Raspbian Buster and Cross Toolchain for Linux and Mac OS 8.3.0

Raspbian Buster is out. It seems it updated gcc from version 6.3.0 (used for Stretch) to gcc version 8.3.0. This is not always needed, but I had a lot of problems in the past related to using an outdated crosscompiler, or the one provided in the raspberry repo: https://github.com/raspberrypi/tools. I therefore built my own toolchain for Stretch, which I provided here, both for Linux and Mac OS.

I did the same for Buster: I built my own toolchain and I built many projects with it, like Qt, ffmpeg etc... Just place the toolchain in /opt/rpi (probably position independent) and you should be done. This toolchain should be 100% compatible with gcc provided by Buster.

Download cross toolchain GCC 6.3.0 for Stretch here.
Download Linux x64 cross toolchain GCC 8.3.0 here.
Download Mac OS cross toolchain GCC 8.3.0 here.

Bye ;-)

Raspbian Stretch and Cross Toolchain for Linux and Mac OS

Raspbian Stretch is out for Raspberry Pi. I needed a cross toolchain with the same exact version used to build the system so I built my own. As I had my script ready, I also tried to build one for Mac OS and it seems to work for the moment. I tested these cross toolchains for my projects and seemed to be able to build everything that I tried: Qt libs, apps, omxplayer, ffmpeg etc...

Download Linux x64 cross toolchain GCC 6.3.0 for Stretch here.
Download Mac OS cross toolchain GCC 6.3.0 for Stretch here.

NOTE: The Mac OS version requires some packages to be installed from macports.
NOTE: The toolchain is built to crossbuild for armv7-a. I could also build for armv8 but not sure if it also works for armv6.

Have fun! Bye! ;-)

A Tribute to Qt Portability :-)

The new ports of Qt to mobile systems like Android, iOS and WinRT are getting more and more reliable. I just wanted to have a look at the current stage of development and I therefore wrote a sample app. This is the result:

This is a quick app to test the portability of Qt on desktop, mobile and embedded.

The video shows client/server code, communicating via WebSockets (using the new WebSockets module in Qt), with a server in Qt/C++ running on Pi and with a fluid hardware accelerated interface in C++/QML running on Raspberry Pi, Mac OS X Maverick, Android Phone and Tablet, Windows 8 (Modern UI), Windows Phone 8, iOS and Linux Kubuntu. The server (on Raspberry Pi) stores information about tasks and the client provides a remote interface to manage. A client written using HTML5 canvas and WebSockets from the browser is also shown.

Unfortunately I don't own iOS and Winphone ARM devices, otherwise I'd add those as well :-) Good start anyway: this is really "write once, deploy anywhere".

Using the ports is simple: configure Qt Creator with the correct Qt build, setup the toolchain to use, qmake and build (for iOS and WinRT I preferred Xcode and Visual Studio respectively yet). Your done!
Pretty cool! Bye! ;-)

Installing Meld on Mac OS X

I really don't like FileMerge.app: I've always been feeling that Mac OS was missing a good tool like meld. Actually this turns out to be simply false: installing meld on Mac OS is pretty simple. Here are the steps:

• Install the great macports.
• Install meld. This will take some time. Keep in mind that at the time of writing, because of a bug, it is necessary to install rarian first:
  
  sudo port install rarian
  sudo port install meld

• Start the dbus service and make it start at boot:
  
  sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist
  launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist

• Define the LC_ALL variable to your locale (i.e.):
  
  export LC_ALL=en_US

• Run meld (i.e.):
  
  /opt/local/bin/meld

Pretty simple! Bye! ;-)