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Posts Tagged ‘cross-development’

openSUSE and GCC part 1: getting started

October 7th, 2013 by

I try to explain in this series of blog entries how to install gcc (GNU C-Compiler) and what to do with it. I  also try to explain little make and CMake/Autotools. This is not very generic tutorial because I like to promote openSUSE as coding platform. Most of the tips goes just fine with every distro. For the first words I like to say one thing: openSUSE is excellent platform for C-coding. Though, you can choose your programming language  but this time I like to talk about GCC and specially C-Compiler. I’ll try to how to get there with these writings because I have noticed that this substance is getting less attention that it needs. Also noted that GCC anf GNU is 30 years and I have used it almost 15 so time to share some information. (more…)

openSUSE@ARM/GSoC: Cross-compilation & speedup

June 16th, 2009 by

This weeks topic was the integration of the cross-compilation mode into the build environment. But it’s more than just a cross-toolchain – it’s a speed-boost for our ARM build environment. As of today, the source is deployed in the repository Base:build:arm:cross. It’s not fully bootstrapped because of the current high load and the upcoming downtime – so watch out for changes there and in Base:build:arm.

But what are these “speedup’s” ? First, you’ve to know that in our build environment the ARM binaries are executed through an emulation-layer. This works on the cost of speed. The goal is now, to exchange some key parts in a transparent manner with native x86 binaries: no emulation, no slowdown. Sounds reasonable, but is it easily possible ?
I had to take care not to mix stuff too much because the environment would break. But now I’ve to say:  WOW, this worked incredibly well  😉 .

The distinctive feature of our approach in comparison to usual cross-build environments is that we use the best of native environment emulation and the speed of cross-compilation. Because of this combination we don’t have to patch the individual packages to make them cross-compilation ready. This is a new way of cross-compiling suitable also for large number of packages. A detailed overview about the different crossbuild types can be found on this page.
Another feature to note is that the exchanged binaries (replacing ARM with x86 in the build environment) also don’t need heavy patching and there’s no need to compile them as static binaries. All of them are normal distribution packages.

A switch in the project enables/disables the new features. With the new changes in place, the speed could be vastly increased. Some figures:
* package rpm
* package glibc w/o locales

Build time in minutes
x86 native armv5tel native armv5tel cross factor native factor cross
rpm 8 107 17 13,38 2,13
glibc 33 505 63 15,3 1,91

overview cross-environment

Thats a drop from about x15 to x2 in comparison to the native x86 build-time !! See it yourself when the “crosscompiled” repo in Base:build:arm is up and running.

In other words: “Warp 5, Mr. Sulu !” 😉