Compiling made relatively easy

[wigout]

So there's a couple of machines that I have that have nice features but are missing some programs/utilities I would like them to have.

To get things done faster, I've turned to using an os-virtualizer along with a system image for a mipsel device.

On my ubuntu laptop I have added two things that have made compiling for such devices a bit easier:
QEMU:
http://wiki.qemu.org/Main_Page (here's a link to a windows qemu project:http://www.davereyn.co.uk/download.htm)
In combination with the system-image-mipsel.tar.bz2 from:
http://impactlinux.com/fwl/downloads/binaries/

After I've installed qemu (via synaptic package manager in ubuntu, or however) I run the dev-environment.sh script from the system-image-mipsel.tar.bz2 above.

That starts the virtualized mipsel with an add on savable space, hdb.img.

So, for example, I wanted to compile a program for the playlist script I've been tinkering with. Mixing a 4000 line file by way of bash took upwards of 5 minutes. A compiled program would run much faster.

I found a program called shuffle that would do exactly what I needed with source code available:
http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/src/

So I went to the directory I untarred system-image-mipsel.tar.bz2 to. then:

./dev-environment.sh
(qemu load the mipsel image and I get this new prompt)
(mipsel) /home #
wget ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/s/scs/src/shuffle.tar.gz
tar -xzf shuffle.tar.gz
cd shuffle
make
((wait for shuffle to compile when done:))
exit

Now back on my ubuntu system, I need to load that writable space that the system-image-mipsel was using, so:

mkdir temp
sudo mount -o loop hdb.img temp/
((sudo is an ubuntu-required step for mounting, your linux install may not need it))
cp temp/shuffle/shuffle .

And now you should have your copy of your compiled shuffle executable in your folder.

Move it on over to your media player. Try it out.

./shuffle -help
usage: shuffle [options] [-o outputfile] [inputfiles ...]
-h, -?  print this help message
-o file output to file
-seed s use initial seed s
-seedfile f  keep seed state in f

Now things get harder with more advanced executables. You might need libraries and other depencies to be resolved. Nonetheless, this is a shortcut for some compiling needs.

EDIT_NOTE:
I saw this in the README:

If both distccd and a compatible $ARCH-cc cross compiler are in the $PATH,
dev-environment.sh will automatically set up distcc to call out through the
virtual network to the host's $ARCH-cc, to move the heavy lifting of
compilation outside the emulator, and also take advantage of SMP. (Doing
so does not require the package being built to be cross compile aware.
As far as the emulated build environment is concerned, it's still performing
simple single-context native builds.)

I downloaded, made and installed distcc on my ubuntu laptop, used the http://impactlinux.com/fwl/downloads...mipsel.tar.bz2, untarred and added to my PATH, and by golly, the making is much faster- which means my more ambitious compilations return errors faster!

-wigout

[snappy46]

Very nice post wigout; I guess I have something to do this weekend. This can be very useful.

[snappy46]

This is absolutely awesome and works great. Much easier to compile a program than using the tool-chain cross-compiling setup. It feels a lot more natural to me it just like compiling any other C++ program on the PC. The configure command worked great to create the makefile.

Yeah! no more screwing around with tool-chain.

I even put some of the program that are used on the PBO like DvdPlayer to run it on the simulator to see if I can discover any hidden secrets ..... so far nada; still trying to mimic the PBO directory structure to keep DvdPlayer happy. I also tried to replace the image image-mipsel.sqf with the one from the PBO (install.img + yaffs_2.img) but as suspected qemu quit abruptly with an error. I guess I am going to have to read some more on the format of that image-mipsel.sqf image.

Thanks again wigout!!!!

[wigout]

Working around the unwritable system directories has been interesting in compiling.

You can specify all your --prefix --exec-prefix when you configure....


but in the end this is what I have been doing:
whatever I need to be writable, let's say /usr/lib /usr/include, etc, I:
cp -a /usr /home
mount -o bind /home/usr /usr

then the space is writable (till I exit and load it back up again) and I can "revert" to the naked system by simply not overmounting those directories....

I have no idea how you'd contrive it to accept another system image like the build system for all the realtek players....

here's the bit about that from aboriginallinux (I mean impact linux- they changed their name sometime ago):
http://impactlinux.com/fwl/documenta...l#new_platform

It's something you can fool around in, really wreck trying to get stuff to compile, without having to worry about destroying your player....

-wigout

[wigout]

And just for completeness sake I'll note that at:
http://impactlinux.com/fwl/downloads/binaries/extras/

You'll find precompiled static mipsel binaries for:
busybox-mipsel
dropbearmulti-mipsel
strace-mipsel

I know a static busybox is available from busybox, but strace and dropbear are both useful in their own right.

from http://impactlinux.com/fwl/downloads/binaries/README:

busybox-$ARCH

This is a prebuilt static busybox binary for the given target, implementing
numerous standard command line utilities.

To use, copy it to a target system (perhaps via wget), set the executable
bit, and create the appropriate symlinks to it.

Run ./busybox-$ARCH to see the list of supported commands. It provides
the default configuration ("make defconfig") of busybox.

dropbearmulti-$ARCH

This is a prebuilt static dropbear binary for the given target, implementing
an ssh server, ssh client, and associated utilities such as scp.

To use, copy it to a target system (perhaps via wget), set the executable
bit, and create the appropriate symlinks to it.

Run ./dropbearmulti-$ARCH to see the list of supporte commands.

strace-$ARCH

This is a prebuilt static strace binary for the given target, providing a
debugging tool listing all the system calls made by another program.

To use, copy it to a target system (perhaps via wget) and set the executable
bit.

[aasoror]

5 stars from me ..
good job wigout.

[wigout]

Just built, static, tested from the command line (don't know how well it will jive with the DvdPlayer itself- It may run run without blinking or choke):
btpd
btcli
btinfo
from the source: http://cloud.github.com/downloads/bt...pd-0.16.tar.gz

using aboriginal linux mipsel image noted above.

Read the README for more info on btpd:
https://github.com/btpd/btpd/blob/master/README

the firmware btpd usually can be found at /usr/local/bin/package


I'd suggest someone who wants to try this out do the following:
(you need at least 375kb on /usr/local/etc to download the file)

startup player
make sure you don't have torrents actively seeding or downloading.
telnet to player

cd /usr/local/etc/
wget http://rtd1073binaries.googlecode.com/files/btpd
chmod +x btpd
mount -o bind /usr/local/etc/btpd /usr/local/bin/package/btpd

and then try it out loading torrents the usual way.

[wigout]

here's the "help" file for btpd:

btpd is the BitTorrent Protocol Daemon.

Usage: btpd [-d dir] [-p port] [more options...]

Options:
-4
        Use IPv4. If given in conjunction with -6, both versions are used.

-6
        Use IPv6. By default IPv4 is used.

--bw-in n
        Limit incoming BitTorrent traffic to n kB/s.
        Default is 0 which means unlimited.

--bw-out n
        Limit outgoing BitTorrent traffic to n kB/s.
        Default is 0 which means unlimited.

-d dir
        The directory in which to run btpd. Default is '$HOME/.btpd'.

--empty-start
        Start btpd without any active torrents.

--help
        Show this text.

--ip addr
        Let the tracker distribute the given address instead of the one
        it sees btpd connect from.

--ipcprot mode
        Set the protection mode of the command socket.
        The mode is specified by an octal number. Default is 0600.

--logfile file
        Where to put the logfile. By default it's put in the btpd dir.

--max-peers n
        Limit the amount of peers to n.

--max-uploads n
        Controls the number of simultaneous uploads.
        The possible values are:
                n < -1 : Choose n >= 2 based on --bw-out (default).
                n = -1 : Upload to every interested peer.
                n =  0 : Dont't upload to anyone.
                n >  0 : Upload to at most n peers simultaneously.

--no-daemon
        Keep the btpd process in the foregorund and log to std{out,err}.
        This option is intended for debugging purposes.

-p n, --port n
        Listen at port n. Default is 6881.

--prealloc n
        Preallocate disk space in chunks of n kB. Default is 2048.
        Note that n will be rounded up to the closest multiple of the
        torrent piece size. If n is zero no preallocation will be done.

[avman]

..
from http://impactlinux.com/fwl/downloads/binaries/README:

Thanks for that info'. Sadly impact domain is no more

Any alternative for a recent static build for busybox please?

[wigout]

Here's the top download directory link:
http://www.landley.net/aboriginal/downloads/binaries/

Here's busybox-mipsel:
http://www.landley.net/aboriginal/do...busybox-mipsel

(I don't think impactlinux.com is toast, but it is down for the moment)

-wigout