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xPack GNU AArch64 Embedded GCC v14.2.1-1.1 released

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

Version 14.2.1-1.1 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 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 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11
  • x64 macOS: 10.13 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.6 or later
  • 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)

Install​

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

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/aarch64-none-elf-gcc@14.2.1-1.1.1 -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 is based on the official Arm GNU Toolchain releases.

The current version is based on:

  • Arm GNU Toolchain release 14.2.Rel1 from 10 Dec 2024 and uses the same sources. It includes:
    • GCC 14.2.1
    • binutils 2.43
    • newlib 4.4.0
    • GDB 15.2
    • Python 3.12.8

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:

88fc8bd58d2feadd83411b427111c07825752bf2dab81d50137682bcfc6d6c50
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-14.2.1-1.1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

977f8608aeb47baacb66e45bbbcfa14cfa1efd114a2d9fab66bc0c81c8a38b8c
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-14.2.1-1.1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

d1e76f00a44fa6f96d44b5649a8266688dedcb5c0445479c8603131055169796
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-14.2.1-1.1-linux-arm.tar.gz

62c101b0205a0a205287f08e74c5ac7739fe72984fb48e43ec0290b9a34c4393
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-14.2.1-1.1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

a2c9731f3c2a0abfdfa1e285de82d806e07a580a5fef4be59aac952c6b67b117
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-14.2.1-1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

1d8655120cb73a9bfbb7eb65f1b5e2d114d6f99ce5a0e107b73d646b55a6306a
xpack-aarch64-none-elf-gcc-14.2.1-1.1-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 x64 GNU/Linux and x64 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.