Compiling FB on Linux
Building FB on Linux is fairly easy because usually the GNU/Linux distributions provide all the needed development packages and they can be installed easily, at least for native builds. Since 64bit support was added to FB, a native build should always be possible, no matter whether you have a 32bit x86 or 64bit x86_64 system. Cross-compiling the 32bit x86 version of FB on a 64bit x86_64 system (or vice-versa) and building for other architectures such as ARM is also possible.
Generally, compiling FB-linux requires the following packages:
Getting the FB source code
To compile a new version of FB, you first need to get the FB source code. The following assumes that you have a directory called fbc, containing the latest FB source code.
Getting an existing FB-linux setup for bootstrapping
We will need a working FB-linux installation to bootstrap the new FB compiler. If you do not have a native version of FB installed yet, download the latest FreeBASIC-X.XX.X-linux release for your system (32bit x86, 64bit x86_64, ARM, etc.) from FB's download site, then extract and install it:
It is possible that you can get working FB setups from other sources besides the fbc project. For example, some distros may provide freebasic packages out-of-the-box.
Installing development packages
The following lists show the packages you have to install for some common GNU/Linux distributions. The exact package names can be different depending on which distro (or which version of it) you use.
Debian-based systems (including Ubuntu, Mint etc.):
Compiling FB natively is as simple as running "make" in the fbc source code directory. This will build a native FB setup matching the system architecture, assuming that the existing fbc installed on the system produces native programs.
This should have produced the bin/fbc compiler and the libraries in lib\freebasic\linux-[architecture]\.
Afterwards, you can install the new fbc build into /usr/local by running "make install", and overwrite the old FB installation:
Compiling 32bit FB on a 64bit system with existing 32bit FB
Besides native builds, you can also make non-native builds, such as compiling the 32bit version of FB on a 64bit system, using an existing 32bit FB build to bootstrap. This was very common before 64bit support was added to FB. It requires a slightly different procedure than a native build.
Setting CC to gcc -m32 instead of gcc causes all C code to be compiled for 32bit rather than the default 64bit.
Assuming that the existing installed fbc is a 32bit one, it will already default to compiling to 32bit, so setting FBC to fbc -arch 32 instead of fbc is not needed (and older 32bit-only fbc versions did not even have the -arch 32 option anyways).
Setting the TARGET_ARCH to x86 is necessary to override the FB makefile's uname -m check (because that returns x86_64 on 64bit). This allows the FB makefile to select the proper x86 rtlib/gfxlib2 modules and to use the correct directory layout for x86.
Generally, compiling FB-linux requires the following packages:
- an existing, working FreeBASIC setup for bootstrapping the new compiler
- gcc
- make
- ncurses development headers & libraries (actually only its libtinfo part)
- gpm development headers & libraries (general purpose mouse)
- X11 development headers & libraries (including X11, Xext, Xpm, Xrandr, Xrender)
- OpenGL development headers & libraries (typically from the Mesa project)
- libffi development headers & libraries
Getting the FB source code
To compile a new version of FB, you first need to get the FB source code. The following assumes that you have a directory called fbc, containing the latest FB source code.
Getting an existing FB-linux setup for bootstrapping
We will need a working FB-linux installation to bootstrap the new FB compiler. If you do not have a native version of FB installed yet, download the latest FreeBASIC-X.XX.X-linux release for your system (32bit x86, 64bit x86_64, ARM, etc.) from FB's download site, then extract and install it:
$ tar xf FreeBASIC-X.XX.X-linux.tar.gz $ cd FreeBASIC-X.XX.X-linux $ sudo ./install.sh -i
It is possible that you can get working FB setups from other sources besides the fbc project. For example, some distros may provide freebasic packages out-of-the-box.
Installing development packages
The following lists show the packages you have to install for some common GNU/Linux distributions. The exact package names can be different depending on which distro (or which version of it) you use.
Debian-based systems (including Ubuntu, Mint etc.):
- gcc
- make
- libncurses5-dev
- libgpm-dev
- libx11-dev
- libxext-dev
- libxpm-dev
- libxrandr-dev
- libxrender-dev
- libgl1-mesa-dev
- libffi-dev
- gcc
- make
- ncurses-devel
- gpm-devel
- libX11-devel
- libXext-devel
- libXpm-devel
- libXrandr-devel
- libXrender-devel
- Mesa-libGL-devel
- libffi48-devel
- gcc
- make
- ncurses-devel
- gpm-devel
- libX11-devel
- libXext-devel
- libXpm-devel
- libXrandr-devel
- libXrender-devel
- mesa-libGL-devel
- libffi-devel
Compiling FB natively is as simple as running "make" in the fbc source code directory. This will build a native FB setup matching the system architecture, assuming that the existing fbc installed on the system produces native programs.
$ cd fbc $ make
This should have produced the bin/fbc compiler and the libraries in lib\freebasic\linux-[architecture]\.
Afterwards, you can install the new fbc build into /usr/local by running "make install", and overwrite the old FB installation:
$ sudo make install
Compiling 32bit FB on a 64bit system with existing 32bit FB
Besides native builds, you can also make non-native builds, such as compiling the 32bit version of FB on a 64bit system, using an existing 32bit FB build to bootstrap. This was very common before 64bit support was added to FB. It requires a slightly different procedure than a native build.
- Get the FB source code.
- Install a 32bit version of FB for bootstrapping (instead of a native 64bit version).
- Install 32bit development packages (not just the native 64bit ones).
64bit Debian/Ubuntu example:
- gcc-multilib
- make
- lib32ncurses5-dev
- libx11-dev:i386
- libxext-dev:i386
- libxpm-dev:i386
- libxrandr-dev:i386
- libxrender-dev:i386
- libgl1-mesa-dev
- libgpm-dev
- lib32ffi-dev
64bit OpenSUSE example:
- gcc-32bit
- make
- ncurses-devel-32bit
- gpm-devel
- libX11-devel-32bit
- libXext-devel-32bit
- libXpm-devel-32bit
- libXrandr-devel-32bit
- libXrender-devel-32bit
- Mesa-libGL-devel-32bit
- libffi48-devel-32bit
- Add the following config.mk file to the fbc source tree (next to the FB makefile):
CC = gcc -m32 TARGET_ARCH = x86This tells the FB makefile to build for 32bit instead of the 64bit default.
Setting CC to gcc -m32 instead of gcc causes all C code to be compiled for 32bit rather than the default 64bit.
Assuming that the existing installed fbc is a 32bit one, it will already default to compiling to 32bit, so setting FBC to fbc -arch 32 instead of fbc is not needed (and older 32bit-only fbc versions did not even have the -arch 32 option anyways).
Setting the TARGET_ARCH to x86 is necessary to override the FB makefile's uname -m check (because that returns x86_64 on 64bit). This allows the FB makefile to select the proper x86 rtlib/gfxlib2 modules and to use the correct directory layout for x86.
- Run "make" and let it compile FB:
$ cd ~/fbc $ make
- Optionally, install the newly built 32bit FB setup into /usr/local:
$ sudo make install