Qt5.7 & Raspberry Pi 3 mkspecs equal signs

Dr.V

I have cross-compiled Qt5.7 for RPi 3/EGLFS using the Linaro toolchain (without gnu gold linker). It seems that there are some challenges with the mkspec file (linux-rpi3-g++/qmake.conf).

To reiterate what has been discussed before: In order to be able to compile Qt itself, the following additions are required:

INCLUDEPATH  += $$[QT_SYSROOT]/opt/vc/include
INCLUDEPATH  += $$[QT_SYSROOT]/opt/vc/include/interface/vcos
INCLUDEPATH  += $$[QT_SYSROOT]/opt/vc/include/interface/vcos/pthreads
INCLUDEPATH  += $$[QT_SYSROOT]/opt/vc/include/interface/vmcs_host/linux

This is already a bit dubious, as these (or at least the first one) should be covered by:

VC_INCLUDE_PATH         = =/opt/vc/include

However, the extra equal sign results in a strange include path. On the other hand, if the equal sign is removed, ./configure does not recognize EGL.

When compiling QtWebEngine, there is another similar problem with the VC library paths. The library path is specified without the equal sign:

VC_LIBRARY_PATH         = /opt/vc/lib

But it does not help, because the link command is specified as (note the equal sign):

VC_LINK_LINE            = -L=$${VC_LIBRARY_PATH} -Wl,-rpath-link,$$[QT_SYSROOT]$${VC_LIBRARY_PATH}

So, the linker command line switch emitted by this is:

-L=/home/user/sysroot/opt/vc/lib

Which leaves the linker looking for libraries in /=/home/user/sysroot/opt/vc/lib.

This can be partially patched by adding the following line to the mkspec file:

LIBS += -L$$[QT_SYSROOT]/opt/vc/lib

With this addition QtWebEngine is successfully built (and works).

However, this does not happen without side effects. When the library is loaded, there is a run time error:

[0803/051830:ERROR:surface_factory_qt.cpp(68)] Failed to load /=/opt/vc/lib/libEGL.so.1: /=/opt/vc/lib/libEGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I guess this could be fixed by removing the VC_LINK_LINE specification altogether, but I have the feeling the specification is there for a reason.

So how is it supposed to work? What should be done to clear this equal sign mess? Has this got something to do with the differences between toolchains?

micland

Just a side note: Instead of patching the mkspec you can fix the header/library mixup using some symlinks as it is done in many tutorials for building Qt ON the Raspi (not cross-compiling).
For example, see here: https://wiki.qt.io/Native_Build_of_Qt_5.4.1_on_a_Raspberry_Pi#Full_native_build_of_Qt_5.5.1_.28.2Bdocs.29_and_Qt-creator_3.6.0_on_a_Raspberry_Pi_2

Dr.V

@micland I thought of that but discarded the idea because Raspbian seems to be the de facto standard distribution for RPi, and IMHO the mkspec should work out-of-the-box with the Rasbian library paths. Or at least there should be a mkspec for Raspbian.

Also, if I understand it right, the symlinks won't fix the run time error. (But I have to admit I am not at all sure I understand it right.)

One thing that puzzles me is the big difference between RPi3 and RPi2 mkspecs. Wouldn't it be enough to change the processor optimization flags?