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@@ -228,27 +228,29 @@ How could it be smaller and not suck?</a></h2>
of <a href="http://sources.redhat.com/binutils/">GNU binutils</a>,
<a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/">the gcc compiler</a>, and uClibc, all
built to produce binaries linked with uClibc for your target system.
- You can build your own native uClibc toolchain using the uClibc
- toolchain builder from
- <a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/toolchain/">uClibc toolchain builder</a>,
- or the uClibc buildroot system from
+ You can build your own native uClibc toolchain using the
<a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/buildroot/">uClibc buildroot system</a>.
+
<p>
To build your own uClibc toolchain, follow the following simple
steps:
<ul>
- <li> Point your web browser <a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/toolchain/">
- here is you want to build just a toolchain</a>,
- or <a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/buildroot/">here if you want to build a toolchain
- plus an initial uClibc based root filesystem</a>.
+ <li> Point your web browser <a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/buildroot/">here</a>,
<li> Click on "Download tarball"
<li> Unpack the tarball on your Linux system somewhere
<li> Edit the Makefile as needed if you wish to change anything.
- <li> run 'unset CC'. Some Linux systems (i.e. Gentoo) set 'CC'
- in the system environment which messes up cross compiles.
+ <li> run 'unset CC'. Then run 'unset CXX'. Some Linux systems
+ (i.e. Gentoo) set variables such as 'CC' in the system environment
+ which really messes things up when cross compiling.
+ <li> run 'make menuconfig'
+ <li> Select the things you want to build. If you <em>only</em> want a
+ toolchain, leave everything except the toolchain disabled.
+ <li> save your buildroot configuration.
<li> run 'make'
- <li> go have lunch, drink a pop, call a friend, play a video game, etc till it finishes
- downloading software and compiling things.
+ <li> go eat a nice loose meat sandwich, drink a pop, call a friend,
+ play a video game, and generally find something to do. While you
+ are waiting, buildroot will download all the needed source code and
+ then compile things up for you.
<li> You should now have a shiny new toolchain.
</ul>
@@ -260,13 +262,17 @@ How could it be smaller and not suck?</a></h2>
Yes, you really do need to build a toolchain to produce uClibc binaries.
We used to provide a toolchain wrapper, but that has been removed due to
numerous problems. The uClibc developers have gone to a lot of trouble
- to produce a
- <a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/toolchain/">uClibc toolchain builder</a>,
- and the
+ to produce the
<a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/buildroot/">uClibc buildroot system</a>,
- which make it easy to build your own uClibc toolchain. Feel free to take
- the gcc and binutils patches we provide and use them in your own toolchain
- build system.
+ which makes it easy to build your own uClibc toolchain and/or an initial
+ uClibc based system.
+
+ <p>
+ Feel free to take the gcc and binutils patches we provide and use them in
+ your own toolchain build system. If you choose to use your own toolchain
+ build system, you will need to use these patches since the upstream GNU
+ binutils and gcc releases do not currently have full support for building a
+ uClibc toolchain.
<hr />
@@ -277,12 +283,18 @@ How could it be smaller and not suck?</a></h2>
It is possible in some limited cases to re-use an existing glibc toolchain
and subvert it into building uClibc binaries by using gcc commands such as
"-nostdlib" and "-nostdinc". In fact, this used to be the recommended
- method for compiling programs with uClibc using a uClibc toolchain wrapper.
+ method for compiling programs with uClibc, and we made this easy to do by
+ providing a uClibc toolchain wrapper, which attempted to automagically subvert
+ an existing glibc toolchain.
+
+ <p>
+
This toolchain wrapper was removed from uClibc 0.9.22, and it will not be
- coming back. This is because it is impossible to fully subvert an existing
- toolchain in many cases. As uClibc has become more capable the many problems
- with re-using an existing glibc toolchain led us to conclude that the only
- safe and sane way to build uClibc binaries is to use a uClibc toolchain.
+ coming back. This is because it proved impossible to completely subvert an
+ existing toolchain in many cases, and therefore proved to be a real
+ maintainence burder. As uClibc became more capable, the many problems with
+ re-using an existing glibc toolchain led us to conclude that the only safe
+ and sane way to build uClibc binaries was to use a uClibc toolchain.
<p>
@@ -296,41 +308,47 @@ How could it be smaller and not suck?</a></h2>
<h2><a name="dev_systems">Is a pre-compiled uClibc development system available?</a></h2>
<p>
- If you want to be <em>really</em> lazy and start using uClibc right
- away without needing to compile your own toolchain or anything, you can
- grab a copy of the uClibc development systems, currently available for
+ If you want to be <em>really</em> lazy and start using uClibc right away
+ without needing to compile your own toolchain or anything, you can grab a
+ pre-compiled uClibc development system. These are currently available for
+
<a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/uclibc/root_fs_i386.bz2">i386</a>,
<a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/uclibc/root_fs_powerpc.bz2">powerpc</a>,
<a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/uclibc/root_fs_arm.bz2">arm</a>,
<a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/uclibc/root_fs_mips.bz2">mips</a>,
<a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/uclibc/root_fs_mipsel.bz2">mipsel</a>, and
<a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/uclibc/root_fs_sh4.bz2">sh4</a>.
- The powerpc dev system mostly works, but there is still some sortof
- problem with the shared library loader that has not yet been resolved.
<p>
- These are pre-built uClibc only development systems (created using
- <a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/buildroot/">buildroot</a>), and provide a
- really really easy way to get started. These are about bzip2 compressed
- ext2 filesystems containing all the development software you need to build
- your own uClibc applications. With bash, awk, make, gcc, g++, autoconf,
- automake, ncurses, zlib, openssl, openssh, gdb, strace, busybox, GNU
- coreutils, GNU tar, GNU grep, etc, these should have pretty much everything
- you need to get started building your own applications linked against
- uClibc. You can boot into them, loop mount them, dd them to a spare drive
- and use resize2fs to make them fill a partition... Whatever works best for
+
+ Each of these uClibc development systems was created using
+ <a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/buildroot/">buildroot</a>).
+
+ <p>
+
+ These are bzip2 compressed ext2 filesystems containing all the development
+ software you need to build your own uClibc applications, including: bash, awk,
+ make, gcc, g++, autoconf, automake, ncurses, zlib, openssl, openssh, gdb,
+ strace, busybox, GNU coreutils, GNU tar, GNU grep, etc.
+
+ <p>
+
+ This should be pretty much everything you need to get started building your
+ own applications with uClibc. Once you download one of these systems, you
+ can then boot into it, loop mount it, dd it to a spare drive and use a tool
+ such as resize2fs to make it fill a partition... Whatever works best for
you.
<p>
The quickest way to get started using a root_fs image (using the i386
platform as an example) is:
<ul>
- <li>Download root_fs_i386.bz2 from kernel.org</li>
- <li>bunzip2 root_fs_i386.bz2</li>
- <li>mkdir root_fs</li>
- <li>su root</li>
- <li>mount -o loop root_fs_i386 root_fs</li>
- <li>chroot root_fs /bin/sh</li>
+ <li>Download root_fs_i386.bz2 from kernel.org</li>
+ <li>bunzip2 root_fs_i386.bz2</li>
+ <li>mkdir root_fs</li>
+ <li>su root</li>
+ <li>mount -o loop root_fs_i386 root_fs</li>
+ <li>chroot root_fs /bin/su -</li>
</ul>
Type "exit" to end the chroot session and return to the host system.
<p>