Toolchain¶

Overview¶

Building Linux kernels and applications for the BE-300 requires a MIPS little-endian cross-compilation toolchain targeting mipsel-linux.

Pre-Built Toolchains¶

Windows¶

jal0 provided pre-built Windows cross-tools:

CEK.zip --- cross-compilation environment for Windows
Binutils --- pre-built MIPS binutils for Windows

Linux (TimeSys BSP)¶

TimeSys provided a Board Support Package (BSP) that included a pre-built cross-toolchain for the VR4131 target.

Building from Source¶

For a complete Linux-hosted cross-toolchain, build the following components in order.

Step 1: Cross-Binutils (2.11.92)¶

tar xzf binutils-2.11.92.tar.gz
cd binutils-2.11.92
./configure --target=mipsel-linux --prefix=/usr/local/cross
make
make install
export PATH=/usr/local/cross/bin:$PATH

Step 2: Bootstrap C Cross-Compiler (GCC 3.0.3)¶

Build a minimal C-only compiler without shared library support:

tar xzf gcc-3.0.3.tar.gz
cd gcc-3.0.3
./configure \
    --target=mipsel-linux \
    --prefix=/usr/local/cross \
    --enable-languages=c \
    --disable-shared \
    --disable-threads
make
make install

Step 3: Cross-Build glibc (2.2.4)¶

tar xzf glibc-2.2.4.tar.gz
cd glibc-2.2.4
./configure \
    --build=i686-linux \
    --host=mipsel-linux \
    --prefix=/usr/local/cross/mipsel-linux \
    --enable-add-ons=linuxthreads
make
make install

Step 4: Fix libc.so¶

Edit /usr/local/cross/mipsel-linux/lib/libc.so to point to the cross-built library paths rather than the host paths. This is a text file containing linker script directives --- update the absolute paths to reference the cross-compiled libraries.

Step 5: Final C/C++ Compiler¶

Rebuild GCC with full shared library and C++ support:

cd gcc-3.0.3
make distclean
./configure \
    --target=mipsel-linux \
    --prefix=/usr/local/cross \
    --enable-languages=c,c++ \
    --enable-shared
make
make install

The toolchain is now installed at /usr/local/cross/ with the mipsel-linux- prefix (e.g., mipsel-linux-gcc, mipsel-linux-ld).

Modern Alternative¶

The BE-300 emulator project includes a Docker container with a modern mipsel-linux-gnu toolchain suitable for analyzing and building MIPS little-endian ELF binaries:

docker compose build mips-dev
docker compose run --rm mips-dev /bin/bash

This provides tools such as mipsel-linux-gnu-gcc, mipsel-linux-gnu-objdump, and mipsel-linux-gnu-nm. The container also includes a mipsel-pe toolchain for analyzing Windows CE PE binaries.

Kernel Compatibility

The original Linux4.BE kernels were built with GCC 3.0.x. Using a significantly newer compiler may require kernel source adjustments. The 2.4.18 kernel source expects GCC 3.x-era behavior.