Compiling ARM1176 for QEMU Raspberry Pi Emulation Kernel

This is referred from this forum post and optimized for Mac OSX users. This blog post will show you how to compile a QEMU-ready Linux kernel for the ARM1176JZF-S CPU used by the Raspberry Pi. If you want to skip all of this and just have a kernel you can use, you can download 3.18 kernel here.

1. Preparing the development environment

Installing brew

First you need to have a package manager. HomeBrew is a good choice(for more info. refer this post). Or you can use any other such as "macport".

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Installing libcurses5 library

libncurses5-dev

brew install homebrew/dupes/ncurses
brew link --force ncurses

Installing crosee-compiler tools

You can download pre-compiled cross-compiler tools for MAC OSX from this blog.
After the installation add the binaries to your path.

echo "/usr/local/linaro/arm-linux-gnueabihf-raspbian/bin" >> /etc/paths

2. Preparing the Linux Kernel

Installing Git

Installing any package on homebrew is simple as "brew install <package_name>".

brew install git

Download the source

Download linux source from raspberrypi linux repository.

git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux.git

3. Configure the Kernel

Then we need to configure the kernel accordingly:

cd linux
make ARCH=arm versatile_defconfig
make ARCH=arm menuconfig

Specify the cross-compiler:

General Setup --->

    Cross-compiler tool prefix

        (arm-linux-gnueabihf-)

Note: Do not forget the '-' at the end of this string.

Note: When you select an option make sure you don't see 'M', but '*' (you may need to press space twice).

Select the right CPU options:

System Type --->

    [*] Support ARM V6 processor

    [*] ARM errata: Invalidation of the Instruction Cache operation can fail

    [*] ARM errata: Possible cache data corruption with hit-under-miss enabled

Enable support for hard-float binaries:

Floating point emulation  --->

    [*] VFP-format floating point maths

Enable ARM EABI:

Kernel Features --->

    [*] Use ARM EABI to compile the kernel

    [*] Allow old ABI binaries to run with this kernel

Enable QEMU's disk support:

Bus Support --->

    [*] PCI Support

Device Drivers --->

    SCSI Device Support --->

        [*] SCSI Device Support

        [*] SCSI Disk Support

        [*] SCSI CDROM support

        [*] SCSI low-lever drivers --->

        [*] SYM53C8XX  Version 2 SCSI support

Enable devtmpfs:

    Device Drivers --->

        Generic Driver Options--->

            [*] Maintain a devtmpfs filesystem to mount at /dev

            [*] Automount devtmpfs at /dev, after the kernel mounted the root

Enable the important file systems:

    File systems -->

        <*> Ext3 journalling file system support

         <*> The Extended 4 (ext4) filesystem

Enable tmpfs:

File systems --->

    Pseudo filesystems--->

        [*] Virtual memory file system support (former shm fs)

Enable the event interface:

Device Drivers --->

    Input device support--->

        [*] Event interface

Adding RaspberryPi Logo into Kernel:

Device Drivers --->
    Graphics Support --->
        Console display driver support --->
            [ ] Select compiled-in fonts
                [*] Bootup logo (optional)

Exit, saving the configuration.

4. Compiling the Kernel

make ARCH=arm
mkdir ../modules
make ARCH=arm INSTALL_MOD_PATH=../modules modules_install

Troubleshooting

Error 1:

scripts/mod/modpost.c:1465:7: error: use of undeclared identifier 'R_386_32'

        case R_386_32:

Create a new file elf.h and paste this code from the opensource.apple.com.

nano /usr/local/include/elf.h

In the same file append these...

#define R_386_NONE 0
#define R_386_32 1
#define R_386_PC32 2
#define R_ARM_NONE 0
#define R_ARM_PC24 1
#define R_ARM_ABS32 2
#define R_MIPS_NONE 0
#define R_MIPS_16 1
#define R_MIPS_32 2
#define R_MIPS_REL32 3
#define R_MIPS_26 4
#define R_MIPS_HI16 5
#define R_MIPS_LO16 6

Error2:

/usr/local/include/elf.h:45:10: fatal error: 'elftypes.h' file not found

#include "elftypes.h" /* In lieu of Solaris <sys/elftypes.h> */

create a new file elftypes.h and paste this code from  the opensource.apple.com.

nano /usr/local/include/elftypes.h

Error 3:

xargs: illegal option -- r

This is because BSD xargs doesn't have the same options as GNU xargs. Install GNU xargs from macports (It should show up earlier in your search path)

# Install GNU `find`, `locate`, `updatedb`, and `xargs`, g-prefixed

brew install findutils

Replace all files using 'xargs' to 'gxargs'. (Use a sublime or any texteditor).

5. Copy compiled Kernel

Copy the compiled kernel to your working directory:

cp arch/arm/boot/zImage ../

Done! You should name have a QEMU-bootable linux kernel and modules in your work directory.

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