Build notes for Alpha toolchain

These are my notes while I was creating a toolchain for Alpha (on DS10 for AS800). In addition, there are some bootstrap notes.

General

• Not every program is suitable for static linking (-static).
  E.g. calls to NSS, iconv, or dlopen will emit a warning when linking, but they'll almost certainly crash when run.

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AS800

• glibc ()
• When building glibc for the toolchain, mind that the library remains compatible with the kernel version you're running. Compiling the library for, say kernel 2.6.38, prevents you from building the rest of the toolchain if you were running on kernel 2.6.2. Binaries compiled against the new library will abort with error "Kernel too old".
• Optimize flag -Os causes a link error at the end ("undefined reference to fstatat64"). Forced to use -O2.

• linux (2.6.39.4)
• Build target to create bootpfiles doesn't work anymore:
1. arch/alpha/boot/tools/objstrip.c
   • in main():153, replace expression of if statement:
     !elf_check_arch(elf)
     by:
     elf->e_machine != EM_ALPHA
2. bootpfile
   • Copy <linux>/lib/vsprintf.c to arch/alpha/lib/ and add vsprintf.o to lib-y in <linux>/arch/alpha/lib/Makefile. This adds vsprintf.o to <linux>/arch/alpha/lib/lib.a but the goal is to get vsprintf.c compiled.
   • In <linux>/arch/alpha/lib/vsprintf.c, the function named pointer(), line "case 'K'", comment out the if statement with kptr_restrict. Also, in function symbol_string() comment out the "true"-clause of the CONFIG_KALLSYMS #ifdef (including the #ifdef/#else/#endif).
     Functions bstr_printf() and vsnprintf(), comment out the if statement containing WARN_ON_ONCE.
   • Add vsprintf.o to OBJ_bootlx, OBJ_bootph and OBJ_bootpzh definitions in <linux>/arch/alpha/boot/Makefile: "$(obj)/../lib/vsprintf.o"
     Fixes undefined references to has_capability_noaudit and warn_slowpath_null.
   • Add CFLAGS for objstrip utility in <linux>/arch/alpha/boot/Makefile:
HOSTCFLAGS_objstrip.o := -Delfhdr=elf64_hdr -Delf_phdr=elf64_phdr
   • Move hexdump.o from obj-y to lib-y variable in <linux>/lib/Makefile.
     Fixes undefined references to hex_asc.
• Disabled kernel option "Enable PCI quirk workarounds" (General setup).
  Enabling this option seems to hang-up the kernel.
• Cannot use Heirloom shell with kernel build system.
• Linking kernel (binutils 2.21, gcc 4.6.1) may result in an error "relocation truncated to fit: ...". Adding the linker flag --no-relax to the variable LDFLAGS_vmlinux in the main Makefile.

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DS10

• aboot (0.92b)
If aboot hangs immediately after launching the kernel (after decompressing step), then your aboot loader probably supports the old kernel header, only. You need to patch various files of the aboot package:
• all Makefiles
• Set CC to correct compiler.
• ./Makefile
• Re-set path for KSRC and "root" variables.
• Exporting variable mandir (used by doc/man/Makefile).
• Added toolchain library paths to ABOOT_LDFLAGS.
• Added toolchain include path to CPPFLAGS.
• Added -DCONFIG_64BIT and -D__KERNEL__ to CFLAGS.
• Added -DCONFIG_64BIT to ASFLAGS.
• Commented tools/elfencap from diskboot target.
  (prevent elfencap from being build)
• Added install command for sdisklabel to install target.
• Commented prerequisite install-man of install target due to install-man failing for now.
• ./doc/man/Makefile
• Man page of isomarkboot is section 8 manual instead of section 1.
  Adapted Makefile accordingly.
• Disabled manual netabootwrap due to missing tools nsgmls.
• Added sdisklabel man page to install target.
• ./lib/Makefile
• Added -DCONFIG_64BIT and -D__KERNEL__ to CFLAGS.
• Added -DCONFIG_64BIT to ASFLAGS.
• ./sdisklabel/Makefile
• Added LDFLAGS with toolchain library paths.
• Added -static flag to LDFLAGS.
• ./tools/Makefile
• Make CPPFLAGS separate definition and undefine __KERNEL__.
  Using override directive and += to add to CPPFLAGS from command line.
  Remove CPPFLAGS from CFLAGS.
• Added -DCONFIG_64BIT to CFLAGS.
• Added -Delfhdr=elf64_hdr and -Delf_phdr=elf64_phdr to CFLAGS.
  (for compiling objstrip.c)
• Added -static flag to LDFLAGS.
• ./aboot.c
• Added linux/ to elf.h include.
• ./cons.c
• Commented prototype of dispatch().
• ./disk.c
• Added break statement for "default:" label.
• ./fs/ext2.c
• Swapped "#include <linux/fs.h>" and "#include <linux/ext2_fs.h>", line 29-30.
• ./lib/isolib.c
• Commented "#include <linux/config.h>".
• Added break statement for "default:" label.
• ./tools/elfencap.c
• Replace undeclared definitions:
  
  • ELF_CLASS by ELFCLASS64
  • ELF_DATA by ELFDATA2LSB
  • ELF_ARCH by EM_ALPHA
• ./tools/isomarkboot.c
• Including "asm/fcntl.h" instead of "sys/fcntl.h".
• ./tools/objstrip.c
• If fails to build, build kernel and copy objstrip from architecture-specific directory.
• Put the whole lot and other fixes in a patch.

• bash (3.2.48)
• CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --bindir=/bin --infodir=\${datadir}/info --mandir=\${datadir}/man --disable-multibyte --disable-net-redirections --disable-restricted --enable-separate-helpfiles --disable-mem-scramble --disable-profiling --disable-nls
• Disabling bash debugger (--disable-debugger) causes undeclared identifier shell_function_defs in file variables.c, so forced to keep the debugger enabled. Also, due to cross-compiling ./configure cannot detect certain features (e.g., signals, job control), so such features are missing from the resulting binary. It seems re-compilation is necessary on the destination system.

• coreutils (8.16)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --disable-nls --enable-install-program=hostname,su --without-selinux --without-gmp
• When cross-compiling, ./configure fails on the fstatat test. Seen on 8.13 and 8.14, newer version may be fixed (8.16 is fixed). The test is failed explicitely in case of cross-compiling. Fixed by setting gl_cv_func_fstatat_zero_flag=yes for ./configure or commenting the test.
  Removed the -mieee throughout the Makefiles.
• Skip building hostname since it is provided by net-tools.
• The df utility is not being built when cross-compiling. For a number of systems (Linux, OSF/1), the ./configure script doesn't support cross-compiling for library function statfs() (see lib/fsusage.c:get_fs_usage()) which is needed for the df utility. To circumvent this, pass the parameter fu_cv_sys_stat_statfs2_bsize=yes to the ./configure script or do a native build.

• e2fsprogs (1.42)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ../configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --with-root-prefix= --disable-nls --enable-verbose-makecmds --disable-testio-debug
• Link error e2fsck (undefined reference to fallocate).
  #ifdef condition in lib/ext2fs/unix_io.c:898 is insufficient, new #ifdef is:
  #if defined(HAVE_FALLOCATE) && defined(FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
  

• file (4.24)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --disable-nls --enable-fsect-man5
• Target check is failing due to magic.h is missing from tests directory. Copied the file from src directory.
• Target magic.mgc fails to build due to missing prerequisite file in magic/Makefile. Fixed by setting FILE_COMPILE variable in magic/Makefile to file binary in src directory.

• flex (2.5.35)
• CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --infodir=\${datadir}/info --mandir=\${datadir}/man --disable-nls
• ./configure "rejects" libc compatible malloc due to cross-compiling and consequently fails at linking flex binary. I've set ac_cv_func_malloc_0_nonnull=yes to circumvent. Same for realloc, set ac_cv_func_realloc_0_nonnull=yes.

• gcc (4.6.1), including gmp (5.0.2), mpfr (3.0.1) and mpc (0.9)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ../gcc-4.6.1/configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --target=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --enable-threads --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libstdcxx-pch --disable-multilib --disable-libssp --disable-gomp --disable-nls --with-cpu=ev56 --with-tune=ev56 --with-mpc=/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr --with-mpfr=/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr --with-gmp=/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr --without-ppl --without-cloog
• Needed to remove gcc/stmp-int-hdrs stamp (after install-gcc) since it prevents limits.h from being generated. Also added --with-cpu=ev67.
• Optimization -Os causes build errors (i.e. missing header files), so used -O2 instead. Also, when changing CFLAGS you must pass the CPU type to the assembler through the -Wa option. The CPU type specified must be at least as high as is used for the compiler. See GMP's configure.in file for more info.
• --without-headers causes build error for target libgcc (signal.h not found).
• make all-gcc install-gcc
make all-target-libgcc install-target-libgcc
• Noticed the files limits.h and syslimits.h in the directory /usr/lib/gcc/<GCC>/<VERSION>/include-fixed are the same while they differ on other systems. syslimits.h contains an "include_next" directive in that case.
  Although I did not verify, fixincludes/mkheaders may be responsible: it checks whether to rename limits.h to syslimits.h or to copy syslimits.h from a file named gsyslimits.h. If configured with --prefix=/usr, limits.h is found on the host system and limits.h will be renamed to syslimits.h. However, according to this source, the fixincludes procedure is unnecessary and various distro's apply a patch to prevent it from being executed. For example the Linux From Scratch project:
  
  sed 's@\./fixinc\.sh@-c true@' gcc/Makefile.in.orig > gcc/Makefile.in

• glibc (2.13)
• Need to specify relative path to glibc-ports add-on when configuring. Otherwise TLS support is missing and you get an appropriate #error message from the preprocessor.
• Patch gcc_eh.patch.cross does not seem to be necessary. Applying this patch causes the build of sln to fail with undefined references (related to _Unwind_*).
• Makefile's of glibc do not seem to entirely /bin/sh-compatible (i.e. the original Bourne shell). Either override the SHELL variable of make with a different shell (e.g., /bin/bash) or modify the /bin/sh symlink.
• After installation, create a symlink /lib/cpp which links to /usr/bin/cpp. A tool like rpcgen expects a cpp binary in /lib.

• groff (1.19.2)
• CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --infodir=\${datadir}/info --mandir=\${datadir}/man --without-x
• Contains C++ sources, so specify CXXFLAGS. Also, may need to specify --without-x option for ./configure since it will add /usr/include directory by default. For cross-compiling you may want to avoid that directory.

• gzip (1.3.9)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --bindir=/bin
• May need to rename function futimens in files gzip.c, lib/utimens.c, and lib/utimens.h because its definition is incompatible with glibc.

• inetutils (1.9.1)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --disable-syslogd --disable-uucpd --disable-hostname --disable-ifconfig --with-ncurses-include-dir=/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include/ncurses
• No need to build hostname and ifconfig (provided by net-tools); no need to build logger (provided by util-linux).

• man (1.6f)
• Check conf_script after configuring. Also added or adjusted CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS and LDFLAGS in ./man2html/Makefile and ./src/Makefile.
  CPPFLAGS isn't used in build rules, so substituted in CFLAGS.

• mpc (0.9)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr
• In libmpfr.la (/usr/lib) needed to prefix the libgmp.la dependency with appropriate rootfs directory (e.g., /home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix) in setting dependency_libs. Maybe fixed in newer libtool's (>=2.4.2) since those would have support for cross-compilation (--sysroot option).

• module-init-tools (3.15)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ../configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --bindir=/bin --sbindir=/sbin --disable-static-utils
• Commented man page files in variable dist_man_MANS (build/Makefile). docbook2man utility missing,i so cannot generate man pages.

• net-tools (1.60)
• Pass CC variable to make to set correct compiler/linker. Added break keyword to hostname.c (line 100 & 119) and lib/inet_sr.c (line 107); double-quoted every line of the "usage" text of mii-tool.c (382-392).

• patch
• CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --infodir=\${prefix}/share/info --mandir=\${prefix}/share/man
• Updated config.guess and config.sub since they did not recognize ev67 CPU.

• perl (5.16.1)
• Using a non-default install prefix (e.g., /opt/perl5) may not automatically change the man page directories, so you need to adjust those directories in the config.sh file and run ./Configure -S, make depend and finally make.
  However, it may be better to archive the Policy.sh file as it can act as a site-wide config file. The Policy.sh file can be copied to the perl source directory and ./Configure will automatically fetch the settings from the file. Settings in Policy.sh are defined in the same way as in config.sh.
• Test suite fails on some (math) tests which, I suspect, is due to the Alpha not being IEEE-compliant by default.
  Confirmed: Adding -mieee flag causes test suite to succeed.
• When using a non-standard installation directory (e.g., /opt/perl5) it may be necessary to create a symlink to the perl binary since certain scripts are using a hardcoded interpreter path like "#!/usr/bin/perl".

• procps (3.2.7)
• Specified make variables CC=alphaev... when building.

• psmisc (22.6)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --disable-selinux --disable-nls
• Same malloc issues as flex, used same solution.

• shadow (4.0.15)
• CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --infodir=\${datadir}/info --mandir=${datadir}/man --disable-nls --without-audit --without-libpam --without-selinux
• ./configure test for setpgrp fails when cross-compiling. set ac_cv_func_setpgrp_void=yes.
  
• Moved the groups and su utility from bin_PROGRAMS and ubin_PROGRAMS to noinst_PROGRAMS. Also commented su utility in suidbins variable.
• Removed man pages of groups, id, su and sulogin from man_MANS variable and EXTRA_DIST variable in man/Makefile.

• sysvinit (2.86)
• Statically linked sulogin segfaults.
• Build target for killall5 utility is missing, so copied target of mountpoint and changed filenames.

• udev (120)
• Static linking is an option, but does not work properly (see General note). Linked udev dynamically.

• util-linux (2.20)
• LDFLAGS='-L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/lib -L/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/lib' CPPFLAGS='-I/home/nfs/rootfs.unimatrix/usr/include' ./configure --build=alphaev67-unknown-linux-gnu --host=alphaev56-gomtuu-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --enable-static-programs=losetup,mount,umount,fdisk,sfdisk,blkid --disable-partx --disable-nls --enable-arch --enable-ddate --disable-fallocate --disable-unshare --enable-line --enable-raw --disable-rename --enable-write
• ./term-utils/agetty.c
• In open_tty(), the errors (2) logged when ioctl TIOCSCTTY fails ("cannot get controlling tty") changed to logging warning messages. Same goes for error logged when tcsetpgrp() fails ("cannot set process group").

• vim (6.4)
• Specified environment variables for CC and CPP. Also, when cross-compiling, check src/auto/config.mk and remove "-I/usr/local/include" from CPPFLAGS variable and "-L/usr/local/lib" from LDFLAGS variable.
  If changing installation directories, verify them in config.mk!
  If ncurses is configured with --disable-overwrite option, then ncurses headers are stored in an ncurses sub-directory. In this case, src/term.c may be using the wrong termcap.h file (e.g., the one from libtermcap), so need to include ncurses/termcap.h in src/term.c instead of just termcap.h.

---

DS20E

• glibc-ports & fxstatat.patch
• Results in build error when --enable-kernel is too low (e.g., 2.6.0). You get an error like "`err' redefined ...".
  No build error with --enable-kernel=2.6.25.

• Booting NFS image (bootpfile) from SRM and specify os-flags
• console=ttyS0 root=/dev/nfs rootfstype=nfs ip=bootp
nfsroot=<server-ip>:<root-dir>

• ntp (4.2.6p5) & SSL
• Without SSL support (i.e. libcrypto.so) you should not let ntp generate cryptostats else it will simply segfault. So, ensure the filegen keyword for cryptostats is comment out in ntp.conf.

---

GBS

• ncurses (5.7)
• Ensure the host system uses the same version of ncurses as GBS is building (i.e., the cross-compiled version). A problem may occur when installing the cross-compiled version where the tic utility on the host system hangs when building the terminfo database. I my case, remnants of ncurses 5.6 seem to have been the culprit.
• Another problem that may occur is "undefined references" when building for a second time but with a different configuration. This may only apply to the utility programs (tic, toe etc) and is caused by an incorrect order of library search paths. GBS uses the environment variable LDFLAGS to pass library search paths of the target installation. When ncurses links a program such as tic, the paths on LDFLAGS are searched first and next the library paths in the ncurses source tree. An obvious fix would be to remove the ncurses libraries from the target installation before starting the second build. Alternatively, one could first build and install the libraries by executing the targets libs and install.libs of the main Makefile and subsequently execute the default target (i.e., all). This way the proper libraries will already be present on the target installation before the utility programs are built.

• perl (5.16.1)
• Cross-compilation breaks due to C++-style comment in header file /usr/include/stdlib.h and specific CFLAGS of perl (-ansi or -std=c89). A native build, using the same CFLAGS, doesn't appear to suffer from this problem. As a "workaround", I've turned the C++-style comments into C-style comments.

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