Various errors building on ARM MacOS or cross-compiling for ARM MacOS

[jimfangx]

I am trying to build the toolchain for ARM MacOS by building on MacOS and cross-compiling from a x86 Linux machine, and I am running into issues on both flows.

Canadian cross for aarch64-apple-darwin24-clang from x86_64 linux machine

I have setup OSXCross macOS cross compilation toolchain and following the autotools project build instructions here (https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross?tab=readme-ov-file#build-autotools-project), run the following ./configure command in the riscv-gnu-toolchain directory:

CC=aarch64-apple-darwin24-clang CCX=aarch64-apple-darwin24-clang++ ./configure --prefix=/opt/riscv --with-arch=rv64gc --with-abi=lp64d --enable-llvm --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --host=aarch64-apple-darwin24 --with-host=aarch64-apple-darwin24 --disable-gdb

While making, it results in a ton of undefined reference messages and then eventually errors with the following:

/scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/binutils/gas/config/atof-ieee.c:377:(.text+0x159): undefined reference to `_sch_toupper'
/usr/bin/ld: /scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/binutils/gas/config/atof-ieee.c:384:(.text+0x184): undefined reference to `_sch_istable'
/usr/bin/ld: /scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/binutils/gas/config/atof-ieee.c:339:(.text+0x2cb): undefined reference to `_sch_toupper'
/usr/bin/ld: /scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/binutils/gas/config/atof-ieee.c:346:(.text+0x5c3): undefined reference to `_sch_toupper'
/usr/bin/ld: warning: creating DT_TEXTREL in a PIE
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[5]: *** [Makefile:1298: as-new] Error 1
make[5]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[5]: Leaving directory '/scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-binutils-newlib/gas'
make[4]: *** [Makefile:1676: all-recursive] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory '/scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-binutils-newlib/gas'
make[3]: *** [Makefile:1025: all] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory '/scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-binutils-newlib/gas'
make[2]: *** [Makefile:5510: all-gas] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-binutils-newlib'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1027: all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/scratch/jimfang/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-binutils-newlib'
make: *** [Makefile:609: stamps/build-binutils-newlib] Error 2

Config.log: https://pastebin.com/ur0iFQvF
make run log: run.log

uname -a: Linux hummingbird 6.14.0-33-generic #33~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Sep 19 17:02:30 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Building natively on ARM mac

All of the following was done in a case-sensitive volume.

./configure --prefix=/Volumes/case-sensitive/opt/riscv --with-arch=rv64gc --with-abi=lp64d --disable-gdb --enable-llvm

results in:

if test -f /Volumes/case-sensitive/riscv-gnu-toolchain/gcc/contrib/download_prerequisites && test "false" = "true"; then cd /Volumes/case-sensitive/riscv-gnu-toolchain/gcc && ./contrib/download_prerequisites; fi
rm -rf stamps/build-gcc-newlib-stage1 build-gcc-newlib-stage1
mkdir build-gcc-newlib-stage1
cd build-gcc-newlib-stage1 && /Volumes/case-sensitive/riscv-gnu-toolchain/gcc/configure \
        --target=riscv64-unknown-elf \
         \
        --prefix=/Volumes/case-sensitive/opt/riscv \
        --disable-shared \
        --disable-threads \
        --disable-tls \
        --enable-languages=c,c++ \
        --with-system-zlib \
        --with-newlib \
        --with-sysroot=/Volumes/case-sensitive/opt/riscv/riscv64-unknown-elf \
        --disable-libmudflap \
        --disable-libssp \
        --disable-libquadmath \
        --disable-libgomp \
        --disable-nls \
        --disable-tm-clone-registry \
        --src=.././gcc \
         \
        --disable-multilib \
        --with-abi=lp64d \
        --with-arch=rv64gc \
         \
        --with-isa-spec=20191213 \
         \
        CFLAGS_FOR_TARGET="-Os    -mcmodel=medlow" \
        CXXFLAGS_FOR_TARGET="-Os    -mcmodel=medlow"
checking build system type... aarch64-apple-darwin24.6.0
checking host system type... aarch64-apple-darwin24.6.0
checking target system type... riscv64-unknown-elf
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /opt/homebrew/bin/ginstall -c
checking whether ln works... yes
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /opt/homebrew/bin/gsed
checking for gawk... /opt/homebrew/bin/gawk
checking for libatomic support... no
checking for libitm support... no
checking for libsanitizer support... no
checking for libvtv support... no
checking for libphobos support... no
checking for libgcobol support... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C99... none needed
checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -static-libstdc++ -static-libgcc... no
checking for gnatbind... no
checking for gnatmake... no
checking whether compiler driver understands Ada and is recent enough... no
checking for gdc... no
checking whether the D compiler works... no
checking for cargo... cargo
checking how to compare bootstrapped objects... cmp --ignore-initial=16 $$f1 $$f2
checking whether g++ supports C++14 features by default... no
checking whether g++ supports C++14 features with -std=gnu++14... yes
checking for objdir... .libs
checking for the correct version of gmp.h... no
configure: error: Building GCC requires GMP 4.2+, MPFR 3.1.0+ and MPC 0.8.0+.
Try the --with-gmp, --with-mpfr and/or --with-mpc options to specify
their locations.  Source code for these libraries can be found at
their respective hosting sites as well as at
https://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/.  See also
http://gcc.gnu.org/install/prerequisites.html for additional info.  If
you obtained GMP, MPFR and/or MPC from a vendor distribution package,
make sure that you have installed both the libraries and the header
files.  They may be located in separate packages.
gmake: *** [Makefile:653: stamps/build-gcc-newlib-stage1] Error 1

I had GMP, MPFR and MPC installed via brew already, seems like they cannot be found... so I set the following environment variables:

export CPPFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix gmp)/include -I$(brew --prefix mpfr)/include -I$(brew --prefix libmpc)/include -I$(brew --prefix isl)/include
export LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix gmp)/lib -L$(brew --prefix mpfr)/lib -L$(brew --prefix libmpc)/lib -L$(brew --prefix isl)/lib"

Along with the hint given by the error message, this was the new ./configure I used:

./configure --prefix=/Volumes/case-sensitive/opt/riscv --with-arch=rv64gc --with-abi=lp64d --disable-gdb --with-gmp=$(brew --prefix gmp) --with-mpfr=$(brew --prefix mpfr) --with-mpc=$(brew --prefix libmpc) --with-isl=$(brew --prefix isl) --enable-llvm

this resulted in the following error:

checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for nl_langinfo and CODESET... yes
checking whether NLS is requested... no
checking for msgfmt... /opt/homebrew/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /opt/homebrew/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... /opt/homebrew/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /opt/homebrew/bin/msgmerge
checking for ld used by GCC... /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... no
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking for CFPreferencesCopyAppValue... yes
checking for CFLocaleCopyPreferredLanguages... yes
checking whether to use NLS... no
checking whether NLS is requested... no
checking for uchar...
checking size of ino_t... 8
checking size of dev_t... 4
checking for iconv... yes
checking for working iconv... yes
checking how to link with libiconv... -liconv
checking whether iconv is compatible with its POSIX signature... yes
checking for CET support... no
configure: updating cache ./config.cache
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: executing depdir commands
mkdir -p -- .deps
config.status: executing default-1 commands
gmake[1]: Leaving directory '/Volumes/case-sensitive/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-gcc-newlib-stage1'
gmake: *** [Makefile:654: stamps/build-gcc-newlib-stage1] Error 2

config.log: https://pastebin.com/4Z8FexR8
full run log: output.log

uname -a: Darwin Mac.localdomain 24.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 24.6.0: Tue Jun 17 22:13:09 PDT 2025; root:xnu-11417.140.64.0.1~35/RELEASE_ARM64_T6020 arm64 arm Darwin

• MacOS Sequia 15.06, M2 Max Chip

I am trying to build the toolchain from source -- I am aware of prebuilt versions such as the one from homebrew or xPack, however those are not preferred unless there is absolutely no way to build from source for ARM macs.

Any pointers would be appreciated - and I am happy to try out things as needed; I know from reading previous issues that maintainers may not have access to a Mac -- I am happy to help run things or supply a XCode SDK for people to setup the cross compilation toolchain on their Linux machine.

[TommyMurphyTM1234]

You'll probably need to capture, compress and upload a full build log for analysis. A non-parallel build as parallel build logs are too difficult to analyse given the interleaved output from different jobs.

And also full details of your configuration and build commands - e.g. are you building the bare metal or Linux toolchain, the GCC or the LLVM toolchain, etc.

I had GMP, MPFR and MPC installed via brew already,

The regular build of the toolchain should fetch and build these as part of the build process. You shouldn't need to provide them out of band.

[jimfangx]

Hi - Thanks for the response -- I am trying to build both baremetal and Linux, but starting with baremetal first as that is more important -- And I am trying to build the LLVM toolchain since MacOS moved over to clang quite a while back.

linux cross compile

I ran the Canadian Cross Build again on the Linux machine without parallelization and from a fresh copy of this repository. Here is the logs -- The errors seem to be the same.

run.log
config.log

mac build

As for the Mac build -- I updated my ./configure command to not supply GMP, MPFR, and MPC:

./configure --prefix=/Volumes/case-sensitive/opt/riscv --with-arch=rv64gc --with-abi=lp64d --disable-gdb --enable-llvm

This resulted in a new error:

clang: error: no such file or directory: '/Volumes/case-sensitive/riscv-gnu-toolchain/binutils/binutils/sysinfo.c'
clang: error: no input files
gmake[3]: *** [Makefile:1897: sysinfo.o] Error 1
gmake[3]: Leaving directory '/Volumes/case-sensitive/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-binutils-newlib/binutils'
gmake[2]: *** [Makefile:4100: all-binutils] Error 2
gmake[2]: Leaving directory '/Volumes/case-sensitive/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-binutils-newlib'
gmake[1]: *** [Makefile:1027: all] Error 2
gmake[1]: Leaving directory '/Volumes/case-sensitive/riscv-gnu-toolchain/build-binutils-newlib'
gmake: *** [Makefile:609: stamps/build-binutils-newlib] Error 2

Logs:
output.log
config.log

$> yacc --version
bison (GNU Bison) 3.8.2
Written by Robert Corbett and Richard Stallman.

$> bison --version
bison (GNU Bison) 3.8.2
Written by Robert Corbett and Richard Stallman.

To fix this error, I ran the following manually

cd binutils/binutils
bison -y -o sysinfo.c sysinfo.y
bison -y -d --defines=sysinfo.h -o sysinfo.c sysinfo.y
bison -d --defines=arparse.h -o arparse.c arparse.y


cd binutils/ld
bison -d --defines=ldgram.h -o ldgram.c ldgram.y

This then results in #1623 (comment) this error. It seems like there is a fix here: llvm/llvm-project#150122 but I don't know enough about LLVM or the internal structure of the riscv-gnu-toolchain project to apply a patch yet.

So I went ahead and just built both Linux and baremetal toolchains without LLVM -- Those finished successfully.

For any future visitors -- These are the steps taken to build for ARM macOS, on a ARM Mac device:

• brew install ninja, bison == yacc, gmake
• set env var:

export MAKE=/opt/homebrew/bin/gmake
export GNUMAKE=/opt/homebrew/bin/gmake

• raise max file open limit for this session only: $> ulimit -n 65536
• deactivate any conda envs (this is especially common given quite a number of folks are probably on/have installed some form for the berkeley RISC-V or chip design infra and have had conda installed as part of that process)
• run the configure, this is mine for reference: ./configure --prefix=/Volumes/case-sensitive/opt/riscv --with-arch=rv64gc_zifencei --with-abi=lp64d --enable-linux --disable-gdb
• build, it'll fail
• run the following

cd binutils/binutils
bison -y -o sysinfo.c sysinfo.y
bison -y -d --defines=sysinfo.h -o sysinfo.c sysinfo.y
bison -d --defines=arparse.h -o arparse.c arparse.y


cd binutils/ld
bison -d --defines=ldgram.h -o ldgram.c ldgram.y

• go back, build again, wait until completion