[nodejs] Cross Compile nodejs for arm

It's pretty straightforward with v0.8:

   $ CC=arm-linux-gcc ./configure --dest-cpu=arm

You can optionally specify the floating point ABI with
--with-arm-float-abi=soft|softfp|hard

I wrote a blog article about this very thing a couple weeks ago:
http://n8.io/cross-compiling-nodejs-v0.8

Cheers!

Thanks Ban and Nathan
Actually i tried both the methods and get the error

*NameError: name 'arm_neon' is not defined while evaluating condition
'arm_neon!=1 and arm_fpu!="vfpv3" and arm_fpu!="vfpv3-d16"' in
/home/nodejs/deps/v8/tools/gyp/v8.gyp while loading dependencies of
/home/nodejs/node.gyp while trying to load /home/nodejs/node.gyp*

Does it mean that i need to cross compile v8 separately and then try to
compile nodejs ?? or some configuration change is required ?

I am having some problems cross compiling NodeJS for ARM processor, my
ultimate
target is to have it run under Android on a CubieBoard, the AllWinner A10
part.

Following Nathan's post, I am trying to compile either node v0.8.9 or
v.0.10.3.
My host platform is a CentOS X64 VM using the
gcc-linaro-aarch64-linux-gnu-4.7 tool chain.

It seems to start out just fine until it tries to compile V8 then it has a
problem saying that the
ARM target is only supported on a 32bit host, but I have 32bit support
added in. I have also
successfully compiled V8 against the NDK toolchain following this post, and
it runs under
Android. http://code.google.com/p/v8/wiki/D8OnAndroid

Has anyone seen this problem, below is the compiler output. It's the same
for both releases.

-John Gentilin

   aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ '-DENABLE_DEBUGGER_SUPPORT' '-DENABLE_EXTRA_CHECKS'
'-DV8_TARGET_ARCH_ARM' '-DUSE_EABI_HARDFLOAT=0' -I../deps/v8/src -Wall
-Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -O2
-fno-strict-aliasing -fno-tree-vrp -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions -MMD -MF
/usr/local/src/node-v0.10.3/out/Release/.deps//usr/local/src/node-v0.10.3/out/Release/obj.target/v8_base/deps/v8/src/accessors.o.d.raw
-c -o
/usr/local/src/node-v0.10.3/out/Release/obj.target/v8_base/deps/v8/src/accessors.o
../deps/v8/src/accessors.cc

In file included from
../deps/v8/src/v8globals.h:31:0,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/v8.h:53,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/accessors.cc:28:

../deps/v8/src/globals.h:90:2: error: #error Host architecture was not
detected as supported by v8
../deps/v8/src/globals.h:120:2: error: #error Target architecture arm is
only supported on arm and ia32 host
In file included from
../deps/v8/src/platform.h:99:0,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/v8utils.h:32,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/v8.h:56,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/accessors.cc:28:

../deps/v8/src/atomicops.h:168:2: error: #error "Atomic operations are not
supported on your platform"
In file included from
../deps/v8/src/lazy-instance.h:94:0,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/platform.h:100,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/v8utils.h:32,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/v8.h:56,

                  from
../deps/v8/src/accessors.cc:28:

Hello,

I also tried to cross compile Node.js v0.10.21 for an arm platform called
armadeus, following instructions given by Nathan here :
http://n8.io/cross-compiling-nodejs-v0.8/ but it fails with the following
error messages :

/home/thomas/Armadeus/
armadeus-5.2/buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc
'-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE' '-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64' '-D_GNU_SOURCE'
'-DHAVE_CONFIG_H' -I../deps/uv/include -I../deps/uv/include/uv-private
-I../deps/uv/src -pthread -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -pthread -g
--std=gnu89 -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wstrict-aliasing
-O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-tree-vrp -fno-tree-sink -MMD -MF
/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/.deps//home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/udp.o.d.raw
-c -o
/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/udp.o
../deps/uv/src/unix/udp.c

/home/thomas/Armadeus/armadeus-5.2/buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc
'-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE' '-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64' '-D_GNU_SOURCE'
'-DHAVE_CONFIG_H' -I../deps/uv/include -I../deps/uv/include/uv-private
-I../deps/uv/src -pthread -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -pthread -g
--std=gnu89 -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wstrict-aliasing
-O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-tree-vrp -fno-tree-sink -MMD -MF
/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/.deps//home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/proctitle.o.d.raw
-c -o
/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/proctitle.o
../deps/uv/src/unix/proctitle.c

/home/thomas/Armadeus/armadeus-5.2/buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc
'-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE' '-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64' '-D_GNU_SOURCE'
'-DHAVE_CONFIG_H' -I../deps/uv/include -I../deps/uv/include/uv-private
-I../deps/uv/src -pthread -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -pthread -g
--std=gnu89 -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wstrict-aliasing
-O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-tree-vrp -fno-tree-sink -MMD -MF
/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/.deps//home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.o.d.raw
-c -o
/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.o
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:46:22: attention : ifaddrs.h : No such
file or directory
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c: In function ‘uv_interface_addresses’:
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:626: attention : implicit declaration of
function ‘getifaddrs’
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:633: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:634: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:634: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:635: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:636: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:651: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:653: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:653: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:657: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:665: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:669: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:671: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:672: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:674: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:677: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:682: attention : implicit declaration of
function ‘freeifaddrs’
make[1]: ***
[/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.o]
Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory
`/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out'
make: *** [node] Error 2
thomas@thomas-laptop:~/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21$ make
make -C out BUILDTYPE=Release V=1
make[1]: Entering directory
`/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out'

/home/thomas/Armadeus/armadeus-5.2/buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc
'-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE' '-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64' '-D_GNU_SOURCE'
'-DHAVE_CONFIG_H' -I../deps/uv/include -I../deps/uv/include/uv-private
-I../deps/uv/src -pthread -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -pthread -g
--std=gnu89 -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wstrict-aliasing
-O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-tree-vrp -fno-tree-sink -MMD -MF
/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/.deps//home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.o.d.raw
-c -o
/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.o
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:46:22: attention : ifaddrs.h : No such
file or directory
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c: In function ‘uv_interface_addresses’:
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:626: attention : implicit declaration of
function ‘getifaddrs’
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:633: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:634: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:634: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:635: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:636: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:651: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:653: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:653: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:657: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:665: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:669: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:671: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:672: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:674: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:677: erreur: déréférencement d'un pointeur
de type incomplet
../deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.c:682: attention : implicit declaration of
function ‘freeifaddrs’
make[1]: ***
[/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out/Release/obj.target/libuv/deps/uv/src/unix/linux-core.o]
Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory
`/home/thomas/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21/out'
make: *** [node] Error 2

As it says that ifaddrs.h is missing I tried to use the following
configuration :
./configure --without-snapshot --dest-cpu=arm --dest-os=linux ‐‐no‐ifaddrs

But it doesn't change anything.

Here after my exports:

export CC=~/Armadeus/armadeus-5.2/
buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-gcc
export AR=~/Armadeus/armadeus-5.2/buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-ar
export
CXX=~/Armadeus/armadeus-5.2/buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-g++
export
LINK=~/Armadeus/armadeus-5.2/buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-g++

Thanks in advance for your advices

--no-ifaddrs only does something on Solaris. The error message
suggests that either you don't have development headers installed or
that your system is seriously ancient. What do `uname -a`, `gcc -v`
and `cat /etc/issue` print?

Dear Ben,

Thanks for your quick reply and sorry for my very late one.

I tried the following script in the meanwhile but I still have the same
error:
#! /bin/sh

export
CROSS_COMPILE="/home/thomas/Armadeus/armadeus-5.2/buildroot/output/host/usr/bin/arm-linux-"
make clean
export AR="${CROSS_COMPILE}ar"
export AS="${CROSS_COMPILE}as"
export CC="${CROSS_COMPILE}gcc"
export CPP="${CROSS_COMPILE}gcc -E"
export CXX="${CROSS_COMPILE}g++"
export LD="${CROSS_COMPILE}g++"
export NM="${CROSS_COMPILE}nm"
export OBJDUMP="${CROSS_COMPILE}objdump"
export RANLIB="${CROSS_COMPILE}ranlib"
export STRIP="${CROSS_COMPILE}strip"

export CFLAGS="-march=armv5"
export CCFLAGS="-march=armv5"
export CXXFLAGS="-march=armv5"

./configure --without-snapshot
make


My system (on the PC) is the following:
thomas@thomas-laptop:~/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS \n \l

thomas@thomas-laptop:~/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21$ uname -a
Linux thomas-laptop 3.2.0-56-generic #86-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 23 09:20:45 UTC
2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
thomas@thomas-laptop:~/Bureau/serveurWeb/node-v0.10.21$ gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu/Linaro
4.6.3-1ubuntu5' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.6/README.Bugs
--enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr
--program-suffix=-4.6 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id
--with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext
--enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.6
--libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu
--enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes
--enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-plugin --enable-objc-gc
--disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-tune=generic
--enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu
--target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5)

the target is the following :
Linux armadeus 2.6.35.3 #22 PREEMPT Mon Jun 3 08:45:04 CEST 2013 armv5tejl
GNU/Linux

What do you mean by
?

Thanks in advance

Best regards,
Thomas

Le lundi 28 octobre 2013 22:31:44 UTC+1, Ben Noordhuis a écrit :

Thanks Ban and Nathan
Actually i tried both the methods and get the error

*NameError: name 'arm_neon' is not defined while evaluating condition
'arm_neon!=1 and arm_fpu!="vfpv3" and arm_fpu!="vfpv3-d16"' in
/home/nodejs/deps/v8/tools/gyp/v8.gyp while loading dependencies of
/home/nodejs/node.gyp while trying to load /home/nodejs/node.gyp*

Does it mean that i need to cross compile v8 separately and then try to
compile nodejs ?? or some configuration change is required ?

Commented following portion in deps/v8/tools/gyp/v8.gyp and compilation
was success with --without-snapshot option
   149 'conditions': [
     150 ['armv7==1', {
     151 # The ARM Architecture Manual mandates VFPv3
if NEON is
     152 # available.
     153 # The current V8 doesn't use d16-d31, so for
vfpv3-d16, we can
     154 # also enable vfp3 for the better performance.
     155 'conditions': [
     156 # ['arm_neon!=1 and arm_fpu!="vfpv3" and
arm_fpu!="vfpv3-d16"', {
     157 # 'variables': {
     158 # 'mksnapshot_flags': [
     159 # '--noenable_vfp3',
     160 # ],
     161 # },
     162 # }],
     163 ],

i do not understand what is --without-snapshot option option and what
commented portion does. can someone please telll
I need to run executable on my board and check for error if any !!

1. compiling with --without-snapshot option. and how does it will effect
the performance.
2. and modfication did in deps/v8/tools/gyp/v8.gyp

can someone please explain the impact of these on my system's performance.

Sumit, can you try this patch?

https://gist.github.com/9c4d01a7d3091398a1be
--without-snapshot disables precompiling the built-in objects (Array,
String, etc.). There is a performance penalty but it's minor, it only
affects startup times.

Hi Ben,
Patch did work for me. Thanks for the help

Thanks for testing. Landed in master.

Ben,

This patch fixes this for me. I have been fighting this since v0.6.19.
Thank you!

VFPv3 is the default for ARMv7, but not required:
http://www.arm.com/products/processors/technologies/vector-floating-point.php

These flags could be more reliably set from /proc/cpuinfo or the command
line,
but grokking compiler flags is more portable...

Cheers,
Jon Kunkee

Thanks Jon, good to know. Do you know if there are actual ARMv7 units
out there that don't support VFPv3? All the ARMv7 gear I have or know
of supports it. So far I haven't received bug reports either.

I honestly don't know. There's a chance ARM would actually answer that
question, but that's asking about their customer base...

The two systems I have access to here at school are both armv7l and
support vfpv3.

I was thinking intelligently enabling NEON might be a performance boost,
but I have no idea how to benchmark that.

Cheers,
Jon

You mean adding NEON support to V8? Because it doesn't support it now,
only VFPv3.

Point. I had assumed that the compiler could produce effective NEON
code, but using SIMD effectively often does require explicit use in code.
Adding it to the code would probably not be worth the cost for now.

Wow, that is an awesome tip.

I really want see my nodes running in tablates or phones.

Em quarta-feira, 19 de setembro de 2012 09h27min38s UTC-3, Sumit Aggarwal
escreveu:

Hello Ben and Moreira
i want to use nodejs for enhancement of device capabilities and want to do
something like this
1. Make device as http web server. something like done by nokia "
http://research.nokia.com/page/231".
So that i can expose device capabilities to a web application and making
device controllable by web like playing music, sharing data and may more.

2. Next step i have not decided yet but it should be something like
supporting cross device web apps.

But fist step is very important to understand if i can achieve what i want
and i am into right direction. Step Zero (Porting nodejs
is already complete with Ben's help )
Can you suggest some good reference for making device as REST web server.
and easily map c++ APIs.


i am a C++ developer and new to js. so making me slower in develop
something in JS.

If you're not set on a particular device yet, you might pick up a used webOS device cheaply.  You're restricted to Node v0.2.3 on phones (Palm Pre 2 or HP Veer) and v0.4.12 on the HP TouchPad, but Node is already tested and optimized. Plus, you can easily write a front end to configure your website in JavaScript as well.

You can even distribute through the App Catalog: http://developer.palm.com/appredirect/?packageid=com.hominidsoftware.zapphotoshare