How To Cross Compile GDB and Run in Embedded System by cawan (cawan[at]ieee.org or chuiyewleong[at]hotmail.

com) on 21/11/2012 GDB is a useful tool to debug applications running in linux system. For the case of embedded linux system, it is important have a version of GDB that can run in proper in the embedded environment. As oppose to x86 environment which is mostly being used in PC platform, embedded system adopts a large variety of RISC architecture to run the system. There are ARM, MIPS, PPC... and each of them might run in little or big endian mode. So, it is a little bit hard to have a generic version of GDB that can run in all embedded platforms. Therefore, it is crucial to harness the power of cross compilation in all the ways in order to make use of those useful tools such as GDB in embedded environment. Regarding to the fundamental knowledge of cross compilation, please refer my previous paper in this blog, "What is Cross Compilation ? Cross Compilation Demystified For Embedded Linux System". So, let us start to cross compile the GDB for our embedded platform right now. The embedded platform that we are going to use is MIPS 24k, little-endian mode, 500MHz, with 256MB DDR2 RAM. Host:# ./configure --help `configure' configures this package to adapt to many kinds of systems. Usage: ./configure [OPTION]... [VAR=VALUE]... To assign environment variables (e.g., CC, CFLAGS...), specify them as VAR=VALUE. See below for descriptions of some of the useful variables. Defaults for the options are specified in brackets. Configuration: -h, --help --help=short --help=recursive -V, --version -q, --quiet, --silent --cache-file=FILE -C, --config-cache -n, --no-create --srcdir=DIR

display this help and exit display options specific to this package display the short help of all the included packages display version information and exit do not print `checking...' messages cache test results in FILE [disabled] alias for `--cache-file=config.cache' do not create output files find the sources in DIR [configure dir or `..']

Installation directories: --prefix=PREFIX install architecture-independent files in PREFIX [/usr/local] --exec-prefix=EPREFIX install architecture-dependent files in EPREFIX [PREFIX] By default, `make install' will install all the files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/lib' etc. You can specify an installation prefix other than `/usr/local' using `--prefix', for instance `--prefix=$HOME'. For better control, use the options below. Fine tuning of the installation directories: --bindir=DIR user executables [EPREFIX/bin] --sbindir=DIR system admin executables [EPREFIX/sbin] --libexecdir=DIR program executables [EPREFIX/libexec] --sysconfdir=DIR read-only single-machine data [PREFIX/etc] --sharedstatedir=DIR modifiable architecture-independent data [PREFIX/com] --localstatedir=DIR modifiable single-machine data [PREFIX/var] --libdir=DIR object code libraries [EPREFIX/lib] --includedir=DIR C header files [PREFIX/include] --oldincludedir=DIR C header files for non-gcc [/usr/include] --datarootdir=DIR read-only arch.-independent data root [PREFIX/share] --datadir=DIR read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]

--infodir=DIR --localedir=DIR --mandir=DIR --docdir=DIR --htmldir=DIR --dvidir=DIR --pdfdir=DIR --psdir=DIR

info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info] locale-dependent data [DATAROOTDIR/locale] man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man] documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE] html documentation [DOCDIR] dvi documentation [DOCDIR] pdf documentation [DOCDIR] ps documentation [DOCDIR]

Program names: --program-prefix=PREFIX --program-suffix=SUFFIX --program-transform-name=PROGRAM System types: --build=BUILD --host=HOST --target=TARGET

prepend PREFIX to installed program names append SUFFIX to installed program names run sed PROGRAM on installed program names

configure for building on BUILD [guessed] cross-compile to build programs to run on HOST [BUILD] configure for building compilers for TARGET [HOST]

Optional Features: --disable-option-checking ignore unrecognized --enable/--with options --disable-FEATURE do not include FEATURE (same as --enable-FEATURE=no) --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] include FEATURE [ARG=yes] --enable-gold use gold instead of ld --enable-libada build libada directory --enable-libssp build libssp directory --enable-build-with-cxx build with C++ compiler instead of C compiler --disable-ppl-version-check disable check for PPL version --disable-cloog-version-check disable check for CLooG version --enable-lto enable link time optimization support --enable-stage1-languages[=all] choose additional languages to build during stage1. Mostly useful for compiler development. --enable-objc-gc enable use of Boehm's garbage collector with the GNU Objective-C runtime --enable-bootstrap enable bootstrapping [yes if native build] --enable-serial-[{host,target,build}-]configure force sequential configuration of sub-packages for the host, target or build machine, or all sub-packages --enable-maintainer-mode enable make rules and dependencies not useful (and sometimes confusing) to the casual installer --enable-stage1-checking[=all] choose additional checking for stage1 of the compiler --enable-werror enable -Werror in bootstrap stage2 and later Optional Packages: --with-PACKAGE[=ARG] use PACKAGE [ARG=yes] --without-PACKAGE do not use PACKAGE (same as --with-PACKAGE=no) --with-build-libsubdir=DIR Directory where to find libraries for build system --with-mpc=PATH specify prefix directory for installed MPC package. Equivalent to --with-mpc-include=PATH/include plus --with-mpc-lib=PATH/lib --with-mpc-include=PATH specify directory for installed MPC include files --with-mpc-lib=PATH specify directory for the installed MPC library --with-mpfr-dir=PATH this option has been REMOVED --with-mpfr=PATH specify prefix directory for installed MPFR package. Equivalent to --with-mpfr-include=PATH/include plus --with-mpfr-lib=PATH/lib --with-mpfr-include=PATH specify directory for installed MPFR include files --with-mpfr-lib=PATH specify directory for the installed MPFR library --with-gmp-dir=PATH this option has been REMOVED --with-gmp=PATH specify prefix directory for the installed GMP package. Equivalent to --with-gmp-include=PATH/include plus --with-gmp-lib=PATH/lib

--with-gmp-include=PATH specify directory for installed GMP include files --with-gmp-lib=PATH specify directory for the installed GMP library --with-host-libstdcxx=L Use linker arguments L to link with libstdc++ when linking with PPL --with-stage1-ldflags=FLAGS Linker flags for stage1 -with-stage1-libs=LIBS Libraries for stage1 --with-boot-libs=LIBS Libraries for stage2 and later --with-boot-ldflags=FLAGS Linker flags for stage2 and later --with-ppl=PATH Specify prefix directory for the installed PPL package Equivalent to --with-ppl-include=PATH/include plus --with-ppl-lib=PATH/lib --with-ppl-include=PATH Specify directory for installed PPL include files --with-ppl-lib=PATH Specify the directory for the installed PPL library --with-cloog=PATH Specify prefix directory for the installed CLooG-PPL package Equivalent to --with-cloog-include=PATH/include plus --with-cloog-lib=PATH/lib --with-cloog-include=PATH Specify directory for installed CLooG include files --with-cloog-lib=PATH Specify the directory for the installed CLooG library --with-libelf=PATH Specify prefix directory for the installed libelf package Equivalent to --with-libelf-include=PATH/include plus --with-libelf-lib=PATH/lib --with-libelf-include=PATH Specify directory for installed libelf include files --with-libelf-lib=PATH Specify the directory for the installed libelf library --with-build-sysroot=SYSROOT use sysroot as the system root during the build --with-debug-prefix-map='A=B C=D ...' map A to B, C to D ... in debug information --with-build-config='NAME NAME2...' Use config/NAME.mk build configuration --with-build-time-tools=PATH use given path to find target tools during the build Some influential environment variables: CC C compiler command CFLAGS C compiler flags LDFLAGS linker flags, e.g. -L<lib dir> if you have libraries in a nonstandard directory <lib dir> LIBS libraries to pass to the linker, e.g. -l<library> CPPFLAGS C/C++/Objective C preprocessor flags, e.g. -I<include dir> if you have headers in a nonstandard directory <include dir> CXX C++ compiler command CXXFLAGS C++ compiler flags CPP C preprocessor AR AR for the host AS AS for the host DLLTOOL DLLTOOL for the host LD LD for the host LIPO LIPO for the host NM NM for the host RANLIB RANLIB for the host STRIP STRIP for the host WINDRES WINDRES for the host WINDMC WINDMC for the host OBJCOPY OBJCOPY for the host OBJDUMP OBJDUMP for the host CC_FOR_TARGET CC for the target CXX_FOR_TARGET CXX for the target GCC_FOR_TARGET GCC for the target GCJ_FOR_TARGET GCJ for the target GFORTRAN_FOR_TARGET GFORTRAN for the target AR_FOR_TARGET

AR for the target AS_FOR_TARGET AS for the target DLLTOOL_FOR_TARGET DLLTOOL for the target LD_FOR_TARGET LD for the target LIPO_FOR_TARGET LIPO for the target NM_FOR_TARGET NM for the target OBJDUMP_FOR_TARGET OBJDUMP for the target RANLIB_FOR_TARGET RANLIB for the target STRIP_FOR_TARGET STRIP for the target WINDRES_FOR_TARGET WINDRES for the target WINDMC_FOR_TARGET WINDMC for the target Use these variables to override the choices made by `configure' or to help it to find libraries and programs with nonstandard names/locations. Report bugs to the package provider. Host:# Well, let's define --host, --target, and CC for our first try of GDB cross compilation. Host:# ./configure --host=mips-linux-gnu --target=mips-linux-gnu CC="mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL" Host:# make After a while, we get the following error. configure: WARNING: no enhanced curses library found; disabling TUI checking for library containing tgetent... no configure: error: no termcap library found make[1]: *** [configure-gdb] Error 1 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/smp383/mips-4.3/bin/gdb-7.1' make: *** [all] Error 2 No termcap library found... It seems GDB needs termcap library to complete the cross compilation. So, we need to cross compile a termcap library first. Host:# wget http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/downlinks/termcap-src-zip.php Host:# ls *.zip termcap-1.3.1-src.zip Host:# mkdir libtermcap Host:# cp termcap-1.3.1-src.zip ./libtermcap/ Host:# cd libtermcap/ Host:# ls termcap-1.3.1-src.zip Host:# unzip termcap-1.3.1-src.zip Archive: termcap-1.3.1-src.zip TermCap 1.3.1: sources TermCap: terminal-capability library inflating: src/COPYING inflating: src/ChangeLog inflating: src/INSTALL inflating: src/Makefile inflating: src/Makefile.in inflating: src/NEWS

inflating: src/README inflating: src/config.cache inflating: src/config.log inflating: src/config.status inflating: src/configure inflating: src/configure.in inflating: src/configure_help.txt inflating: src/install-sh inflating: src/makefile.mingw inflating: src/mkinstalldirs inflating: src/termcap.c inflating: src/termcap.h inflating: src/termcap.info inflating: src/termcap.info-1 inflating: src/termcap.info-2 inflating: src/termcap.info-3 inflating: src/termcap.info-4 inflating: src/termcap.src inflating: src/termcap.texi inflating: src/texinfo.te_ inflating: src/tparam.c inflating: src/version.c inflating: manifest/termcap-1.3.1-src.ver inflating: manifest/termcap-1.3.1-src.mft Host:# ls manifest src termcap-1.3.1-src.zip Host:# cd src Host:# ls ChangeLog configure.in makefile.mingw termcap.info termcap.texi config.cache COPYING mkinstalldirs termcap.info-1 texinfo.te_ config.log INSTALL NEWS termcap.info-2 tparam.c config.status install-sh README termcap.info-3 version.c configure Makefile termcap.c termcap.info-4 configure_help.txt Makefile.in termcap.h termcap.src Host:# ./configure --help bash: ./configure: Permission denied Host:# ls -l ./configure -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30285 1995-07-27 03:52 ./configure Host:# chmod 755 ./configure Host:# ls -l ./configure -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 30285 1995-07-27 03:52 ./configure Host:# ./configure --help Usage: configure [options] [host] Options: [defaults in brackets after descriptions] Configuration: --cache-file=FILE cache test results in FILE --help print this message --no-create do not create output files --quiet, --silent do not print `checking...' messages --version print the version of autoconf that created configure Directory and file names: --prefix=PREFIX install architecture-independent files in PREFIX [/usr/local] --exec-prefix=PREFIX install architecture-dependent files in PREFIX [same as prefix] --srcdir=DIR find the sources in DIR [configure dir or ..] --program-prefix=PREFIX prepend PREFIX to installed program names --program-suffix=SUFFIX append SUFFIX to installed program names --program-transform-name=PROGRAM run sed PROGRAM on installed program names Host type: --build=BUILD configure for building on BUILD [BUILD=HOST] --host=HOST configure for HOST [guessed] --target=TARGET configure for TARGET [TARGET=HOST] Features and packages: --disable-FEATURE do not include FEATURE (same as --enable-FEATURE=no) --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] include FEATURE [ARG=yes]

--with-PACKAGE[=ARG] use PACKAGE [ARG=yes] --without-PACKAGE do not use PACKAGE (same as --with-PACKAGE=no) --x-includes=DIR X include files are in DIR --x-libraries=DIR X library files are in DIR --enable and --with options recognized: --enable-install-termcap install the termcap data file --with-termcap=FILE use data file FILE instead of /etc/termcap Host:# ./configure --host=mips-linux-gnu --target=mips-linux-gnu CC="mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL" configure: warning: CC=mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL: invalid host type loading cache ./config.cache checking for gcc... (cached) gcc checking whether we are using GNU C... (cached) yes checking for ranlib... (cached) ranlib checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking how to run the C preprocessor... (cached) gcc -E checking for string.h... (cached) no checking for unistd.h... (cached) no checking whether cross-compiling... (cached) no checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes updating cache ./config.cache creating ./config.status creating Makefile Host:# make gcc -c -DTERMCAP_FILE=\"/etc/termcap\" -I. -I. -g termcap.c termcap.c:44: warning: conflicting types for built-in function malloc termcap.c:45: warning: conflicting types for built-in function realloc termcap.c: In function memory_out: termcap.c:96: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function exit termcap.c: In function tgetent: termcap.c:511: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function strcpy termcap.c:541: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function strlen termcap.c:549: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function strcpy termcap.c:550: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function strlen termcap.c:559: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function free termcap.c:567: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function free termcap.c:597: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function free termcap.c: In function gobble_line: termcap.c:747: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function bcopy gcc -c -DTERMCAP_FILE=\"/etc/termcap\" -I. -I. -g tparam.c tparam.c:32: warning: conflicting types for built-in function malloc tparam.c:33: warning: conflicting types for built-in function realloc tparam.c: In function memory_out: tparam.c:52: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function exit tparam.c: In function tparam1: tparam.c:161: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function bcopy tparam.c:222: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function strlen tparam.c:300: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function abort tparam.c:310: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function strcat gcc -c -DTERMCAP_FILE=\"/etc/termcap\" -I. -I. -g version.c ar rc libtermcap.a termcap.o tparam.o version.o ranlib libtermcap.a Well, the libtermcap.a is generated, but based on the output message, the binary is suspicious to be MIPS compatible. Let's check. Host:# ls *.o termcap.o tparam.o version.o Host:# file termcap.o termcap.o: ELF 32-bit LSB relocatable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped Yes, our suspicion is correct, the binary is in x86 format. Let us define the CC flag in explicit way under the make process. Host:# make distclean rm -f *.a *.o core rm -f Makefile config.status config.cache config.log

Host:# ./configure --host=mips-linux-gnu --target=mips-linux-gnu CC="mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL" configure: warning: CC=mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL: invalid host type creating cache ./config.cache checking for gcc... gcc checking whether we are using GNU C... yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for ranlib... ranlib checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E checking for string.h... yes checking for unistd.h... yes checking whether cross-compiling... no checking for ANSI C header files... yes updating cache ./config.cache creating ./config.status creating Makefile Host:# make CC="mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL" mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL -c -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DTERMCAP_FILE=\"/etc/termcap\" -I. -I. -g termcap.c mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL -c -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DTERMCAP_FILE=\"/etc/termcap\" -I. -I. -g tparam.c mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL -c -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DTERMCAP_FILE=\"/etc/termcap\" -I. -I. -g version.c ar rc libtermcap.a termcap.o tparam.o version.o ranlib libtermcap.a Host:# file termcap.o termcap.o: ELF 32-bit LSB relocatable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), not stripped Host:# Well, we got our libtermcap.a now. Let us back to the cross compilation process of GDB. In order to let the cross compiler can locate the exact location of our termcap library, let us define it in explicit way. Host:# make distclean Host:# ./configure --host=mips-linux-gnu --target=mips-linux-gnu CC="mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL" --with-libtermcap="$PWD" Host:# make However, after a while, we still get the same error. It seems the explicit definition of termcap library didn't work properly. Let's us get to the respective configuration file and do the explicit definition of termcap library again. Host:# find . -type f -name "configure" -exec grep -il "no termcap library found" {} \; ./gdb/configure Host:# cd gdb Host:# ./configure --host=mips-linux-gnu --target=mips-linux-gnu CC="mips-linux-gnu-gcc -EL" --with-libtermcap="/home/smp383/mips-4.3/bin/gdb-7.1" Unfortunately, the error still there... It seems the problem can't be solved in graceful way. So, we should consider to modify the configuration file directly. Let's start now. Host:# nano configure Well, the string "no termcap library found" is at line 8714. After some reading on that portion of codes, it seems the variable "ac_cv_search_tgetent" needs to be defined. At line 8644, it is defined as "../libtermcap/libtermcap.a". But, it seems line 8644 will not getting executed in the case statement. Hence, we should hard define it at the outer section of the case statement. So, let us put a new line of "ac_cv_search_tgetent="../libtermcap.a" at line 8638. Therefore, from line 8635 to line 8645 of the configuration file should look something similar to this. # Since GDB uses Readline, we need termcap functionality. In many # cases this will be provided by the curses library, but some systems # have a seperate termcap library, or no curses library at all.

ac_cv_search_tgetent="../libtermcap.a" case $host_os in cygwin*) if test -d $srcdir/libtermcap; then LIBS="../libtermcap/libtermcap.a $LIBS" ac_cv_search_tgetent="../libtermcap/libtermcap.a" fi ;; Fine, let us start the make process again. Host:# make ... ... make[4]: Leaving make[3]: Leaving make[2]: Leaving make[1]: Nothing make[1]: Leaving Host:#

directory `/home/smp383/mips-4.3/bin/gdb-7.1/gdb/gdbserver' directory `/home/smp383/mips-4.3/bin/gdb-7.1/gdb' directory `/home/smp383/mips-4.3/bin/gdb-7.1/gdb' to be done for `all-target'. directory `/home/smp383/mips-4.3/bin/gdb-7.1'

Excellent, the cross compilation process has been completed. Let's check the generated binary is MIPS compatible or not. Host:# cd gdb Host:# file gdb gdb: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1, for GNU/Linux 2.6.12, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped Host:# It seems everything so far is fine. Let us test it in MIPS environment. tango3[gdb-7.1]# cd gdb tango3[gdb]# ./gdb GNU gdb (GDB) 7.1 Copyright (C) 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying" and "show warranty" for details. This GDB was configured as "mips-linux-gnu". For bug reporting instructions, please see: <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>. Setting up the environment for debugging gdb. No symbol table is loaded. Use the "file" command. Make breakpoint pending on future shared library load? (y or [n]) [answered N; input not from terminal] No symbol table is loaded. Use the "file" command. Make breakpoint pending on future shared library load? (y or [n]) [answered N; input not from terminal] /root/cawan/mips-4.3/bin/gdb-7.1/gdb/.gdbinit:8: Error in sourced command file: No breakpoint number 0. (gdb) Excellent, the GDB version 7.1 is successfully running in our MIPS platform now.