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xPack GNU AArch64 Embedded GCC v12.3.1-1.1 released

· 5 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 12.3.1-1.1 is a new release; it follows the upstream Arm release.

The xPack GNU AArch64 Embedded GCC is a standalone cross-platform binary distribution of Arm GNU Toolchain.

There are separate binaries for Windows (x64), macOS (x64, arm64) and GNU/Linux (x64, arm64 and arm).

Raspberry Pi

The main targets for the GNU/Linux Arm binaries are the Raspberry Pi class devices (armv7l and aarch64; armv6 is not supported).

Download​

The binary files are available from GitHub Releases.

Prerequisites​

  • x64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • arm64/arm GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • x64 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10
  • x64 macOS: 10.13 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.6 or later

Install​

The easiest way to install this specific version, is by using xpm:

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/aarch64-none-elf-gcc@12.3.1-1.1.1 -verbose

Comprehensive instructions for installing xPack GNU AArch64 Embedded GCC on different platforms can be found in the Install Guide.

Compliance​

The xPack GNU AArch64 Embedded GCC generally follows the official Arm GNU Toolchain releases.

The current version is based on:

  • Arm GNU Toolchain release 12.3.Rel1 from July 28, 2023 and uses the same sources. It includes:
    • GCC 12.3.1
    • binutils 2.40
    • newlib 4.3.0
    • GDB 13.2

Supported libraries​

The supported libraries are:

$ aarch64-none-elf-gcc -print-multi-lib
.;
ilp32;@mabi=ilp32

Changes​

Compared to the official Arm version, there should be no functional changes.

XML parsing in GDB​

Some advanced GDB servers, like the one provided with SEGGER J-Link, are capable of passing an XML with the target capabilities to the GDB client. For unknown reasons, the Arm toolchain distribution came without XML parsing support. The xPack distribution brings back support for XML parsing and full integration with the SEGGER J-Link GDB server.

Python​

Support for Python scripting was added to GDB. This distribution provides a separate binary, aarch64-none-elf-gdb-py3 with support for Python 3.11.1.

The Python 3 run-time is included, so GDB does not need any version of Python to be installed, and is insensitive to the presence of other versions.

Text User Interface (TUI)​

Support for TUI was added to GDB. The ncurses library was added to the distribution.

note

TUI is not available on Windows

No Guile​

Due to the difficulties of building standalone Guile libraries on all platforms, support for Guile scripting in GDB is currently not available.

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • [#2] due to a an issue in the build scripts, on GNU/Linux, the aarch64-none-elf-gdb was built without ELF support; fixed in 12.3.1-2.1.

Documentation​

The original GNU GCC documentation is available online.

Build​

The binaries for all supported platforms (Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux) were built using the xPack Build Box (XBB), a set of build environments based on slightly older distributions, that should be compatible with most recent systems.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver reachedFor the prerequisites and more details on the build procedure, please see the Maintainer Info page.

CI tests​

Before publishing, a set of simple tests were performed on an exhaustive set of platforms. The results are available from:

Tests​

The binaries were tested on a variety of platforms, but mainly to check the integrity of the build, not the compiler functionality.

Checksums​

The SHA-256 hashes for the files are:

6cc55b6bd040e3eb1cd52528f8eb3f52a655647a3572f1be0bd67bf0f53063c9
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-12.3.1-1.1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

ba6947c1d8b55ec5ee80ad300aea18ac2025efb03df8002f780efed040cf3349
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-12.3.1-1.1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

766fb21b38d9dfe1a06707eeb575020f459df2fd9a82a4bb6113ac1b01ac5d48
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-12.3.1-1.1-linux-arm.tar.gz

0eaba21e98d0de28beecac0cbdb76fc46a99fb676075be2d64bf6b77d664bbc0
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-12.3.1-1.1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

b8567f486e9f5475494d8cb4177481024085c635be989a055cc4fdc89ef79e4f
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-12.3.1-1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

934d4ac5372198f281286d73467725bfdcbc61bac2ce3f91117dfc03a673e629
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-12.3.1-1.1-win32-x64.zip

Deprecation notices​

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x86 GNU/Linux and x86 Windows was dropped in 2022. Support for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux (armv7l) will be preserved for a while, due to the large user base of 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems.

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022 and the minimum requirement was raised to GLIBC 2.27, available starting with Ubuntu 18, Debian 10 and RedHat 8.

Pre-deprecation notice for Ubuntu 18.04​

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver reached the end of the standard five-year maintenance window for Long-Term Support (LTS) release on 31 May 2023.

As a courtesy, the xPack GNU/Linux releases will continue to be based on Ubuntu 18.04 for another year.

From 2025 onwards, the GNU/Linux binaries will be built on Debian 10, (GLIBC 2.28), and are also expected to run on RedHat 8.

Users are urged to update their build and test infrastructure to ensure a smooth transition to the next xPack releases.

Download analytics​

Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to Somsubhra/github-release-stats for the individual file counters.