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Cross compile Mono from source for the Omega2 and Omega2+



  • Background info

    In this thread I will explain how to compile the latest Mono from source for the Onion Omega2 and Omega2+, including some things to customize Mono for your needs.
    Mono compilation consists of two things

    • Native code (C Code). The main program, virtual execution system, garbage collector etc.
    • Managed code (C# Code). The Mono Library.

    The first thing you will need to compile is the main program written in C. After you have done this, you can compile the Library (C#). Under normal circumstances you can do both in one make command. That only works when you are compiling on the device itself. In this tutorial I will use a cross toolchain to compile the main program for the Omega2. Mono does not support compiling managed code when cross compiling. For that you will need the Linux host on which you are cross compiling or a different Linux host to compile the managed code. After compilation is done you can just copy the C# library from the Linux host.

    Cross compile distribution

    Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS

    Step 0. Compiling the cross toolchain

    I used the following cross toolchain for cross compiling. Build the cross toolchain explained there.
    https://github.com/OnionIoT/source
    Note: Make sure the toolchain's usr/lib has libraries like libz. Otherwise the mono build will fail while cross compiling.

    Step 1. Compile Mono on the Linux host

    I used the following working directory

    • /home/project/

    The first step is to compile Mono on the Linux host. Go to the working directory

    cd /home/project/
    

    Download and install all the necessary packages

    sudo apt-get install subversion g++ zlib1g-dev build-essential git python libncurses5-dev gawk gettext unzip file libssl-dev wget libtool-bin autoconf cmake
    

    Clone the mono source

    git clone –recursive https://github.com/mono/mono
    

    Change to mono directory

    cd mono
    

    Configure and make mono

    ./autogen.sh --prefix=/ && make
    

    Create directory for exporting mono installation

    mkdir ../BuildHost
    

    Make install Mono

    make install DESTDIR=/home/project/BuildHost
    

    Now you have a full working Mono installation for your Linux host. We only need the library /home/project/BuildHost/lib/mono

    Clean up source directory

    make clean
    

    Step 2. Cross Compile mono for Omega2

    Then we will build the main program for the Omega2.
    Create the cross toolchain environment. For that you will need the cross toolchain binaries from the Openwrt SDK directory. In my case /home/project/openwrt-sdk-ramips-mt76x8_gcc-7.3.0_musl.Linux-x86_64/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/bin/

    export CROSS=/home/project/openwrt-sdk-ramips-mt76x8_gcc-7.3.0_musl.Linux-x86_64/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/bin/mipsel-openwrt-linux
    export CC=$CROSS-gcc
    export CXX=$CROSS-g++
    export CPP=$CROSS-cpp
    export AR=$CROSS-ar
    export AS=$CROSS-as
    
    

    Ok so the cross toolchain environment is set up. At this point you will need to tweak the configure script so that it forces to use __thread as Thread Local Storage for Mono. The configure script automatically selects pthread instead of __thread. The reason for doing this is because the standard garbage collector for mono, sgen does not support pthread. Normally you can select boehm as the alternative garbage collector, but since boehm doesn’t support the musl library used for the Omega2 there is no other choice then to tweak the configure script. Also using the option --with-tls=__thread with the configure script doesn’t work. So tweaking it is. Fortunately __thread works just fine on the Omega2.

    Tweak the configure script

    sed -i -- 's/with_tls=pthread/with_tls=__thread/g' configure configure.ac 
    

    What I could not figure out was this error when I was cross compiling Mono

    In file included from mono-context.c:10:0:
    mono-context.c: In function 'mono_sigctx_to_monoctx':
    ../../mono/utils/mono-sigcontext.h:480:73: error: request for member 'fp_r' in something not a structure or union
     # define UCONTEXT_FPREGS(ctx) (((ucontext_t *)(ctx))->uc_mcontext.fpregs.fp_r.fp_dregs)
                                                                             ^
    mono-context.c:448:24: note: in expansion of macro 'UCONTEXT_FPREGS'
       mctx->sc_fpregs[i] = UCONTEXT_FPREGS (sigctx) [i];
                            ^
    mono-context.c: In function 'mono_monoctx_to_sigctx':
    ../../mono/utils/mono-sigcontext.h:480:73: error: request for member 'fp_r' in something not a structure or union
     # define UCONTEXT_FPREGS(ctx) (((ucontext_t *)(ctx))->uc_mcontext.fpregs.fp_r.fp_dregs)
                                                                             ^
    mono-context.c:460:3: note: in expansion of macro 'UCONTEXT_FPREGS'
       UCONTEXT_FPREGS (sigctx) [i] = mctx->sc_fpregs[i];
       ^
    

    If you have suggestions on how to fix this, comment it please. I have been working on this error for quite some time. It has to do with the musl library used with the Mips architecture. It compiles normally when glibc library is used.

    For now just remove the lines which gives the make error.

    sed -i '/# define UCONTEXT_FPREGS(ctx)/c\' mono/utils/mono-sigcontext.h
    sed -i '/UCONTEXT_FPREGS (sigctx)/c\' mono/utils/mono-context.c
    

    Then you can configure Mono. Because boehm doesn’t work we can disable it. At this point you can select which features you want to use with Mono. I highly recommend to create a small footprint since the Omega2 does not have much space. You can of course expand the root partition with a USB flash drive or a MicroSD card and use a completer version of Mono. In this tutorial I will explain how to build a small footprint http://www.mono-project.com/docs/compiling-mono/small-footprint/

    Configure mono with small footprint

    ./autogen.sh --prefix=/ --enable-minimal=aot,profiler,debug,logging --host=mipsel-openwrt-linux --enable-small-config=yes --with-shared_mono=no --with-static_mono=yes --disable-mcs-build --without-mcs-docs --with-moonlight=no --disable-boehm
    

    Then make mono with optimization for size

    make CFLAGS=-Os
    

    Create directory for exporting Omega2 Mono installation

    mkdir ../BuildOmega
    

    Export Omega2 Mono installation

    make install DESTDIR=/home/project/BuildOmega
    

    Change to BuildOmega directory

    cd ../BuildOmega
    

    Remove include and share. We don’t need those

    rm -r include share
    

    Change to bin directory

    cd bin
    

    Remove all binaries except mono and mono-sgen

    mv mono mono-sgen ../
    rm *
    mv ../mono ../mono-sgen .
    

    Then strip the mono binary

    $CROSS-strip mono-sgen
    

    Change to lib directory

    cd ../lib
    

    Strip some libraries

    $CROSS-strip lib*
    

    Remove unnecessary files and directories

    rm *.la *.a
    rm -r pkgconfig mono
    

    Now we can copy the .NET library to the Mono Omega build directory
    If size doesn’t matter (chuckle), just merge the whole directory /home/project/BuildHost/lib/mono with /home/project/BuildOmega/lib/mono so that it has the complete mono library.
    Or just choose which .NET features you want to use and copy those to /home/project/BuildOmega/lib/mono

    I will explain how to create a very small library, almost equal to Debian’s mono-runtime

    cd /home/project/BuildHost/lib/mono
    mv 4.5 gac ../
    rm -r *
    mv ../4.5 ../gac .
    cd 4.5
    mv cert-sync.exe gacutil.exe I18N.dll I18N.West.dll Mono.Security.dll mscorlib.dll System.Configuration.dll System.dll System.Security.dll System.Xml.dll ../
    rm -r *
    mv ../cert-sync.exe ../gacutil.exe ../I18N.dll ../I18N.West.dll ../Mono.Security.dll ../mscorlib.dll ../System.Configuration.dll ../System.dll ../System.Security.dll ../System.Xml.dll .
    cd ../gac
    mv I18N I18N.West Mono.Security System System.Configuration System.Security System.Xml ../
    rm -r *
    mv ../I18N ../I18N.West ../Mono.Security ../System ../System.Configuration ../System.Security ../System.Xml .
    rm I18N/4.0.0.0*/*.pdb I18N.West/4.0.0.0*/*.pdb Mono.Security/4.0.0.0*/*.pdb System/4.0.0.0*/*.pdb System.Configuration/4.0.0.0*/*.pdb System.Security/4.0.0.0*/*.pdb System.Xml/4.0.0.0*/*.pdb
    

    Then copy the library to the BuildOmega directory

    cp -R /home/project/BuildHost/lib/mono /home/project/BuildOmega/lib/mono
    

    You can then copy the contents of /home/project/BuildOmega to the root of your Omega2(+).

    This is how you compile Mono for the Omega2. If there are any questions, please ask them in the comments.

    Timezone error

    Some .NET apps requires /etc/localtime which is not available by standard. To fix this download and install zoneinfo. Before you do this you need to select your contintent. In this example zoneinfo-europe

    opkg install http://downloads.lede-project.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/packages/zoneinfo-europe_2017b-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk
    

    Copy timezone to /etc/localtime (In this example London)

    cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime
    


  • Thanks for sharing this info, very valuable!

    Is there a chance to share also some more info regarding your C# projects that you run with this mono (.NET version, environment, compiling, library compatibility issues, etc)?
    Would love to hear more on C# on Omega Onion!

    I wonder is it achievable to build a .NET app using Visual Studio (.NET Core?) that could handle HTTP requests (Kestrel/WebListener or even HttpServer for non-core), manage Omega GPIO and I2C bus as well as managing other native OpenWRT processes outside the mono (e.g. madplay).

    Cheers!



  • So far I didn't have any problems running a few .NET applications on the Omega. Will look further on this subject. I also looked at .NET core but could not manage to compile it for the Omega. As far as I know and described in the git repository, Core supports only a few CPU architectures but not MIPS unfortunately.



  • Updated thread with timezone fix.



  • Hi.

    Thank you for the great work regarding mono on omega2.
    I have tried skipping the whole "build from source" step, and go directly to "install from your ipkg file" - simply to see if I can get that part working before I start customizing my own, but it seems, that if i run "opkg install mono-runtime_4.3.0-1_mips_24kc.ipk" from a path where I have downloaded your "mono-runtime 4.3.0 30-04-2017", then it fails, saying the package is not for Mips... am I missing something?

    Kind regards, and again, thank you for your work.



  • @Martin-Frederiksen Yeah I also had this problem with the .ipk file. You can extract the ipk and then the data.tar.gz file and copy all the contents of data.tar.gz to "/". That precompiled mono package you mentioned is old. Will compile a newer version for you. ;). Maybe that one will work with opkg.

    UPDATE: here you go:
    http://51.255.195.37/mono-runtime_5.0-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk

    Small note: I could not check which version this one is. I compiled the latest mono source and named it 5.0. You can check mono --version which version it really is.

    So if opkg doesn't work then extract the files and copy those to root:

    tar xf mono-runtime_5.0-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk
    tar xf data.tar.gz
    cp -R ./bin ./lib /
    


  • @Jackdaw Thanks man.. That is so awesome, and yes, I actually had to extract, as opkg did not work. For anyone following along though, I had to use tar with xzf parameters, to uncompress from zip.... Great work, and it is version 5.7.0 in this package.

    Cheers

    /M



  • @Martin-Frederiksen Glad that it worked! Will have to take a look at the ipk file. Shame that opkg doesn't work.



  • Hi @Jackdaw!

    I tried to compile mono myself, it seems there is an environment variable STAGING_DIR missing. But this did not completely solve my problems. Can you perhaps provide a working link with your mono version?



  • @Rainer-Müller

    You can ignore the STAGING_DIR. If you do all the things written in my instructions, then you have a fully working mono package :).

    I see that the precompiled package is not there anymore. Will create one somewhere this weekend.



  • Hi Jack can you reupload the ipk compiled for mono you build. Thanks a lot



  • Wow, sorry I forgot to add a package. That took me a time to notice.

    Do people still have problems compiling mono for the Omega? I will try again this weekend and update the tutorial. Please remind me again. :).



  • I could not cross compile the recent version of mono. Will see if I will be more successfull at the end of this week.



  • This post is deleted!


  • @Jackdaw I stuck on setting crosscompiled environment. I mean - after all setup for crosscopile (I used also recent openwrt-sdk-18.06.1-ramips-mt76x8_gcc-7.3.0_musl.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz) BuildMono/bin/mono is build for Ubuntu (not for Omega2). Both BuildHost/bin/mono and BuildMono/bin/mono works on Ubuntu but the latter not works on Omega2 (wrong ELF format). So I suspected that cross-tools are wrongly setup and in the second stage still Ubuntu host tools are used (in /Makefile commands CC = gcc)

    I tried your solution with export CC=$CROSS-gcc
    and also alising it manually before automake and make but it still build host-platform version 😞

    Any idea how to properly setup cross-toolsets before compiling for ramips-mt76x8 ?



  • I think I have ignored that autogen.sh ends with an error around checking shm_open:

    checking for inotify_rm_watch with unsigned wd... no
    checking for shm_open that works well enough with mmap... configure: error: in `/home/project/mono':
    configure: error: cannot run test program while cross compiling
    See `config.log' for more details
    

    How to workaround it? Obviously it can not run crosscompiled test on build machine 😕



  • ...ok, I figure it out (more or less):
    There's on open regressed issue on Mono project for this:
    https://github.com/mono/mono/issues/9951

    I had to switch back to 2018-04 branch on Mono to make it work.
    Compiled with openwrt-sdk-18.06.1-ramips-mt76x8_gcc-7.3.0_musl.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz

    Cheers!



  • Is it possible to get new link for package download?



  • Sorry for the long wait.

    You can download the precompiled package here. Use at your own risk.
    It contains the mono binary and the full .net library, so you need to extend your root partition with a microsd card.

    http://207.180.192.51/mono-5.8.1.0-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk

    Could someone check if the package will install with opkg this time? Thanks.

    I will update this thread in a while. Some things has been changed.



  • @Jackdaw

    Is there an updated valid link for mono-5.8.1.0-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk? I'm not able to get it to download.



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