cross compile for armv5, but it creates v7 binary

Question

I managed to creata an object file for arm926ej-s
I am using debian arm on qemu

arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc-4.4 -static -O -c -mcpu=arm926ej-s  hello.c -o hello
root@at0012-ubuntu:/qemu-deb-squeeze/mnt/package# readelf -A hello
Attribute Section: aeabi
File Attributes
  Tag_CPU_name: "ARM926EJ-S"
  Tag_CPU_arch: v5TEJ
  Tag_ARM_ISA_use: Yes
  Tag_THUMB_ISA_use: Thumb-1
  Tag_FP_arch: VFPv3-D16
  Tag_ABI_PCS_wchar_t: 4
  Tag_ABI_FP_denormal: Needed
  Tag_ABI_FP_exceptions: Needed
  Tag_ABI_FP_number_model: IEEE 754
  Tag_ABI_align_needed: 8-byte
  Tag_ABI_align_preserved: 8-byte, except leaf SP
  Tag_ABI_enum_size: int
  Tag_ABI_HardFP_use: SP and DP
  Tag_ABI_optimization_goals: Prefer Speed
  Tag_DIV_use: Not allowed

but in ubuntu when I compile with our the -c it creates the executable for armv7 instead of this
So how to compile for the right cpu??
I tried $ arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc-4.4 -static -mcpu=arm926ej-s hello.c -o hello it creates
Tag_CPU_name: "7-A"
Tag_CPU_arch: v7

This is effectively a duplicate of stackoverflow.com/questions/12963209/…, answered by @auselen. — unixsmurf
Possible duplicate of Why does arm-linux-gnueabi-g++-4.4 always build a "7-A" binary? — Ruslan

Beryllium Beryllium · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-22T09:27:30

GCC's ld tries its best to find the correct library to link against. As far as I know, it considers -mcpu, -mthumb, -mfpu, and -mfloat-abi (see examples below). This list may not be complete, -mthumb-interwork is probably considered as well. If -mcpu is specified, the architecture is derived from that value.

So these options should be passed down to ld, and you ought to checked that ld really picks the correct multilib.

For each of these options there are built-in default values which may not lead in the right direction.

If ld cannot find a matching library, it falls back to the default one. There is no error message.

So in your case - assuming that you have passed -mcpu to ld and your toolchain installation is correct - there is possibly no matching multilib, and ld uses the default one. The linking process technically succeeds, but you do not get what you want.

Some examples (arm-none-eabi-gcc 4.6.2)

Available multilibs:

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc -print-multi-lib
.;
thumb/arm7tdmi-s;@mthumb@mcpu=arm7tdmi-s
thumb/cortex-m0;@mthumb@mcpu=cortex-m0
thumb/cortex-m3;@mthumb@mcpu=cortex-m3
thumb/cortex-m4;@mthumb@mcpu=cortex-m4
thumb/cortex-m4/float-abi-hard/fpuv4-sp-d16;@mthumb@mcpu=cortex-m4@mfloat-abi=hard@mfpu=fpv4-sp-d16

The default

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc -print-multi-directory
.

If a multilib for a given cpu is not found, it uses the default as well - there is no error message:

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc -print-multi-directory -mcpu=arm926ej-s 
.

There is no error message, even if the -mcpu is "obviously" wrong (that is the cpu is not in the list of known ARM CPUs which you can see with arm-none-eabi-gcc --target-help):

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc -print-multi-directory -mcpu=xxx
.

Even with -mcpu=cortex-m4, the invalid multilib is chosen. cm4 only supports thumb, so this value could be derived from -mcpu, but the built-in default wins:

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc -print-multi-directory -mcpu=cortex-m4
.

To get the correct multlib for cm4, -mthumb is necessary as well, this is necessary to override the default value for the instruction set:

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc -print-multi-directory -mcpu=cortex-m4 -mthumb
thumb/cortex-m4

To get the correct multilib for cm4 with HW support for floating point operations, -mfpu may not be enough:

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc -print-multi-directory -mcpu=cortex-m4 -mthumb -mfloat-abi=hard
.

It requires

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc -print-multi-directory -mcpu=cortex-m4 -mthumb -mfloat-abi=hard -mfpu=fpv4-sp-d16
thumb/cortex-m4/float-abi-hard/fpuv4-sp-d16

Further details regarding multilib can be found here and in auselen's answer

As auselen already commented, the easiest way to resolve this is to find the right toolchain, as building an ARM toolchain is another story.

cross compile for armv5, but it creates v7 binary

1 Answers