cross-compile postgresql for ARM Sitara AM335x

Question

I'm having trouble cross compiling PostgreSQL for my TI Sitara AM335x EVM SK. My host system is an i386 machine running Ubuntu 12.04.

My application is written in C++ using Qt. When I try and compile, I get the error that libpq.so is incompatible. I believe this is because the cross compiler is trying to use the host libpq.so instead of one for the target system (which as I have found out, doesn't exist).

I've downloaded the source for PostgreSQL with the intention of cross compiling that in order to give me the libpq.so library that will be compatible with my target system, however there is virtually no information on how to do this.

I have tried using the CC argument with the configure file to change my compiler to the following: CC=/home/tim/ti-sdk-am335x-evm-06.00.00.00/linux-devkit/sysroots/i686-arago-linux/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc but the configure script gives me this error: configure: error: cannot run C compiled programs. If you meant to cross compile, use --host.

The configure file makes a small reference to the --host option, but the only information in the file that I could find is in reference to mingw and windows, which isn't what I want.

I've done some quick searching through the configure file, and it references the --host option, but with no explanation of what is a valid host. I'm assuming that with --host option there will be an associated --target.

What arguments can I give the configure script so that it will cross compile with the correct compiler to generate a library that my target device can use? Are there any resources out there that I haven't found in regards to how the --host/--target works or how to use them?

Answer 1

OK, so after fiddling around for a little while, I think I was actually able to cross compile PostgreSQL and answer my own question.

Before I went any further, I had realized I had forgotten to add the path to my cross compiler to the PATH environment variable. I used the command export PATH=/path/to/cross/compiler:$PATH to insert the compiler path to the PATH environment variable.

Next, I did some experimenting with the --host option. To start off with I tried using ./configure --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf and running the configure script. The configure script seemed to accept this as the host argument. I then went to the next step of running the makefile. Running this makefile resulted in errors being generated. The errors were selected processor does not support Thumb mode. I did a quick search to see what information I could find about this error and came to this webpage: http://www.postgresql.org/message-id/[email protected].

This webpage gave me a bit more information since it seemed like the person was trying to do something very similar to me. One of the responders to the post mentioned that --disable-spinlocks is intended for processors that aren't supported by default by PostgreSQL. I emulated the arguments that were used in the website listed above and used the command: ./configure --host=arm-linux CC=arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc AR=arm-linux-gnueabihf-ar CPP=arm-linux-gnueabihf-cpp --without-readline --without-zlib --disable-spinlocks to generate my makefile. This makefile actually generated all of the files, including the libpq.so library file I was needing.

Hope this helps somebody else in the future!