Qt Creator - setting up a kit with a cross-compiler

Question

I'm attempting to use Qt creator to cross-compile a project, but have an issue matching the Qt version and my specified compiler toolchain.

I have created a Kit setting up a Device, selecting my toolchain as the compiler (GCC ARM Linux in this case), but I only have a locally installed system Qt (5.0.2 on Mint x86).

Qt Creator understandably tells me the compiler cannot produce code for the Qt version; all the guides I have found suggest using a Qt compiled for the target platform. This doesn't make sense though - it attempts to run qmake compiled for a different architecture and fails

How do I install or configure/compile a Qt version to work with the cross compiler? Maybe I can modify my existing one to understand this setup?

Thanks

Answer 1

This makes absolutely sense. The advice to use a Qt, which is compiled for your target platform is correct. But this does not mean that you use a Qt that was compiled natively on that target platform. You need to use a Qt, which was compiled with a special cross compiler on your host platform for your target platform. This way qmake and other build tools remain executable on your host, but create configurations for your target.

So, if you have a compiler, which can create ARM code, use it to build your Qt. Then you can create a kit in QtCreator out of this compiler/Qt pair.

Answer 2

Greenflow is right. I would like to add some information. I have cross compiled Qt 5.4.1 on Windows having an ARM Linux as target platform. You just need to configure the build properly. Here's what I did:

./configure -platform win32-g++ -xplatform linux-arm-gnueabihf-g++ .....

So Qt tools (qmake,moc,etc...) were built as Windows binaries and all the libraries were built as Linux binaries. Check for the available platforms in qtbase/mkspecs.