Re: Bootstrapping on a new platform

[Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il>]

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On Sun, Dec 03, 2017 at 08:46:56AM +0200, Manolis Ragkousis wrote:
> Hello Paul,
> 
> On 12/03/17 01:17, Paul Boddie wrote:
> > I finally got round to trying to build Guix again, this time doing a native 
> > build rather than a cross-build. However, I'm attempting this on an 
> > unsupported platform (mipsel), and it isn't clear what I need to do to make 
> > the bootstrap binaries and thus attempt a source build.
> > 
> > What I've figured out so far is this:
> > 
> > tar zxf guix-0.13.0.tar.gz
> > cd guix-0.13.0
> > ./bootstrap
> > ./configure --with-courage
> > make
> > make install
> > 
> > This gets me the guix-daemon, but upon trying to do anything, I get the 
> > following:
> > 
> > guix build: error: could not find bootstrap binary 'tar' for system 'mipsel-
> > linux'
> > 
> 
> You need to cross-build those binaries from a system that is supported,
> like x86_64-linux for example.
> > I understand that I need some bootstrap binaries, and the bootstrapping 
> > documentation indicates that these can indeed be generated as follows:
> > 
> > guix build --target=mipsel-linux-gnu bootstrap-tarballs
> > 
> > But this just gives the same error. And I am actually running on mipsel-linux-
> > gnu, so I suppose it might be different if I were try this on a supported 
> > system - i386-linux-gnu, for instance - and thus generate the binaries that 
> > way.
> > 
> > Maybe I have just missed the part of the manual that talks about these source 
> > builds, but it really doesn't seem obvious to me. Another thing, which I've 
> > seen mentioned on this list is reproducible builds. Might it be possible to 
> > have architecture-independent source archives that reproducibly build the 
> > binaries?
> > 
> 
> First I would suggest checking out my talk in FOSDEM 17 which I tried to
> explain how bootstrapping in Guix works, along with how I did it for
> Hurd. [1]
> 
> The simplified steps are the following:
> 1) Cross-build those binaries from a supported system
> 2) Add the new binaries to Guix (check gnu/packages/bootstrap.scm)
> 3) Copy the Guix source which now has the new binaries to the system you
> are trying to port it to. I suggest working on the git version of Guix
> for this. It's good to have the updated version.
> 4) ./boostrap && ./configure --with-courage && make
> 5) work out issues and enjoy.
> 
> Does this make sense? I have spent a lot of time on this so please ask
> and I can help you :).
> 
> Manolis
> 
> [1] https://archive.fosdem.org/2017/schedule/event/guixhurd/
> 

I also spent a lot of time getting the aarch64-linux port working, and
I'd be happy to help. Also you should post this to guix-devel also to
make sure there are more eyes on it.

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Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
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