[Lazarus] Cross-compiling for Raspberry Pi2

[Martin Schreiber]

On Friday 18 September 2015 01:28:16 Bo Berglund wrote:
> I have a need to port a Delphi console program written for Windows to
> be used on Raspberry Pi2.
> Apparently it is possible to use Freepascal to get programs running on
> the Pi2 platform, but can it be done in Windows so I don't have to
> install the complete IDE on a Pi and set it up with a monitor,
> keyboard and mouse just for running the compile?
>
On Linux X86 you could use MSEide and the FPC cross compiling environment from 
here:
http://mseide-msegui.sourceforge.net/pics/crossarm.png
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mseide-msegui/files/fpcrossarm/

I assume it is possible to make something similar for Lazarus and Windows, I 
don't know if it already exists.

For integrated development with FPC 3.0.1 MSEide+MSEgui git master version is 
necessary:

https://gitlab.com/mseide-msegui/mseide-msegui

From MSEide+MSEgui README.TXT:
"
Crosscompiling and remote debugging i386-linux -> arm-linux
***********************************************************
For Raspberry Pi:
- Establish a ssh login without password (public key authentication).

- On the i386-linux host install the scp program
- download and extract 
  
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mseide-msegui/files/fpcrossarm/crossfpc-i386_linux-eabihf_3_0_1.tar.gz
  to <your crossfpc directory>.

- Start MSEide, in 'Settings'-'Configure MSEide'-'Global Macros' add:

Name          Value

CROSSMSEDIR   <MSEide+MSEgui directory>
CROSSFPCDIR   <your crossfpc directory>
HOSTIP        <the IP of the host>
REMOTEIP      <the IP of the remote target>
REMOTEPORT    <the remote port, ex: 2345>
REMOTEUSER    pi

- 'Project'-'New'-'From Template', select "crossarmdefault.prj" or
  "crossarmconsole.prj".
- Create the new project.
- 'Project'-'Options'-'Macros', set the TARGETPROJECTDIR value to the project
  path in remote target, ex: "/home/pi/proj/testcase".
- Check the TARGETENV macro.
- If your application needs additional libraries copy them from Raspberry Pi
  /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf or /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf to
  <your crossfpc directory>/eabihf/lib

Press F9 and hope the best. ;-)
"
MSEide+MSEgui also runs amazingly fast natively on the Raspberry Pi, the 
limiting factor is FPC compiling speed and memory consumption especially for 
smart linking.

Martin