It used to be tedious to set up a cross compile environment. Sure you can compile on the Raspberry Pi itself, but sometimes you want to use your big computer — and you can use it when your Pi is not on hand like when on an airplane with a laptop. It can be tricky to set up a cross compiler for any build tools, but if you go through one simple step, it becomes super easy regardless of what your real computer looks like. That one step is to install Docker.
Docker is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. It allows developers to build images that are essentially preconfigured Linux environments that run some service. Like a virtual machine, these images can run together without interfering with each other. Unlike a virtual machine, Docker containers (the running software) are lightweight because they share the same underlying kernel and hardware of the computer.
The reality is, setting up the Raspberry Pi build environment isn’t any easier. It is just that with Docker, someone else has already done the work for you and you can automatically grab their setup and keep it up to date. If you are already running Linux, your package manager probably makes the process pretty easy too (see [Rud Merriam’s] post on that process). However, the nice thing about the images is it is a complete isolated environment that can move from machine to machine and from platform to platform (the Windows and Mac platforms use a variety of techniques to run the Linux software, but it is done transparently).
Installing Docker
If you are not using Linux, you’ll need to figure out how to install Docker. There are several ways to do it under Windows (depending on what version of Windows you use) and I don’t use the Mac. However, on Linux, you should be able to install what you need via your package manager.
In Ubuntu and other similar distributions, you might expect to install the Docker package. Makes sense, but no. That package is a system tray icon manager. What you want is docker.io:
sudo apt-get install docker.io
You’ll see some suggested packages, and you can consider adding the –install-suggests option to apt-get if you want them.
Docker is in two parts: a daemon (a server that runs in the background) and a client named docker. There are a variety of GUI tools to manage Docker if you don’t like the command line. I do like it, so that’s all I know about that.
Cross Compile
Docker maintains a repository of images on their website called the Hub. By default, if you don’t have an image locally, the client will look there for it. In this particular case, the image you want is sdthirlwall/raspberry-pi-cross-compiler:legacy-trusty. That’s a mouthful, and the developer provides a nice script for calling it under normal circumstances. How do you get the script? You use Docker, of course.
By the way, by default, you need to run the Docker client as root, although you can also create a special group (although using sudo works just as well). Here’s the command to run to get the rpxc script:
sudo docker run sdthirlwall/raspberry-pi-cross-compiler:legacy-trusty >rpxc
Since you probably don’t have that image on your hard drive, it will take a while for the client to download it and complete the task. Next time won’t take so long because Docker will have a local copy.
You can set the rpxc command to execute with this command:
chmod +x rpxc
Then move it somewhere on your path (or refer to it by full path like ./rpxc or ~/Downloads/rpxc, if you prefer). Although you can download the whole image from the Hub, if you want to look at the files, contribute, or follow development, you should have a look at the GitHub repo for the project.
In Use
The rpxc script generally runs any command you like in the new environment. Since it runs Docker, you need to be root or in the Docker group, of course. All the usual build tools are prefixed with rpxc, so:
rpxc rpxc-gcc -o hello-world hello-world.c
Or, if you have a Makefile:
rpxc make
The current directory you are in when you run rpxc, becomes the /build directory in the new environment and is the default current working directory.
If you are lazy, you might prefer to just run:
rpxc bash
Then you can issue commands and do what you like. Do an ls on /usr/local/bin/rpxc* to see all the tools available. You can also use the rpxc script to update the image and itself. Use the update command to do both, or you can specify update-image or update-script.
Docking
There are other images you might find interesting. You have to get a free account on the Hub, and once you do, you might think there is a very small number of images. However, try doing a search for Raspberry, for example. Or Arduino, which shows a lot of preconfigured Arduino environments. You might enjoy searching for ESP8266, too. There’s even a Docker image for Eagle PCB layout software. Let us know your favorite profiles in the comments below.
Filed under: Raspberry Pi
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