How to cross compile CMake for ARM with CMake

Question

In short I'm trying to cross compile CMake with CMake, and I don't think I'm linking libraries correctly. What I want to do may not be possible, but I'd at least like to know why it isn't possible if that's the case.

System: The host is a Linux box with a Cavium ARM9 CPU. It's currently running version 2.6.24.4 of the Linux kernel and Debian 5.0 (Lenny). My workstation is a Core i5 running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin).

My overall goal is to get ROS running on the Linux box. I have to compile from source rather than use apt since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) binaries require thumb support that the Cavium does not give, and not many of the needed packages are available for Debian 5.0 (Lenny). I'd made progress installing the various libraries needed, but when I got to step 1.3.1 and tried to run CMake, I got the error

CMake 2.8 or higher is required. You are running version 2.6.0

Next I tried to download and build CMake 2.8.8 on the Linux box itself, but it was too much for the system. When that failed, I downloaded the toolchain suggested on the manufacturer's website and used the cross-compiling guide at [www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_Cross_Compiling] to build the CMake executables. Here is my toolchain file:

# This one is important SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)  # Specify the cross compiler SET(CMAKE_C_COMPILER   /pathto/crosstool-linux-gcc-4.5.2-gclibc-2.9-oabi/arm-unknown-linux-gnu/bin/arm-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc) SET(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER /pathto/crosstool-linux-gcc-4.5.2-gclibc-2.9-oabi/arm-unknown-linux-gnu/bin/arm-unknown-linux-gnu-g++)  # Where is the target environment SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH  /pathto/crosstool-linux-gcc-4.5.2-gclibc-2.9-oabi/arm-unknown-linux-gnu /pathto/crosstool-linux-gcc-4.5.2-gclibc-2.9-oabi/arm-unknown-linux-gnu/arm-unknown-linux-gnu)  # Search for programs in the build host directories SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)  # For libraries and headers in the target directories SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY) SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY) 

However, use of the binary on the Linux box gives the error

cmake: /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.14' not found (required by cmake)

Sure enough, the library is not there:

prompt# strings /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 | grep GLIBC GLIBCXX_3.4 GLIBCXX_3.4.1 GLIBCXX_3.4.2 GLIBCXX_3.4.3 GLIBCXX_3.4.4 GLIBCXX_3.4.5 GLIBCXX_3.4.6 GLIBCXX_3.4.7 GLIBCXX_3.4.8 GLIBCXX_3.4.9 GLIBCXX_3.4.10 GLIBC_2.3 GLIBC_2.0 GLIBC_2.3.2 GLIBC_2.1 GLIBC_2.1.3 GLIBC_2.2 GLIBCXX_FORCE_NEW GLIBCXX_DEBUG_MESSAGE_LENGTH 

I've never cross-compiled before, but I can see one of two scenarios happening: either the binary got created with a link to a higher version of glibcxx on the host machine or the manufacturer's toolchain is more modern than their image. I don't know how to check which is happening or if something else is happening that I don't know about.

My last effort involved trying to statically cross-compile CMake to hopefully get rid of the linking error with

cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../toolchain-technologic.cmake -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASE="-static" .. 

I got build errors, and that binary didn't work either. I got:

FATAL: kernel too old Segmentation fault 

I'd try installing glibcxx 3.4.14 on the Linux box, but it doesn't look like it's available for this processor.

I've tried searching for CMake dependencies or system requirements and can't find anything. I've also searched on how to build CMake, but most searches turn up how to build other things with CMake rather than building CMake itself.

Answer 1

I do cross-compile a lot for ARM9 devices using CMake, and indeed this looks like you're not linking to the same libs you have on your target device. You shouldn't need to build CMake yourself to get this done, since it does have good support for cross-compiling since version 2.6. Just make sure you set the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH variable to a path where you have an exact copy of the root filesystem you have on your target device (with libraries and binaries pre-compiled for the target processor). That should solve your problems.

As a sidenote, I like to use crosstool-ng for building my cross-compilers. It is a really nice tool which helps you to build them from scratch, so I try to match the compiler version and glibc to the ones originally used to build the root filesystem (I usually start with a ready made root filesystem from ARMedslack, since I use Slackware for my development box and ARMedslack for my ARM targets).