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xPack GNU AArch64 Embedded GCC v13.3.1-1.1 released

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

Version 13.3.1-1.1 is a new release; it follows the upstream Arm release. It also adds support for ld.gold.

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 and 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@13.3.1-1.1.1 -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 13.3.Rel1 from 4 July, 2024 and uses the same sources. It includes:
    • GCC 13.3.1
    • binutils 2.42
    • newlib 4.4.0
    • GDB 14.2
    • Python 3.11.4

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.

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • none

Documentation​

The original GNU Arm Embedded GCC documentation is available from the GCC online documentation web site.

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.

For 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:

a9108be1446aa867876802c8e54f8d4f47fbd09c928fa2621e6e23fa366cbf13
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-13.3.1-1.1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

11e01286b5a6dbcecdaf6dbd41b26104df45d2fdb05dbf5347ec9ae0caa288c4
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-13.3.1-1.1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

d1809b2442c1c7bb3d04f3b6b3b2e46ef94699a1faf76c4864b6470e6d583c84
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-13.3.1-1.1-linux-arm.tar.gz

68a9ac88508a82c2cba3e7ddf419d49a8b56062cd2f13cfab21887428bb4f980
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-13.3.1-1.1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

f76dc6d105f054fcb3f2a39ecf206d99101dc87931a5b9227fe886cb9478b667
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-13.3.1-1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

47455ae3edd32924ce9a45bac5736bbcdd17161dd7288b61005d6fa5cdfb3952
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-13.3.1-1.1-win32-x64.zip

Deprecation notices​

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

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

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x86 GNU/Linux and x86 Windows was dropped in 2022.

Pre-deprecation notice for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux​

Due to the large user base of 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems, support for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux (armv7l) will be preserved for a little while, but expect it to be dropped by 2025, so it is recommended to consider an upgrade to a RPi 4 or 5 with at least 4 GB (preferably 8 GB) of RAM.

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.

Analytics​

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