[M3devel] building CM3 on a Raspberry Pi?

[mika at async.caltech.edu]

Hi everyone (mostly Jay),

Last time I tried to port CM3 to a new architecture I really got nowhere.

I thought it might be time to try again.  I have a Raspberry Pi, forty-dollar computer.

It has "Raspbian" installed on it.

The following output is probably relevant:

pi at raspberrypi ~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 3.6.11+ #538 PREEMPT Fri Aug 30 20:42:08 BST 2013 armv6l GNU/Linux

pi at raspberrypi ~ $ gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.6/lto-wrapper
Target: arm-linux-gnueabihf
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Debian 4.6.3-14+rpi1' --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-sjlj-exceptions --with-arch=armv6 --with-fpu=vfp --with-float=hard --enable-checking=release --build=arm-linux-gnueabihf --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf --target=arm-linux-gnueabihf
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.6.3 (Debian 4.6.3-14+rpi1) 


Further, in the CM3 tree there is something called "ARMEL_LINUX".
I thought, from reading some old messages on this mailing list, that doing
the following on my "big" system would result in something interesting:

1. CVS updating to the latest version of the tree

2. cd to scripts/python

3. ./boot1.py ARMEL_LINUX

but all it did was mess up the cm3.cfg on my host system (FreeBSD4) and error out very quickly...

...
rm -f /usr/local/cm3/bin/IA64_LINUX
rm -f /usr/local/cm3/bin/NT.common
rm -f /usr/local/cm3/bin/SPARC32_SOLARIS.common
cp -Pv /big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3/m3-sys/cminstall/src/config-no-install/cm3.cfg /usr/local/cm3/bin/cm3.cfg
== package /big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3/m3-win/import-libs ==

 +++ /usr/local/cm3/bin/cm3    -build -override -DROOT=/big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3 -boot -keep -DM3CC_TARGET=ARMEL_LINUX +++
--- building in ARMEL_LINUX ---

 ==> /big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3/m3-win/import-libs done

== package /big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3/m3-sys/m3cc ==

 +++ /usr/local/cm3/bin/cm3    -build -override -DROOT=/big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3 -boot -keep -DM3CC_TARGET=ARMEL_LINUX +++
--- building in ARMEL_LINUX ---

type make
make is /home/mika/cm3-build-bin//make
make --version | grep "GNU Make"
GNU Make 3.82
GNU_MAKE is make
cd ../FreeBSD4-ARMEL_LINUX &&   MAKE="make -j4  "  AUTOCONF=: AUTOMAKE=: LEX='touch lex.yy.c' MAKEINFO=: ../gcc-4.7/configure     -with-sysroot -target=arm-linux-gnueabi -srcdir=../gcc-4.7 -disable-bootstrap -disable-intl -disable-libgomp -disable-libmudflap -disable-libssp -disable-nls -enable-languages=m3cg -disable-fixincludes -disable-libgcc -disable-decimal-float -disable-fixed-point -disable-tls
cd ../FreeBSD4-ARMEL_LINUX &&   MAKE="make -j4  "  AUTOCONF=: AUTOMAKE=: LEX='touch lex.yy.c' MAKEINFO=: ../gcc-4.7/configure     -with-sysroot -target=arm-linux-gnueabi -srcdir=../gcc-4.7 -disable-bootstrap -disable-intl -disable-libgomp -disable-libmudflap -disable-libssp -disable-nls -enable-languages=m3cg -disable-fixincludes -disable-libgcc -disable-decimal-float -disable-fixed-point -disable-tls
../gcc-4.7/configure: not found
"/big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3/m3-sys/m3cc/src/m3makefile", line 339: quake runtime error: exit 127: cd ../FreeBSD4-ARMEL_LINUX &&   MAKE="make -j4  "  AUTOCONF=: AUTOMAKE=: LEX='touch lex.yy.c' MAKEINFO=: ../gcc-4.7/configure     -with-sysroot -target=arm-linux-gnueabi -srcdir=../gcc-4.7 -disable-bootstrap -disable-intl -disable-libgomp -disable-libmudflap -disable-libssp -disable-nls -enable-languages=m3cg -disable-fixincludes -disable-libgcc -disable-decimal-float -disable-fixed-point -disable-tls

--procedure--  -line-  -file---
exec               --  <builtin>
m3cc_Run          339  /big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3/m3-sys/m3cc/src/m3makefile
include_dir       537  /big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3/m3-sys/m3cc/src/m3makefile
                    9  /big/home2/mika/2/cm3-cvs/cm3/m3-sys/m3cc/ARMEL_LINUX/m3make.args

Fatal Error: package build failed
 *** execution of [<function _BuildLocalFunction at 0x82d55a4>] failed ***
(238)rover:~/cm3-cvs-anon/cm3/scripts/python>


So I'm not really sure what state porting of CM3 is in.  I think it
would be really interesting to have it running on the Raspberry Pi,
partly because Modula-3 and Python are in many ways similar but Modula-3
code tends to be many times more efficient (at least in runtime) and
the computer is slow by modern standards.

A few questions...

Is ARMEL_LINUX a real port?  Does it work?  Has it worked for anyone?  

Am I going about it the right way per latest recommendations---that is,
trying to cross-compile from an existing CM3 installation on 32-bit
i386 system?

Clearly just running ./boot1.py ARMEL_LINUX on the FreeBSD system is
not the right approach... maybe someone knows what is?

Do I maybe need to upgrade the host CM3 to the head first?  (Sounds
like a whole other can of worms but ok...)

The Pi I think is more than powerful enough to compile everything
natively.  When I started with Modula-3, I had a 120-MHz Pentium on
my desk with 128 MB of RAM, and that was considered a powerful
system at the time.  This is a 700 MHz ARM with 512 MB of RAM.
So I'm not against compiling stuff natively (in fact I think it makes
things easier), but cross-compiling is fine too if that gets me to
the goal easier.

I am happy to try C generating compilers but I would prefer to keep
things as un-experimental as possible for now, because I have some
control applications I'd like to try to build without having to debug
lots and lots of software first.

Finally I think it would be *really* cool if we had a distribution of
Modula-3 that was polished enough to be distributable to Raspberry Pi
users.  Just based on the gross characteristics of the two systems,
I think the Pi and Modula-3 ought to be a very good match for each
other.  Basically, the Pi is a full-featured but slow hardware system
with good networking facilities.  It could use a safe, modern, efficient
systems programming language running on it.  Most things on it nowadays
are written in Python from what i understand.

     Mika