newbie woes, was RE: cygwin arm-elf-linux gcc build failure

[John Andrews]

Hi Keith et al,

I don't think its the newlib name that makes this hard. A newlib by any
other name would still be the same beast (at least it has the --with-newlib
config option going for it).

What makes this hard is the undocumented knowledge of the ages required to
make a cross-gcc from source. You can't exactly buy an O'Reilly book on the
subject. The seers that have helped me (and a lot of others) here on this
list carry this knowledge in their heads. There are a lot of good web sites
(see previously referenced seers), but each is typically specific to a
certain target or patch, and sometimes they contradict each other. The FAQ
tries to cover the subject in general but it doesn't really get to the nitty
gritty details of run-time libraries and os headers. Since you can't build a
cross gcc without this stuff, it seems like a detailed discussion of it
would be a valuable addition.

I haven't tried to calculate a percentage from the archives, but a good part
of the traffic on this list has to do with newbies begging help on getting
their headers in the right place.

For me, I'll endeavor to persevere. Even though I haven't gotten my
arm-elf-linux-gcc yet, I've learned a hell of a lot, and there's still a lot
more to learn.

Sorry for the OT rant. 

Thanks again for all of the help from everyone on this list...

John E. A.

BTW two other minimal embedded C libs:

The mmu-less embedded flavor of Linux known as uClinux typically works in
conjunction with uClibc:
http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html

Another lib intended to support small footprint embedded linux is dietlibc:
http://www.fefe.de/dietlibc/

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Wright [ mailto:kwright@gis.net ]
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 2:05 PM
To: crossgcc@sourceware.cygnus.com
Subject: Re: cygwin arm-elf-linux gcc build failure


> From: John Andrews <john@triscend.com>
> 
> Thanks Richard!
> 
> That was the problem.
> 

> > I suspect the problem is that you are trying to use newlib with a Linux 
> > target.  Linux builds demand more than the newlib headers provide and so

> > you are running into problems.  If you want a linux target, then you
will 
> > need to obtain glibc and build with that.
> > 
> > Richard.

Of course the real problem is that "newlib" is a way stupid
name for anything.  We used to laugh at the old guy with
an office full of dusty listings all labeled "newest version".

I am not sure who has the power to change the name, but
this list might be able to come up with a more descriptive
name.  John, what name would have made it obvious that
the your first configuration was bad?

I nominate something like "glibc-minimal".

-- 
     -- Keith Wright  <kwright@free-comp-shop.com>

Programmer in Chief, Free Computer Shop < http://www.free-comp-shop.com >
         ---  Food, Shelter, Source code.  ---

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