fatal error: stddef.h: No such file or directory

[jamesread]

Hi,

I'm working through the UEFI App Bare Bones tutorial https://wiki.osdev.org/UEFI_Bare_Bones

I'm at the first step. Developers will need a GCC Cross-Compiler targeting the x86_64-w64-mingw32

I managed to run make all-gcc without any errors but when running make all-target-libgcc I get the following error:

• /home/yaakov/osdev/build-gcc-x86_64-w64-mingw32/gcc/include/stddef.h:1:15: fatal error: stddef.h: No such file or directory
  1 | #include_next <stddef.h>
  | ^~~~~~~~~~
  compilation terminated.
  make[3]: *** [Makefile:498: _muldi3.o] Error 1
  make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/yaakov/osdev/build-gcc-x86_64-w64-mingw32/x86_64-w64-mingw32/32/libgcc'
  make[2]: *** [Makefile multi-do] Error 1
  
  Is this something to do with the versions I am using?
  make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/yaakov/osdev/build-gcc-x86_64-w64-mingw32/x86_64-w64-mingw32/libgcc'
  make[1]: *** [Makefile:127: all-multi] Error 2
  make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/yaakov/osdev/build-gcc-x86_64-w64-mingw32/x86_64-w64-mingw32/libgcc'
  make: *** [Makefile all-target-libgcc] Error 2

I am compiling gcc-9.3.0

My compiler version is gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0

[Octocontrabass]

Why are you building GCC instead of using Ubuntu's prebuilt Mingw-w64 package or Clang?

[Solar]

...because our Wiki page says so?

[jamesread]

Why are you building GCC instead of using Ubuntu's prebuilt Mingw-w64 package or Clang?

I've installed both packages as you suggested. How do I now invoke the use of the new gcc version and ld also?

[nexos]

For mingw, it is either x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc or i686-w64-mingw32-gcc

[jamesread]

For mingw, it is either x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc or i686-w64-mingw32-gcc

OK. Both of those are invocable from my CLI. Just as a side thought. Why do we need a mingw cross compiler? We are not compiling for windows.

[nexos]

EFI apps are Windows apps with a different subsystem. EFI firmware was very much influenced by MS, hence it uses the same ABI, executable format, function naming style, and so on as MS stuff.

[bzt]

Using a cross-compiler with GNU-EFI is generally a bad idea. The complexity demonstrated on that UEFI Bare Bones page showcases that well (uses some source files directly instead of a library for example).

I've added an explanation and linked https://wiki.osdev.org/GNU-EFI page which describes the preferred way how GNU-EFI should be used. On the other hand I've also linked the UEFI Bare Bones page on the GNU-EFI page for those who insist to use a cross-compiler.

Cheers,
bzt

[jamesread]

Using a cross-compiler with GNU-EFI is generally a bad idea. The complexity demonstrated on that UEFI Bare Bones page showcases that well (uses some source files directly instead of a library for example).

I've added an explanation and linked https://wiki.osdev.org/GNU-EFI page which describes the preferred way how GNU-EFI should be used. On the other hand I've also linked the UEFI Bare Bones page on the GNU-EFI page for those who insist to use a cross-compiler.

Cheers,
bzt

I have successfully (I think) followed the steps up to

Code: Select all

objcopy -j .text -j .sdata -j .data -j .dynamic -j .dynsym  -j .rel -j .rela -j .rel.* -j .rela.* -j .reloc --target efi-app-x86_64 --subsystem=10 main.so main.efi

Then I am bit confused as to what to do next. The tutorial says

Now you can copy main.efi to your EFI System Partition, and after boot run it from the EFI Shell. Or you can rename it to EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI and it should be executed automatically on boot.

I'm not sure what this means. Should I continue with the UEFI App Bare Bones from

Creating the FAT image
Next, create a FAT filesystem image.

dd if=/dev/zero of=fat.img bs=1k count=1440
mformat -i fat.img -f 1440 ::
mmd -i fat.img ::/EFI
mmd -i fat.img ::/EFI/BOOT
mcopy -i fat.img BOOTX64.EFI ::/EFI/BOOT

[bzt]

Then I am bit confused as to what to do next. The tutorial says

Now you can copy main.efi to your EFI System Partition, and after boot run it from the EFI Shell. Or you can rename it to EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI and it should be executed automatically on boot.

I'm not sure what this means. Should I continue with the UEFI App Bare Bones from Creating the FAT image

This only means you have to copy your compiled file (main.efi) to the ESP partition (as EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI) so that the UEFI firmware could find it in boot-time. You can follow that tutorial, follow the steps on wiki UEFI page, follow the Bootable Disk tutorial, or use an existing image and replace that one file as I wrote here. The point is, you have to copy your loader to the ESP somehow, but it doesn't matter how you do it.

Cheers,
bzt

[Octocontrabass]

Using a cross-compiler with GNU-EFI is generally a bad idea.

The example on the wiki only uses GNU-EFI for its UEFI headers and doesn't link against it or use its build system. It won't work correctly if you follow the typical GNU-EFI build process anyway, since it doesn't use InitializeLib() or uefi_call_wrapper().