Developing with Ubuntu Qt Creator ToolChain for Angstrom Beaglebone (Arm Cortex-a8)

blaroche · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 01:31

now its time to start cross compiling Qt.

first goal is to just get a console based 'hello world' application on the target. so, not worried about gui or touchscreen features. you may have to come back to cross compile Qt later to add support for those. save those battles for another day.

go to the directory you extract Qt.
make a backup copy of the following file, and then edit the original.
$qtsource/mkspecs/qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++/qmake.conf

notice things like the following:
QMAKE_CC = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-gcc
QMAKE_CXX = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++
QMAKE_LINK = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++
QMAKE_LINK_SHLIB = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++
QMAKE_AR = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-ar cqs
QMAKE_OBJCOPY = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-objcopy
QMAKE_STRIP = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-strip

make sure 'arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-*' matches what you have installed for your toolchain. edit if needed.

configure Qt with the following in the root of the extracted Qt source.

@
./configure -v -opensource -confirm-license -xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -embedded arm -little-endian -host-big-endian -prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm -no-cups -no-accessibility -reduce-relocations -no-nas-sound -no-sm -no-nis -qt-libjpeg -qt-libpng -qt-zlib -no-sql-ibase -no-sql-mysql -no-sql-odbc -no-sql-psql -no-sql-sqlite -no-sql-sqlite2 -no-pch -no-dbus -no-glib -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-webkit -no-multimedia -no-audio-backend -no-qt3support -nomake examples -nomake demos -nomake docs -nomake translations -no-qt3support -exceptions -no-fast
@
that is a configuration that worked for me in the past. let me know if you get errors.
pay special attention to:
-xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++
and
-prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm

xplatform tells configure which qmake.conf you want to use, the one you edited above.
prefix tells configure where you want Qt libs installed on your desktop, this will be the same directory you will copy Qt libs to on your target.

blaroche · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 01:37

oh. almost forgot.
after you run the configure command successully, then you need to make and install

type:
make
wait a bit
then type:
sudo make install

NuckNuck · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 01:39

I got up to the configure part and these are the last few lines I got in error:

           @  from /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/corelib/io/qfilesystementry.cpp:46:

/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/include/QtCore/private/../../../src/corelib/io/qfilesystemmetadata_p.h:228: error: expected ',' or '...' before '&' token
/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/include/QtCore/private/../../../src/corelib/io/qfilesystemmetadata_p.h:228: error: ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'QT_DIRENT' with no type
make: *** [qfilesystementry.o] Error 1@

NuckNuck · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 02:02

Updates: I logged in as Sudo -s and got a different error similar to "this one":http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8168950/cross-compiling-c-project-relocations-in-generic-elf-em-3 wit hthe EF 50's errors

So I did the export thing wit hthe correct file paths and then ran the ./configure --etc -etc again and now I get the same error except it looks cleaner in text style this time like the following...

@
Creating qmake. Please wait...
/usr/local/angstrom/arm/bin/arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++ -o "/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/bin/qmake" project.o property.o main.o makefile.o unixmake2.o unixmake.o mingw_make.o option.o winmakefile.o projectgenerator.o meta.o makefiledeps.o metamakefile.o xmloutput.o pbuilder_pbx.o borland_bmake.o msvc_vcproj.o msvc_vcxproj.o msvc_nmake.o msvc_objectmodel.o msbuild_objectmodel.o symmake.o initprojectdeploy_symbian.o symmake_abld.o symmake_sbsv2.o symbiancommon.o registry.o epocroot.o gbuild.o qtextcodec.o qutfcodec.o qstring.o qtextstream.o qiodevice.o qmalloc.o qglobal.o qbytearray.o qbytearraymatcher.o qdatastream.o qbuffer.o qlist.o qfile.o qfilesystementry.o qfilesystemengine_unix.o qfilesystemengine.o qfilesystemiterator_unix.o qfsfileengine_unix.o qfsfileengine.o qfsfileengine_iterator.o qregexp.o qvector.o qbitarray.o qdir.o qdiriterator.o quuid.o qhash.o qfileinfo.o qdatetime.o qstringlist.o qabstractfileengine.o qtemporaryfile.o qmap.o qmetatype.o qsettings.o qsystemerror.o qlibraryinfo.o qvariant.o qvsnprintf.o qlocale.o qlocale_tools.o qlocale_unix.o qlinkedlist.o qnumeric.o qcryptographichash.o qxmlstream.o qxmlutils.o
qfilesystementry.o: file not recognized: File format not recognized
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/bin/qmake] Error 1
root@000000000:~/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3#
@

blaroche · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 02:12

you don't need sudo for configrue and make.

let me run thru the steps myself, maybe i missed a step. i was just using bits of notes i had from the past.

blaroche · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 02:42

ok. all was fine for me. i'm using ubuntu (32 bit), same qt source and toolchain as you. so i prolly didn't explain as step that good.

source your toolchain env file:
source /usr/local/angstrom/arm/environment-setup
confirm arm binaries are in your PATH env. from any directory type:
arm-angstrom and hit tab a few times. auto complete should show you a bunch file files named arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-something
setup your mkspecs. delete everything in the following file:
/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/mkspecs/qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++/qmake.conf

copy in the following:
@#

qmake configuration for building with arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++

include(../../common/linux.conf)
include(../../common/gcc-base-unix.conf)
include(../../common/g++-unix.conf)
include(../../common/qws.conf)

modifications to g++.conf

QMAKE_CC = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-gcc
QMAKE_CXX = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++
QMAKE_LINK = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++
QMAKE_LINK_SHLIB = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++

modifications to linux.conf

QMAKE_AR = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-ar cqs
QMAKE_OBJCOPY = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-objcopy
QMAKE_STRIP = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-strip

load(qt_config)

@

cd to /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/ and run the following command:
@./configure -v -opensource -confirm-license -xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -embedded arm -little-endian -host-big-endian -prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm -no-cups -no-accessibility -reduce-relocations -no-nas-sound -no-sm -no-nis -qt-libjpeg -qt-libpng -qt-zlib -no-sql-ibase -no-sql-mysql -no-sql-odbc -no-sql-psql -no-sql-sqlite -no-sql-sqlite2 -no-pch -no-dbus -no-glib -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-webkit -no-multimedia -no-audio-backend -no-qt3support -nomake examples -nomake demos -nomake docs -nomake translations -no-qt3support -exceptions -no-fast

@

i usually just copy the configure command into a file called config in the source directory, and chmod 755, and run the file ./config

hopefully you don't get any errors, and then you can run:
make
if you have a mutiple core cpu, you can run: make -j2, or make -j4 to speed things up.

then
sudo make install

JKSH · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 02:45

[quote author="blaroche" date="1350091911"]
@
./configure ... -embedded arm -little-endian -host-big-endian ...
@
[/quote]

[quote author="NuckNuck" date="1350093758"]
@
qfilesystementry.o: file not recognized: File format not recognized
@
[/quote]
...isn't x86_64 little-endian?

blaroche · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 02:59

[quote author="NuckNuck" date="1350093758"]

...isn't x86_64 little-endian?[/quote]
i've never tried on a 64bit machine, good suggestion, thank you.
try this configure.
but first, cleanup. run
make confclean

./configure -v -opensource -confirm-license -xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -embedded arm -little-endian -host-little-endian -prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm -no-cups -no-accessibility -reduce-relocations -no-nas-sound -no-sm -no-nis -qt-libjpeg -qt-libpng -qt-zlib -no-sql-ibase -no-sql-mysql -no-sql-odbc -no-sql-psql -no-sql-sqlite -no-sql-sqlite2 -no-pch -no-dbus -no-glib -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-webkit -no-multimedia -no-audio-backend -no-qt3support -nomake examples -nomake demos -nomake docs -nomake translations -no-qt3support -exceptions -no-fast

NuckNuck · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 05:41

I did * make confclean* which make claimed it couldn't find any target file/config so i just did the ./configure above with the last post that includes the little-endian flag and now I recieve this error, Thanks again for the help I'm excited to get to BeagleBone programming

_
root@000000000:~/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3# ./configure -v -opensource -confirm-license -xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -embedded arm -little-endian -host-big-endian -prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm -no-cups -no-accessibility -reduce-relocations -no-nas-sound -no-sm -no-nis -qt-libjpeg -qt-libpng -qt-zlib -no-sql-ibase -no-sql-mysql -no-sql-odbc -no-sql-psql -no-sql-sqlite -no-sql-sqlite2 -no-pch -no-dbus -no-glib -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-webkit -no-multimedia -no-audio-backend -no-qt3support -nomake examples -nomake demos -nomake docs -nomake translations -no-qt3support -exceptions -no-fast
Determining system architecture... (Linux:3.2.0-32-generic:x86_64)
64-bit AMD 80x86 (x86_64)
'arm' is supported
'x86_64' is supported
System architecture: 'arm'
Host architecture: 'x86_64'

You have not explicitly asked to use pkg-config and are cross-compiling.
pkg-config will not be used to automatically query cflag/lib parameters for
dependencies

Symbol visibility control enabled.
Symbolic function binding enabled.

This is the Qt for Embedded Linux Open Source Edition.

You are licensed to use this software under the terms of
the Lesser GNU General Public License (LGPL) versions 2.1.
You are also licensed to use this software under the terms of
the GNU General Public License (GPL) versions 3.

You have already accepted the terms of the license.

Creating qmake. Please wait...
/usr/local/angstrom/arm/bin/arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++ -c -o option.o -pipe -m64 -DQMAKE_OPENSOURCE_EDITION -g -I. -Igenerators -Igenerators/unix -Igenerators/win32 -Igenerators/mac -Igenerators/symbian -Igenerators/integrity -I/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/include -I/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/include/QtCore -I/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/corelib/global -I/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/corelib/xml -I/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/tools/shared -DQT_NO_PCRE -DQT_BUILD_QMAKE -DQT_BOOTSTRAPPED -DQLIBRARYINFO_EPOCROOT -DQT_NO_TEXTCODEC -DQT_NO_UNICODETABLES -DQT_NO_COMPONENT -DQT_NO_STL -DQT_NO_COMPRESS -I/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/mkspecs/qws/linux-x86_64-g++ -DHAVE_QCONFIG_CPP -DQT_NO_THREAD -DQT_NO_QOBJECT -DQT_NO_GEOM_VARIANT -DQT_NO_DEPRECATED option.cpp
cc1plus: error: unrecognized command line option "-m64"
make: *** [option.o] Error 1
_

JKSH · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 08:24

Hmm... Google suggests that the "-m64" is not supported by these cross-compilers. I don't have a 64-bit machine, so I'm not sure where that is being set.

Go to your Qt root folder and call this to find out:
@
grep m64 *
@

You might be able to manually remove the flag and continue.

blaroche · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 13:16

hmm. lets go back and see if we can find a smaller configure that you can build on.

see where you get with this one:
@./configure -v -opensource -confirm-license -xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -embedded arm -little-endian -host-big-endian -prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm @

then maybe try this:
@./configure -v -opensource -confirm-license -xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -embedded arm -prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm @

i'm with JSKH, i've never cross compiled on 64 bit.

blaroche · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 13:25

another one to try...
@
./configure -v -opensource -confirm-license -xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -embedded arm -little-endian -prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm
@

NuckNuck · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 21:33

[quote author="blaroche" date="1350134211"]hmm. lets go back and see if we can find a smaller configure that you can build on.

see where you get with this one:
@./configure -v -opensource -confirm-license -xplatform qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -embedded arm -little-endian -host-big-endian -prefix /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm @
[/quote]

That first configure seems to have done the trick, This was the end result

@
Qt is now configured for building. Just run 'make'.
Once everything is built, you must run 'make install'.
Qt will be installed into /usr/local/beaglebone/qt4.8-arm

To reconfigure, run 'make confclean' and 'configure'.
@

So i ran make and recieved the following error

@make[1]: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++: Command not found
make[1]: *** [.obj/release-shared-emb-arm/qabstractanimation.o] Error 127
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/corelib'
make: *** [sub-corelib-make_default-ordered] Error 2@

Its odd that it says its trying to execute arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++

blaroche · wrote on 13 Oct 2012, 22:02

check your mkspecs again.
look at this file:
/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/mkspecs/qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++/qmake.conf

you should see stuff for:
arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-*
not
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-*

should look like the below:
@ #
# qmake configuration for building with arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++
#

include(../../common/linux.conf)
include(../../common/gcc-base-unix.conf)
include(../../common/g++-unix.conf)
include(../../common/qws.conf)
 
# modifications to g++.conf
QMAKE_CC                = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-gcc
QMAKE_CXX               = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++
QMAKE_LINK              = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++
QMAKE_LINK_SHLIB        = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++
 
 
# modifications to linux.conf
QMAKE_AR                = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-ar cqs
QMAKE_OBJCOPY           = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-objcopy
QMAKE_STRIP             = arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-strip
 
load(qt_config)

@

NuckNuck · wrote on 14 Oct 2012, 01:16

The conf file was saying the arm-none so I changed it to the one you provided and I get relativly the same error take a look:
@
xenland@000000000:~/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3$ make
cd src/tools/bootstrap/ && make -f Makefile
make[1]: Entering directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/bootstrap' make[1]: Nothing to be done for first'.
make[1]: Leaving directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/bootstrap' cd src/tools/moc/ && make -f Makefile make[1]: Entering directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/moc'
/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/bin/qmake -spec ../../../mkspecs/qws/linux-x86_64-g++ -o Makefile moc.pro
make[1]: Leaving directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/moc' make[1]: Entering directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/moc'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for first'. make[1]: Leaving directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/moc'
cd src/tools/rcc/ && make -f Makefile
make[1]: Entering directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/rcc' make[1]: Nothing to be done for first'.
make[1]: Leaving directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/rcc' cd src/tools/uic/ && make -f Makefile make[1]: Entering directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/uic'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for first'. make[1]: Leaving directory /home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/tools/uic'
cd src/corelib/ && make -f Makefile
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/xenland/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.3/src/corelib'
arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++ -c -pipe -O2 -Wall -W -D_REENTRANT -fPIC -DQT_SHARED -DQT_BUILD_CORE_LIB -DQT_NO_USING_NAMESPACE -DQT_NO_CAST_TO_ASCII -DQT_ASCII_CAST_WARNINGS -DQT3_SUPPORT -DQT_MOC_COMPAT -DQT_USE_QSTRINGBUILDER -DELF_INTERPRETER="/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2" -DHB_EXPORT=Q_CORE_EXPORT -DQT_NO_DEBUG -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -I../../mkspecs/qws/linux-arm-gnueabi-g++ -I. -I../../include -I../../include/QtCore -I.rcc/release-shared-emb-arm -Iglobal -I../3rdparty/zlib -I../3rdparty/harfbuzz/src -I../3rdparty/md5 -I../3rdparty/md4 -I.moc/release-shared-emb-arm -o .obj/release-shared-emb-arm/qabstractanimation.o animation/qabstractanimation.cpp
make[1]: arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++: Command not found
make[1]: *** [.obj/release-shared-emb-arm/qabstractanimation.o] Error 127
@

blaroche · wrote on 14 Oct 2012, 01:41

now looks like the toolchain binaries aren't found in your PATH var.
source the toolchain env file, type:
source /usr/local/angstrom/arm/environment-setup

then type:
arm-angstrom-linux and hit tab a few times and make sure it can find arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi-g++

see if that gets you further.