Exploring BeagleBone: Tools and Techniques for Building with Embedded Linux

CHAPTER 7 Cross‐Compilation and the Eclipse IDE

To this point in the book, all of the code is built and executed directly on the BeagleBone. However, for larger projects this can be impractical, as you may need to manage many source files within a single project. In addition, compilation times can be slow on the BBB for building large projects. This chapter first describes how you can use your desktop computer to develop applications that can be deployed directly to the BBB. The Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) is then introduced, which allows for advanced development capabilities, such as remote debugging. The chapter finishes by outlining how you can build a custom Linux kernel.

Equipment Required for This Chapter:

• A desktop computer running Linux (ideally Debian) or Debian running in a virtual machine
• BeagleBone Black for deployment and debugging

Further details on this chapter are available at www.exploringbeaglebone.com/chapter7/.

Setting Up a Cross‐Compilation Toolchain

This section describes how you can establish a fully featured cross‐compilation environment for building code for the BBB using your desktop computer. A typical C/C++ compiler that is executed on a desktop computer (e.g., Intel x86) will build executable machine code for that platform only. Therefore, a cross‐compiler is required, as it is capable of creating executable code for the BBB ARM platform directly from your desktop computer, even though it has a different hardware architecture. ...