Gccmips

This is a general guide to install a gcc-mips cross compiler for linux. It has been tested on Ubuntu (and Ubuntu NetbookRemix) 9.04 and 9.10.

The first step is to install the following libraries:

• texinfo
• build-essential
• libncurses5-dev
• libncurses5-dbg

By typing the following commands (If you have problems installing that, you could add a GERMAN repository :) )

  sudo apt-get install texinfo build-essential
  sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev libncurses5-dbg

Once you have this libraries installed, you have to get the following packages:

• binutils-2.17.tar.bz2
• gcc-core-4.1.1.tar.bz2
• newlib-1.17.0.tar.gz
• gdb-6.8.tar.bz2

(It could be obtained from http://ftp.gnu.org/): Untar all:

  tar xjf binutils-2.17.tar.bz2
  tar xjf gcc-core-4.1.1.tar.bz2
  tar xzfv newlib-1.17.0.tar.gz
  tar xjfv gdb-6.8.tar.bz2

Create temporal folders where you going to compile the entire gcc-mips cross compiler.

  mkdir binutils-obj gcc-obj newlib-obj build-gdb

And now begin the compilation, it is explained just for one step, in this case binutils-obj (binary utilities GNU_Binary_Utilities), later of this is assumed that you know what means every command:

Enter to directory:

  cd binutils-obj

Configure the compilation (It is just execute the configure file with some flags necesary like target=mips-elf prefix=/usr/local)

  ../binutils-2.17/configure --target=mips-elf --prefix=/usr/local 

Execute the makefile using the flags necesary:

  make CFLAGS="-Os -w"

And finally execute the "make install"

  sudo make install

And go to the primary directory

  cd..

Now the compilation of gcc-obj:

  cd gcc-obj
  ../gcc-4.1.1/configure --target=mips-elf --prefix=/usr/local --enable-multilib --disable-libssp
  make CFLAGS="-Os -w"
  sudo make install
  cd..

Now the compilation of newlib-obj Newlib:

  cd newlib-obj
  ../newlib-1.17.0/configure --target=mips-elf --prefix=/usr/local
  make CFLAGS="-Os -w"
  sudo make install
  cd..

Now we have to enter to the gcc-obj dir to set additional flags CFLAGS

  cd gcc-obj
  ../gcc-4.1.1/configure --target=mips-elf --prefix=/usr/local --with-newlib --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --disable-shared --disable-libssp
  make CFLAGS="-Os -w"
  sudo make install
  cd..

Finally we go inside build-gdb dir and compile the GNU Debugger Gdb

  cd build-gdb
  ../gdb-6.8/configure --target=mips-elf --prefix=/usr/local --enable-xspim-mips --enable-xspim-stdio
  make CFLAGS="-Os -w"
  sudo make install
  cd..

To compile a "hello world" program you can use for example the following command:

 mips-elf-gcc helloworld.c -o helloworld

Some tools of mips-elf cross compiler are:

• Compiler mips-elf-gcc

Compile the program creating a .o file. (Object file)

• Assembler mips-elf-as

Generates a .S or .asm file (assembler file).

• Linker mips-elf-ld

Combining .o files and libraries to link it with references.

• Objdum mips-elf-objdump

Show information about a .o file (Object file)

• Objcopy mips-elf-objcopy

Generates a .bin file; copy information from a .o file to another .o file.