A German embedded Linux consultancy has made the first public release of a GNU-based toolchain aimed at building Linux cross compilers for a variety of Linux systems. The Pengutronix OSELAS.Toolchain() 1.1.0 is GPL-licensed, and supports architectures that include ARM, PowerPC, MIPS, and x86.

The OSELAS.Toolchain() weds the open source GNU tools with Pengutronix's GPL-licensed PTXdist tool, a userland build system based on kconfig. Pengutronix says the toolchain aims to supply a “complete and open build system for recent GNU toolchains which makes it possible to easily test arbitrary (but modern) toolchain combinations and support the upstream projects (gcc, binutils, gdb, crosstool) with patches and bug reports.”

Additionally, OSELAS.toolchain() serves as base technology for Pengutronix's commercial embedded Linux development services, which it calls “OSELAS” (open source embedded Linux automation service). Other OSELAS products and services include support, training, development, Eclipse-based tools, Linux BSPs (board support packages), and Linux real-time kernel extensions.

Robert Schwebel, head of development, stated, “Crosstool [served] to supply toolchains for our industrial and community projects for years. But, over time, we found that what we need is a modern reproducability framework which makes it possible [to] provide reasonably recent GNU toolchains to our customers, while supporting the community with patches and helping to make the upstream better. This could only be achieved with a clean and well structured design. As we already had a solid open source framework which can manage build rules and patches in a well structured way, it was an easy step to also use it for building toolchains.”

Availability

OSELAS.toolchain() 1.1.0 is available now for ARM (eabi, oabi, NPTL, soft float, hard float, little endian, big endian, and different kernel header versions); PowerPC 603e and 960; MIPS R6000; and x86 (i586 and i686). To support the cross toolchain community, users are encouraged to use the crossgcc mailing list for OSELAS.Toolchain() related discussions.

 
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