I am new to angstrom and linux. I am in the process of building an sdk with angstrom. But I cant understand what is a Toolchain and its functionality. Please someone help me here.
In software, a toolchain is the set of programming tools that are used to create a product (typically another computer program or system of programs). The tools may be used in a chain, so that the output of each tool becomes the input for the next, but the term is used widely to refer to any set of linked development tools.
A simple software development toolchain consists of a compiler and linker to transform the source code into an executable program, libraries to provide interfaces to the operating system, and a debugger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toolchain
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(Using C++) How would software developers make a profitable program to distribute? Would they used pre-compiled binaries within the project directory or something? Just learning wxWidgets and I want to make an application to put on a website.
#pizzadog,
The answer depends on the target platform.
If you are on Windows, you create a binary and use a special software to create a distribution.
If you are on *nix - the answer depends whether you want to allow the end-user to compile the software. If you do - you put the link to the source on the site and create a documentation on how to build it. If you don't - you create a special rules file depending on the *nix distribution you are targeting.
If you are on Mac - you put the application bundle for download and clearly state what is the minimal OSX version the program will run.
HTH.
I am totally new to CMake and compiled languages for that matter. I have seen this question and answer. But I still don't fully understand what CMake is.
I am coming from a nodeJs/Javascipt environment, therefore if I could know a CMake equivalent in the nodeJs/Javascipt environment it would really help me understand what it is.So... Is CMake an equivalent of npm?
No, citing from Wikipedia:
CMake is a cross-platform free and open-source software tool for managing the build process of software using a compiler-independent method. It supports directory hierarchies and applications that depend on multiple libraries. It is used in conjunction with native build environments such as Make, Qt Creator, Ninja, Apple's Xcode, and Microsoft Visual Studio. It has minimal dependencies, requiring only a C++ compiler on its own build system.
JavaScript is an interpreted language, that means NodeJS/Browsers read and understand the code and execute it directly. For example C is built via a compiler (that reads and understands the code before execution) to Machine code (that does not need to be understand because it's the native language from your processor) and can be executed faster. CMake simplifies calling the Compiler, linking libraries (something like setting up require) and more for all files. Altough sometimes using babel, webpack and others via npm run is called 'building'.
I have an embedded project for ARM platform, specifically aarch64.
Up until now I was using Make. I recently set up CMake with no particular issues.
I moved to CMake because I was under the impression it was a more modern build tool that would have allowed a smarter configuration.
For example, I can compile my project using different toolchains (aarch64-elf-gcc-linaro, aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc,...) and I would like CMake to try if any of those are installed on the system and use whichever is found first by default.
Is this possible (or meant to)? I'd expect it to be an easy feat for the tool, but after searching for a while I can't seem to find the right track.
Yes, you can make your CMake project to search for available tool-chains installed in your OS, choose one and compile your project. I also write a CMake program for ARM embedded project, because now it is universal transferable between different OS system Windows and Unix. On Linux there is ARM ToolChain installed and on Windows there is Keil-MDK. If you have different tool-chains to choose between, you can write CMake script which will find paths with command like find_path() and then call correct "toolchianxx.cmake" script with right compiler flags for chosen compiler.
In your particular problem just use find_path commands and use hits to find installed compilers in "pre-set" known paths.
The mono installation provided at mono-project.com comes packed with several libraries, such as gkt, making the installation quite large (~280MB or so).
Is there any way to provide users with an installation of "just" the mono environment? I am targeting Windows, MacOSX and Linux.
You might be looking for mkbundle which merges your application, the libraries it uses and the Mono runtime into a single executable image. See under "Bundles" in that page.
If you do this though, it may mean that you are distributing LGPL code with all that this implies.
If you are distributing your app for Mac OS X, there is also MonoMacPackager which offers more advanced support for this. I think they have done a bunch of work in the linker to really minimize the amount of Mono that you have to include. It will actually remove unused code from assemblies that you reference.
I am a newbie to embedded developement, as figure shown. I have a small ARM board, AT91SAM7-EX256. I have also a JTAG programmer dongle, too. I am using Linux (Ubuntu x86_32) on my notebook and desktop machine. I'm using CodeSourcery Lite for cross-compiling to ARM-Linux.
Am I right that I can't use this Linux-target cross-compiler to make binary or hex files for the small ARM board (it comes without any operating system)? Should I use the version called ARM EABI instead?
As I see, it's a "generic" ARM compiler. I've read some docs, and there're lot of options to specify the processor type and instruction set (thumb, etc.), there will be no problem with it. But how can I tell the compiler, how should the image (bin/hex) looks like for the specific board (startup, code/data blocks etc.)? (In assemblers, there're the org and load directives for it.)
What software do I need to capture some debug messages from the board on my PC? I don't want to on-board debugging, I just need some detailed run-time signal, more than just blinking leds.
I have an option to use MS-Windows, I can get a dedicated machine for it. Do you recommend it, is it much easier?
Can I use inline assembly somehow in my C code? I dunno anything about that. Can I use C++ or just C?
I have also a question, which don't need to answer: are there really 4096 kind of GNU compilers and cross-compilers (from Linux_x86_32 -> Linux_x86_32, Linux_x86_32 -> Linux_ARM, OSX -> Linux_ARM, PPC_Linux -> OSX) and 16 different GNU compiler sources (as many target platforms/processors exists) around? The signs says "yes", but I can't believe it. Correct me, and show me the GNU compiler which can produce object file for any platform/processor, and the universal linker which can produce executable for any platform.
While Windows is not a "better" platform do this kind of embedded development on, it may be easier to start with since you can get a pre-built environment to work with. For example, Yagarto (which I would recommend).
Setting up an embedded development environment on Linux can require a considerable amount of knowledge, but it's not impossible.
To answer your questions:
Your Linux cross-compiler comes with libraries to build executables for a Linux environment. You have hinted that you want to build a bare-metal executable for this board. While you can do this with your compiler, it will just confuse things. I recommend building a baremetal cross-compiler. Since you're building your own baremetal executable (and thus you are the operating system, the ABI doesn't matter since you're generating all of the code and not interoperating with other previously built code.
There are several versions of the ARM instruction set (and Thumb). You need to generate code for your particular processor. If you generate the code for a newer version of the instruction set, you will likely generate code which generates a reserved instruction exception. Most prebuilt gcc cross-compiler toolchains for ARM are "multilib" and will build for a variety of architectures in both ARM and Thumb.
Not sure exactly what you're looking for here. This is a bare metal platform. You can use the debugger channel to send messages if you're debugging on target, or you'll need to build your own communication channel into the firmware you write (i.e. uart support).
See above.
Yes. See here for details on gcc's extended inline assembly syntax. You can do this in C++ and C. You can also simply link pure assembly files.
There is no universal gcc compiler / linker. You need a uniquely built compiler for each host / target combination you use.
Finally, please take a look at Atmel's documentation. They have a wealth of information on developing for this target as well as a board package with the needed linker directives and example programs. Note of course the package is for Atmel's own eval board, but it will get you started.
http://sam7stuff.blogspot.com/
I use either of the codesourcery lite versions. But I have no use for the gcc library nor a C library, I just need a compiler.
In the gcc 3 days newlib was great, modify two files worth of system support (simple open, close, read, putc type stuff) and you could compile just about anything, but with gcc 4.x you cannot even go back and cross compile gcc 3.x, you have to install an old linux distro in a virtual machine.
To get the gcc library yes you probably want to use the eabi version not the version with linux gnueabi in the file names.
You might also consider llvm (if you dont need a C library, and you will still need binutils), hmm, I wonder if newlib compiles with llvm.
I prefer to avoid getting trapped in sandboxes, learn the tools and how to manipulate the linker, etc to build your binaries.