jk@pecola arm64-toolchain]$ git clone git://gcc.gnu.org/git/binutils.git
[jk@pecola arm64-toolchain]$ cd binutils
[jk@pecola binutils]$ ./configure --prefix=$prefix --target=aarch64-none-linux
[jk@pecola binutils]$ make
[jk@pecola binutils]$ make install
[jk@pecola binutils]$ cd ..

kernel headers

Next up, the kernel headers. I'm using Catalin Marinas' kernel tree on kernel.org here. We don't need to do a full build (we don't have a compiler yet..), just the headers_install target.

[jk@pecola arm64-toolchain]$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/cmarinas/linux-aarch64.git
[jk@pecola arm64-toolchain]$ cd linux-aarch64
[jk@pecola linux-aarch64]$ git reset --hard b6fe1645
[jk@pecola linux-aarch64]$ make ARCH=arm64 INSTALL_HDR_PATH=$prefix headers_install
[jk@pecola linux-aarch64]$ cd ..

gcc

And now we should have things ready for the compiler build. I have a git tree up at git://kernel.ubuntu.com/jk/arm64/gcc.git (gitweb), but this is just the aarch64 branch of upstream gcc.

[jk@pecola arm64-toolchain]$ git clone git://kernel.ubuntu.com/jk/arm64/gcc.git
[jk@pecola arm64-toolchain]$ cd gcc/aarch64-branch/
[jk@pecola aarch64-branch]$ git reset --hard d6a1e14b
[jk@pecola aarch64-branch]$ ./configure --prefix=$prefix \
    --target=aarch64-none-linux --enable-languages=c \
    --disable-threads --disable-shared --disable-libmudflap \
    --disable-libssp --disable-libgomp --disable-libquadmath
[jk@pecola aarch64-branch]$ make
[jk@pecola aarch64-branch]$ make install
[jk@pecola aarch64-branch]$ cd ../..

That's it! You should have a working compiler for arm64 kernels in /opt/cross/aarch64.

trackbacks

Victor Palau: Ubuntu ARMv8.. ready for hardware bring up!

comments

Benedikt Schroefel

I've used your build instructions (Ubuntu 12.04) and I have the following comments for you:

=== binutils ===

I could not locate "libmfpr-dev", did you mean "libmpfr-dev" instead?
The binutils/opcodes/Makefile uses the option "-Werror" which causes the build to fail on my machine due to warnings. This might be replaced by "-Wno-error"

=== gcc ===

issue "./aarch64-branch/configure" command from aarm64-toolchain/gcc. Otherwise the configuration file is not found.

Thank you very much, at least it seems that the compiler is available in /opt/cross/aarch64

regards, Benedikt

posted at 11:36 p.m. on 30 Aug 2012

Jeremy Kerr

Hi Benedikt,

Thanks for the information - I've updated the article with your fixes. In regards to the binutils/opcodes failure, I seem to recall adding a fix for that, I'll investigate and push something to my git tree.

Cheers!

Jeremy

posted at 11:07 a.m. on 31 Aug 2012

Yufeng Zhang

Hi Benedikt,

The binutils/opcodes/Makefile uses the option "-Werror" which causes the build to fail on my machine due to warnings. This might be replaced by "-Wno-error"

While the initial patch set adding the binutils AArch64 port does contain minor issues that would fail with -Werror on some machines, the final-version patches are warning-free. The AArch64 port has now been committed to both the binutils trunk and 2.23 branch; if you still see any warning using either of the two branches, please report the issue to binutils@sourceware.org or file a bug report at http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/

Regards, Yufeng

posted at 12:00 a.m. on 01 Sep 2012

Jeremy Kerr

Hi Yufeng & Benedikt,

I've successfully built the upstream binutils with aarch64 support - this builds without errors for me, so I've updated this page to use that git repo instead of mine.

Benedikt: let me know if you still have issues building.

Yufeng: thanks for the information, and the work on the aarch64 port!

Cheers,

Jeremy

posted at 12:49 p.m. on 03 Sep 2012

Heron

Hi Jeremy Kerr, I downloaded the aarch64-cross.tar.gz and installed it as you say,then edit /etc/profile to add the path of the toolchain,and source /etc/profile. But when I compile a test.c(print hello world!),it failed with the error:

test.c:1:19: fatal error: stdio.h: No such file or directory
 #include <stdio.h>

The test.c is :

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    printf("Hello world!\n");
    return 0;
}

I don't know how to fix it , any reply will be appreciated .Thanks in advanced.

posted at 11:47 a.m. on 10 Sep 2012

Jeremy Kerr

Hi Heron,

Unfortunately, the compiler described here won't be able to build your application, as it does not provide the standard C runtime library (which provides, amongst other things, stdio.h). Stay tuned though, I hear that folks are working on a full compiler with libc included. I'll post an update when that happens.

Jeremy

posted at 2:57 a.m. on 11 Sep 2012

Heron

Hi Jeremy,

I compile the ARM64 toolchain as the instructions mentioned above, but got errors as follow:

test -f config.h || (rm -f stamp-h1 && make stamp-h1)
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/zql/build/arm64-toolchain/gcc/aarch64-branch/host-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libcpp'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/zql/build/arm64-toolchain/gcc/aarch64-branch/host-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libdecnumber'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/zql/build/arm64-toolchain/gcc/aarch64-branch/host-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libdecnumber'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/zql/build/arm64-toolchain/gcc/aarch64-branch/host-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/gcc'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/zql/build/arm64-toolchain/gcc/aarch64-branch/host-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/gcc'
Checking multilib configuration for libgcc...
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/zql/build/arm64-toolchain/gcc/aarch64-branch/aarch64-none-linux/libgcc'
Makefile:161: ../.././gcc/libgcc.mvars: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `../.././gcc/libgcc.mvars'.  Stop.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/zql/build/arm64-toolchain/gcc/aarch64-branch/aarch64-none-linux/libgcc'
make[1]: *** [all-target-libgcc] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/zql/build/arm64-toolchain/gcc/aarch64-branch'
make: *** [all] Error 2

I googled the problem and get the answer (http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=32212), but I don't understand how to fix it. Can you give me some advice? Thanks a lot.

posted at 7:51 p.m. on 16 Nov 2012

Jeremy Kerr

Hi Heron,

The bug that you linked would suggest that you should try building in a separate directory. Try doing the following for the gcc stage:

cd gcc/aarch64-branch/
git reset --hard d6a1e14
mkdir build
cd build
../configure --prefix=$prefix \
    --target=aarch64-none-linux --enable-languages=c \
    --disable-threads --disable-shared --disable-libmudflap \
    --disable-libssp --disable-libgomp --disable-libquadmath
make
make install

let me know how that goes. If it works, I'll update the instructions above.

posted at 1:07 p.m. on 17 Nov 2012

Heron

Thanks Jeremy, It works, Thanks for your detailed reply, and I figured it out as you say. Best regards.

posted at 12:15 p.m. on 19 Nov 2012

Heron

And ,FYI,

the linaro company had published the ARMv8 toolchain which include the libc,check this out(http://www.linaro.org/engineering/armv8).

And ARM had published Foundation Model to test the ARMv8 applications (http://www.arm.com/zh/products/tools/models/fast-models/foundation-model.php)

Best regards.

posted at 12:25 p.m. on 19 Nov 2012

George Grey

Hi Jeremy

I had a couple of problems

First I had to downgrade Texinfo to 4.13 to prevent the following failure: @itemx must follow @item
Secondly the current recipe causes a gcc/libgcc.mvars no such file or directory error because you are building in the same directory as the sources. I think this got introduced when you responded to the earlier post. You do NEED to build the makefile in a separate directory so Benedikt was correct in that you need to do the configure command from the higher level gcc directory and not from the branch directory:

[aarm64-toolchain/gcc]$ ./aarch64-branch/configure ......

Then do the make and make install from the same place

Now I have an ARM32 to ARM64 cross compiler - thanks :)

posted at 12:07 p.m. on 28 Dec 2014

ryan

I'm successful in building the binaries. However, when I copied /opt/cross to other path, cpp files can't be compiled with error like below.

${new_path}/bin/../lib/gcc/aarch64-linux-gnu/4.9.3/../../../../aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/ld: cannot find /opt/cross/aarch64-linux-gnu/lib/libpthread.so.0
${new_path}/bin/../lib/gcc/aarch64-linux-gnu/4.9.3/../../../../aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/ld: cannot find /opt/cross/aarch64-linux-gnu/lib/libpthread_nonshared.a

posted at 4:34 p.m. on 12 Jan 2016

Jeremy Kerr

Hi Ryan,

The toolchain will be bound to the path that you specify at build time, so (unfortunately) cannot be relocated easily.

You may have some luck with the --sysroot and -B arguments to the compiler and linker, but it's probably easiest to configure it for the final path that you'll use.

Since this post was written, most Linux distributions have some form of cross-compiler pre-packaged. If this is suitable for you, it'll be much less hassle than trying to build it yourself!

All the best.

posted at 4:52 p.m. on 12 Jan 2016

ARM64 toolchain

pre-built toolchain

initial setup

binutils

kernel headers

gcc

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