How to link libraries when cross compiling

Question

I'm cross compiling open VMWare tools. I pre-compiled glib and i'm setting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable to link them. I'm getting the following errors in the link stage.

libtool: link: warning: library `/u/git/extlib_vmtools/usr/local/lib/libgthread-2.0.la' was moved.
/bin/grep: /usr/local/lib/libglib-2.0.la: No such file or directory
/bin/sed: can't read /usr/local/lib/libglib-2.0.la: No such file or directory
libtool: link: `/usr/local/lib/libglib-2.0.la' is not a valid libtool archive
make[2]: *** [libhgfs.la] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/u/git/extlib_vmtools/src/open-vm-tools-11.0.0-14549434/libhgfs'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/u/git/extlib_vmtools/src/open-vm-tools-11.0.0-14549434'

I followed this helpful post (DESTDIR and PREFIX of make) but I think i'm missing something. I didn't set the --prefix for any module, since I want to use the default direcotry structure when deploying.

glib compilation (lower module):

./configure --host=${CROSS_COMPILE_HOST}
make
make install DESTDIR=/home/xport/

open-vmware-tools compilation (upper module):

export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR="/home/xport/"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/home/xport/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"
autoreconf -i
./configure --host=${CROSS_COMPILE_HOST} --enable-lib64=no --without-kernel-modules --without-pam --disable-vgauth --without-x --without-gtk3 --without-gtk2 --without-gtkmm3 --without-gtkmm --enable-resolutionkms=no --enable-deploypkg=no
make
make install DESTDIR=/home/xport # <-- I don't even get here

Before I set the PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable, the second make failed due to missing .h files... So I know that .pc linkage works. What am I missing ? Thanks !

Answer 1

./configure --host=${CROSS_COMPILE_HOST} ...

You need to set both --build and --host dues to an Autoconf bug. Assuming you are building for ARMv7l, something like:

./configure --host=$(config.guess) --build=armv7l-unknown-linux-gnueabihf

---

The following looks OK to me, assuming /home/xport/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig is valid and /home/xport/usr/local is the location of the include/ and lib/ files for the arch.

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/home/xport/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

---

I'm not sure about what follows. It is also missing a --build. And I am used to seeing a --sysroot when cross-compiling:

./configure --host=${CROSS_COMPILE_HOST} \
    --enable-lib64=no --without-kernel-modules --without-pam --disable-vgauth \
    --without-x --without-gtk3 --without-gtk2 --without-gtkmm3 --without-gtkmm \
    --enable-resolutionkms=no --enable-deploypkg=no

CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS should probably include --sysroot. Maybe something like:

./configure --host=$(config.guess) --build=armv7l-unknown-linux-gnueabihf \
    --sysroot="/home/xport/usr/local" --enable-lib64=no --without-kernel-modules ...

Or:

    CFLAGS="--sysroot=/home/xport/usr/local" \
    CXXFLAGS="--sysroot=/home/xport/usr/local" \
./configure --host=$(config.guess) --build=armv7l-unknown-linux-gnueabihf \
    --enable-lib64=no --without-kernel-modules ...

---

DESTDIR is intended for staging. This looks OK:

make install DESTDIR=/home/xport/

If you intend to run from the /home/xport/ directory, then you should consider adding the following to LDFLAGS:

# 64-bit Fedora
-Wl,--enable-new-dtags -Wl,-R,'$$ORIGIN/../lib64'
# Most others
-Wl,--enable-new-dtags -Wl,-R,'$$ORIGIN/../lib'

So maybe something like:

    CFLAGS="--sysroot=/home/xport/usr/local" \
    CXXFLAGS="--sysroot=/home/xport/usr/local" \
    LDFLAGS="-Wl,--enable-new-dtags -Wl,-R,'$$ORIGIN/../lib'" \
./configure --host=$(config.guess) --build=armv7l-unknown-linux-gnueabihf \
    --enable-lib64=no --without-kernel-modules ...

$ORIGIN-based runpaths is what makes staged installs with DESTDIR work.

The double dollar sign in $$ORIGIN is due to Makefiles. The double dollar sign is the way to escape the dollar sign so it passes through the makefile properly.

Also see How to include correctly -Wl,-rpath,$ORIGIN linker argument in a Makefile?

---

config.guess provides you with your Autoconf triplet:

$ /usr/share/libtool/build-aux/config.guess
x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

If you don't have a config.guess on-path, then check for it in /usr/share:

$ find /usr/share -name config.guess
/usr/share/misc/config.guess
/usr/share/libtool/config/config.guess
/usr/share/automake-1.14/config.guess

---

Also see 2.2.8 Cross-Compilation in the Autoconf manual:

To cross-compile is to build on one platform a binary that will run on another platform. When speaking of cross-compilation, it is important to distinguish between the build platform on which the compilation is performed, and the host platform on which the resulting executable is expected to run. The following configure options are used to specify each of them:

--build=build

     The system on which the package is built.

--host=host

     The system where built programs and libraries will run.

And a little further down:

The --host and --build options are usually all we need for cross-compiling. The only exception is if the package being built is itself a cross-compiler: we need a third option to specify its target architecture.

--target=target

     When building compiler tools: the system for which the tools will create output.

---

Regarding the comment "I don't even get here":

make
make install DESTDIR=/home/xport # <-- I don't even get here

You need to show the compile error you are encountering when you run make.