Building a cross compiler (compile on Linux, run on Windows)

gralves

Building a cross compiler (compile on Linux, run on Windows)

Introduction
Ever had those programming assignements from professors who can only run windows? Tired of spending expensive Gbs of HD just to keep a runing copy of windoze so you can compile your programs for windows? Spending hours booting the system just to find an uninitialized pointer bug? Want to change your operational system behaviour using buffer overflow? YOUR PROBLEMS ARE OVER!

Whatever are your needs this guide will teach you how to build mingw32 on linux. It can be used to compile C and C++ code for windows machines. But be aware, linux system calls will not work (like fork, system, etc).

Before you begin you will need...

A copy of binutils source code
This can be found in several places. If you have installed gentoo from stage 1 you probably have o copy of it on your distfiles directory. Otherwise you can get them by emerging binutils or downloading them from here.
A copy of gcc source code
Same as binutils. You can also get it here.
A copy of the precompiled win32 api (they need to be compiled for win32 and you don't have a compiler yet )
This one can be found on MinGW site on the download page. Click here for a direct download link.
A copy of the precompile mingw32 runtime library
Same as above. The direct link is here.

Let the fun begin...

Decompress everything on the right place.
Easier said than done...
You have to decompress everything in specific directories for it to work. It took me sometime to figure these out. First choose an location for the binaries/headers you you compile. I choosed /usr/local/cross-tools. Any directory will work. You will also have to choose a temporary directory for the compilling job. I used /root/cross. PS: You don't need to be root to do this unless you want the binaries available to everyone on the system.

After choosing the directories it's time to start decompressing. Copy everyone of the tars to /root/cross/source and:

Code:

mkdir /usr/local/cross-tools/i386-mingw32msvc
cd /usr/local/cross-tools/i386-mingw32msvc
gzip -dc "/root/cross/source/mingw-runtime=3.0.tar.gz" | tar xf -
gzip -dc "/root/cross/source/w32api-2.3.tar.gz" | tar xf -
cd /root/cross/source
gzip -dc "/root/cross/source/binutils-2.13.90-20030111-1-src.tar.gz" | tar xf -
gzip -dc "/root/cross/source/gcc-3.2.3-20030504-1.tar.gz" | tar xf -

Configure binutils
You will want your source code for binutils and gcc imaculate in case you make something wrong in the LONG configuring/making process. Starting over is no fun. So lets create some directories to store the configuration.

Code:

mkdir /root/cross/binutils-i386-mingw32msvc
mkdir /root/cross/gcc-i386-mingw32msvc

Then thanks God for bash auto-completion command (TAB) and run these commands(be sure to change the directories for your configuration):

Code:

cd /root/croos/binutils-i386-mingw32msvc
/root/cross/source/binutils-2.13.90-20030111-1-src/configure --prefix=/usr/local/cross-tools --target=i386-mingw32msvc &> configure.log
Build and install binutils
This one is easy!

Code:

make &>make.log

After some long time, when its over do a cat make.log to make sure everything went ok. If yes all you need to do is:

Code:

make install &>make_install.log

Again check the log file. If everything is OK you are on your way to go!
Export binutils path
Otherwise gcc won't be able to find it! I had some trouble with that...

Code:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/cross-tools/bin

Configure gcc

Code:

cd /root/croos/binutils-i386-mingw32msvc
/root/cross/source/gcc-3.2.3-20030504-1/configure -v --prefix="/usr/local/cross-tools" --target=i386-mingw32msvc --with-headers="/usr/local/cross-tools/i386-mingw32msvc/include" --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --without-newlib --disable-multilib &> configure.log

Check the log to see if everything went ok.

Build and install gcc

Code:

make &> make.log
make install &> make_install.log

Don't forget to check the logs!
Clean the sys-includes
These are used by the gcc build process and are not needed to compile anything else.

Code:

rm -rf "/usr/local/cross-tools/i386-mingw32msvc/sys-include

Using your new toy
To compile:

grudge · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2003 2:07 pm Post subject:

Cool, this is one of the few reasons left why I still have windows on my machine. I'll check it out tonight and see how well it works. Thanks for the tutorial. :lol:

gralves · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2003 6:57 pm Post subject:

The only issue I had so far is that the compiled executable won't run correctly under wine (it seems that the C I/O functions don't work) but on a windows machine it runs flawlessly.

Problably this is just a matter of putting the .dll for mingw32 somewhere where wine can find it.

I've also found some instructions on how to build directx and opengl code under linux for win32 on http://www.libsdl.org/ (it was from there that I got the idea) but their scripts are somewhat old and I had to read the code to find out how to compile a new version.

akiross · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2003 11:17 am Post subject:

thanx for this tutorial

it will be userful!

And, if someone wants to create simple apps with GUI interface, portable under windows, he can use this libraries, which are v simple to use
http://www.wxwindows.org/

bye
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akiross · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 4:21 pm Post subject:

hei, i got an error:

gralves · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 3:42 am Post subject:

zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

WinMain@16 is the entry point, like main()

MrStaticVoid · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 1:44 pm Post subject:

Wow...what a great tip! However, I found instructions including a script which I used to build the compiler. It does almost exactly the same thing as gralves explained, but it also included the Windows OpenGL and DirectX libraries and it was all automated. It was nice to just start the script and go to bed and wake up with a cross-compiler.

akiross · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 9:46 am Post subject:

Hi!
I solve the problem with SDL
u need to pass the following library when link:

-lmingw32 -lSDLmain -lSDL (other libraries)

bye
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daysleper · n00b Joined: 30 Mar 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Norway

It's also possible to run MinGW under wine.

Just head over to the mingw website and download "MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe". Then execute the installer under wine:

kormoc · Apprentice Joined: 17 Jun 2002 Posts: 250

Deleted

Vanquirius · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 8:41 pm Post subject:

@kormoc

The ebuilds will work, and are probably an easier method. But according to my memory and the ChangeLog of xmingw-gcc

kormoc · Apprentice Joined: 17 Jun 2002 Posts: 250

Deleted

gralves · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 3:37 am Post subject:

Thanks for posting the ebuilds... I hadn't checked on it for sometime and it will be a lot easier to maintain my system uptodate with them.

capheind · Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 3:57 pm Post subject:

Yeah emerge xmingw-gcc doesn't work on mine. Anyone else having any luck. I just get:

!!! ERROR: dev-util/xmingw-gcc-3.3.1 failed.
!!! Function src_install, Line 69, Exitcode 2
!!! make install failed
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docbill · n00b Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 9

I'm looking for trick to do just the reverse. I want to be able to compile Linux applications using Cygwin. The reason you ask? For now it just to see if it can be done.

Bill

SeeksTheMoon · Apprentice Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 163

I searched this forum and tested a little bit how to exactly use the xmingw-compiler.

1. dev-util/xmingw-runtime && dev-util/xmingw-w32api have to be emerged BEFORE you emerge the xmingw-gcc or you cannot create c++ code!

2. add /opt/xmingw/bin to your path with

sibisco · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 3

hello!
My aim is to build a cross compiler from linux to windows. I have tested your application but I have a little problem to compile my test file. The linux prompt doesn't accept the command.

[root@dyn-9-147-232-208 root]# i686-pc-mingw32-gcc test.c -o i686-pc-mingw32
bash: i686-pc-mingw32-gcc: command not found

Can you help me to solve my problem.

Thanks

SeeksTheMoon · Apprentice Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 163

it is "i386-mingw32msvc-gcc", not "i686-mingw32msvc-gcc"

sibisco · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 3

thanks for your help!
I have solved my problem : it was due to the PATH variable.
But now I have a new problem :
How use a makefile with a cross-compiler?
when you write a makefile, does the common "make" is compiled by the gcc of my cross compiler or compiled by the default gcc installed on my system?

irondog · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:44 pm Post subject:

Programming qt applications for windows in Linux would be cool.
The problem: qt for windows is not free.
A possible solution: http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net/qt3-win32/index.php

They made a windows version of QT by replacing X11 functions with win32 functions using the GPL qt/x11.

Here is a similar howto, which describes how to compile qt applications for windows (using a crosscompiler in Linux):
http://www.technosis.de/mingw/crosscompile/

Most important is this line:

sibisco · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 3

Hi!
I have some questions about the cross compiling :
when we make a cross compiler, I think it's possible to have various targets, but how to do when the targets are very vast ?
I explain : I have to make a cross compiler which targets are AIX and Linux. How can I do to manage the different versions (mandrake 9.1 or red hat, AIX 5.1 or AIX 5.2...) ?
Thanks!

salfter · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 02 Jan 2003 Posts: 89

The xmingw-* ebuilds are long gone. Something like

mariourk · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:14 am Post subject:

I've written a very small and basic program that I normally compile like this:

Colonel Paneek · n00b Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 42