Set up a cross-build machine for the Raspberry Pi

Prerequisites

This document focuses on Debian hosts. Debian derivatives such as Ubuntu should work with minor changes.

Downloads

• Download the ​firmware (.tar.gz)
• Download the ​build tools (.tar.gz)

Alternatively, these can be retrieved using Git. Unpack them in two directories called firmware and tools.

Environment variables

• Set RASPI_SDK_ROOT to the directory containing firmware and tools.
• Add the following directory to PATH:

$RASPI_SDK_ROOT/tools/arm-bcm2708/arm-bcm2708hardfp-linux-gnueabi/bin

Bitten configuration

For Lol Engine autobuilders, add the following section to the bitten machine file:

[raspi]
version = 0

Building autoconf projects

For simple autoconf projects (using ./configure ; make) the following command can now be used:

RASPI_INCLUDES="$RASPI_SDK_ROOT/firmware/opt/vc/include"
RASPI_LIBS="$RASPI_SDK_ROOT/firmware/opt/vc/lib"

./configure --host=arm-bcm2708hardfp-linux-gnueabi \
    CPPFLAGS="-I$RASPI_INCLUDES -I$RASPI_INCLUDES/interface/vcos/pthreads" \
    LDFLAGS="-L$RASPI_LIBS"

make