Write a CMakeLists.txt to build the NaCl loader #2

illwieckz · 2025-04-07T18:42:02Z

I added some CMakeLists.tx code to rebuild sel_ldr and nacl_helper_bootstrap.

This relies on some unified DaemonPlatform framework copied from DaemonEngine/Daemon#1641 on purpose to give this CMake code the same easiness at doing cross-compiled builds.

I need help to complete the src/trusted/service_runtime/CMakeLists.txt file.

The CMakeLists.txt files are a rewrite of the file SConstruct and *.scons files with all unit tests deleted. Remaining unported code is commented out with lines starting with #TODO:.

Build status:

system	arch	build `sel_ldr`	build `nacl_helper_bootstrap`	run `helloworld` nexe
windows	amd64	not tested	N/A	not tested
windows	i686	not tested	N/A	not tested
mingw	amd64	✅️	N/A	not tested
mingw	i686	✅️	N/A	not tested
linux	amd64	✅️	✅️	✅️
linux	i686	✅️	✅️	not tested
linux	armhf	✅️	✅️	not tested
linux	armhf 16k	✅️	✅️	not tested
linux	armel	✅️	✅️	not tested
linux	mips	✅️	✅️	not tested
android	armel	✅️	✅️	❌️
macos	amd64	✅️	N/A	not tested

Dynamically linked loader:

system	arch	shared link `sel_ldr`	run `helloworld` nexe
windows	amd64	not tested	not tested
windows	i686	not tested	not tested
mingw	amd64	✅️	not tested
mingw	i686	✅️	not tested
linux	amd64	✅️	✅️
linux	i686	✅️	not tested
linux	armhf	✅️	✅️
linux	armhf 16k	✅️	not tested
linux	armel	✅️	not tested
linux	mips	✅️	not tested
android	armel	✅️	not tested
macos	amd64	✅️	not tested

~~Statically linked loader:~~ NOW REMOVED.

system	arch	static link `sel_ldr`	run `helloworld` nexe
windows	amd64	not implemented	not implemented
windows	i686	not implemented	not implemented
mingw	amd64	✅️	not tested
mingw	i686	✅️	not tested
linux	amd64	✅️	✅️
linux	i686	✅️	not tested
linux	armhf	✅️	❌️ segfault
linux	armhf 16k	✅️	not tested
linux	armel	✅️	not tested
linux	mips	✅️	not tested
android	armel	✅️	not tested
macos	amd64	✅️	not tested

Things like linux-mips were tested only because I ported the SCons code to CMake for completeness and make sure I forgot nothing.

I tested android-armel because I remember that in the past @cu-kai tried to get daemon-tty running on Android to get a console for his server.

slipher · 2025-04-07T21:42:40Z

Is it really so bad to use Scons? Unlike CMake, it can handle multiple toolchains, which makes it well-suited for this repo. Also if we keep the same build system, we can easily compare things between our version and upstream.

illwieckz · 2025-04-07T21:52:38Z

Is it really so bad to use Scons?

Yes. 😅️

Unlike CMake, it can handle multiple toolchains, which makes it well-suited for this repo.

Uh, totally not. The Scons scripts are not compatible with cross-compiling to begin with.

First purpose of this effort is to make possible to use multiple toolchains.

slipher · 2025-04-07T22:08:39Z

The Scons scripts are not compatible with cross-compiling to begin with.

Wrong. With Chromium native_client I can do ./scons --mode=nacl,opt-linux platform=x86-32 sel_ldr irt_core_raw or ./scons --mode=nacl,opt-linux platform=arm sel_ldr irt_core_raw and everything completes successfully and produces executables of the expected architectures.

illwieckz · 2025-04-07T22:26:08Z

How do I build with MinGW for Windows on Linux? For Linux Arm?

How do I make a static nacl_loader? How do I rebuild with a 16k PageSize for Arm?

This scons stuff is over-convoluted…

illwieckz · 2025-04-07T22:29:08Z

Wrong. With Chromium native_client I can do ./scons --mode=nacl,opt-linux platform=arm sel_ldr

With this exact command I get that:

Exception: Cannot find a toolchain for arm in toolchain/linux_x86/pnacl_newlib_raw:
  File "SConstruct", line 2799:
    if UsingNaclMode(): nacl_env = nacl_env.Clone(
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/SCons/Environment.py", line 1610:
    apply_tools(clone, tools, toolpath)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/SCons/Environment.py", line 117:
    _ = env.Tool(tool)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/SCons/Environment.py", line 2033:
    tool(self)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/SCons/Tool/__init__.py", line 265:
    self.generate(env, *args, **kw)
  File "site_scons/site_tools/naclsdk.py", line 756:
    _SetEnvForNativeSdk(env, root)
  File "site_scons/site_tools/naclsdk.py", line 109:
    raise Exception("Cannot find a toolchain for %s in %s" %

I have arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc (from the gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf package), and also clang.

slipher · 2025-04-07T23:59:00Z

How do I build with MinGW for Windows on Linux?

Found some documentation: https://github.com/DaemonEngine/native_client/blob/master/docs/build_systems.md. Although cross-architecture builds are supported, cross-OS builds are not. And you can't build with MinGW at all as it is designed for the MSVC toolchain. It seems building with MinGW would imply a porting effort beyond just the build system, as there is, e.g., a Microsoft assembler file.

The lack of cross-OS support would seem to be a limitation of Native Client though, not a limitation of Scons.

For Linux Arm?

I posted that in the previous message.

Wrong. With Chromium native_client I can do ./scons --mode=nacl,opt-linux platform=arm sel_ldr

With this exact command I get that:

You're getting an error finding a PNaCl toolchain, which should have been downloaded by gclient or whatever. Make sure you are in a fully equipped Chromium environment.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T01:21:03Z

Wrong. With Chromium native_client I can do ./scons --mode=nacl,opt-linux platform=arm sel_ldr

With this exact command I get that:

You're getting an error finding a PNaCl toolchain, which should have been downloaded by gclient or whatever. Make sure you are in a fully equipped Chromium environment.

Why do I need a PNaCl toolchain to build an Arm sel_ldr?

The lack of cross-OS support would seem to be a limitation of Native Client though, not a limitation of Scons.

Yes, all that scons code in the repository is not meant for cross-compilation, that's what I meant.

And you can't build with MinGW at all as it is designed for the MSVC toolchain. It seems building with MinGW would imply a porting effort beyond just the build system, as there is, e.g., a Microsoft assembler file.

Very annoying… I have seen they also have some Cygwin code, so I wonder if that can be used on MinGW, I haven't looked at this deeply though.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T01:26:26Z

Sorry, the output of ./scons --mode=opt-linux platform=arm sel_ldr is (I forgot to remove the nacl mode):

AttributeError: 'SConsEnvironment' object has no attribute 'Program':
  File "SConstruct", line 3889:
    BuildEnvironments(selected_envs)
  File "site_init", line 198:
    
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/SCons/Util/envs.py", line 242:
    return self.method(*nargs, **kwargs)
  File "site_scons/site_tools/defer.py", line 148:
    func(env)
  File "site_init", line 125:
    
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/SCons/Script/SConscript.py", line 598:
    return _SConscript(self.fs, *files, **subst_kw)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/SCons/Script/SConscript.py", line 285:
    exec(compile(scriptdata, scriptname, 'exec'), call_stack[-1].globals)
  File "src/trusted/validator_arm/build.scons", line 271:
    nexe = untrusted_env.ComponentProgram(test, 'testdata/' + test + '.S',
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/SCons/Util/envs.py", line 242:
    return self.method(*nargs, **kwargs)
  File "site_scons/site_tools/component_builders.py", line 485:
    out_nodes = env.Program(prog_name, *args, **kwargs)

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T03:29:40Z

This can already build sel_ldr on linux-amd64.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T04:50:13Z

This can now rebuild sel_ldr on linux-armhf.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T05:18:44Z

This can now rebuild sel_ldr on linux-i686.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T06:10:58Z

This can now rebuild nacl_helper_bootstrap on both linux-amd64, linux-i686 and linux-armhf.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T06:55:36Z

This can now rebuild sel_ldr on macos-amd64.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T10:15:37Z

By using JWasm as a MASM-compatible assembler I can cross-build (from Linux to Windows with MinGW) the sel_ldr binary for windows-amd64 as long as I put ksamd64.inc, kxamd64.inc and macamd64.inc in ../../src/trusted/service_runtime/arch/x86_64.

I got them from:

https://github.com/tpn/winsdk-10/tree/master/Include/10.0.16299.0/shared

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T10:32:16Z

Using the same tricks, it is now possible to rebuild sel_ldr for windows-i686 with MinGW.

It means that it is now possible to rebuild the loader for all the DæmonEngine platforms using CMake (including the related nacl_bootstrap_helper when needed), on macOS for the macOS loader, on Linux for all other platforms.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T11:22:01Z

In fact, only the single file macamd64.inc is enough. One can put it in include-hax/winsdk/ and it works.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T11:30:54Z

Even better, those two obvious macros are enough:

push_reg macro Reg
	push Reg
	.pushreg Reg
	endm

alloc_stack macro Size
	sub rsp, Size
	.allocstack Size
	endm

So I provided a file named include-hax/fake_masm/macamd64.inc that just contains that, and when using MinGW, JWasm is used with include-hax/fake_masm as include directory.

On MSVC with original MASM, it is meant to use system's macamd64.inc, but this is untested.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T11:33:02Z

So this repository can now cross-compile sel_ldr for Windows using MinGW on Linux out of the box.

illwieckz · 2025-04-08T12:03:26Z

I added a commit to statically link the sel_ldr binary, unfortunately it prints this warning:

transport_common.cc:(.text+0x78c): avertissement : Using 'gethostbyname' in statically linked
 applications requires at runtime the shared libraries from the glibc version used for linking

I don't know if that's a problem for us.

illwieckz · 2025-12-10T10:55:23Z

I removed everything that wasn't CMake, other things like the MinGW compatibility code will be submitted in a separate PR.

illwieckz · 2025-12-10T11:01:20Z

The CMake code already includes stuff for MinGW:

Make it possible to build the Windows executables with MinGW #7

So this part references files that aren't there yet.

slipher · 2025-12-10T12:05:27Z

I removed everything that wasn't CMake, other things like the MinGW compatibility code will be submitted in a separate PR.

Thanks. I will continue to use the Scons build since I am interested in running the tests, among other things. So I won't have to review this super closely since it is only CMake files which can't break the other build.

Are you really using all those Daemon *.cmake files, like Compiler.cmake and SourceGenerator.cmake? I don't see any use of daemon_embed_files for example.

illwieckz · 2025-12-10T12:41:05Z

Are you really using all those Daemon *.cmake files, like Compiler.cmake and SourceGenerator.cmake? I don't see any use of daemon_embed_files for example.

No, it's just meant to be kept in sync with the made-reusable code from:

cmake: make DaemonPlatform, Architecture, Compiler, etc. autonomous and reusable Daemon#1641

See d281e6a

illwieckz added 3 commits April 7, 2025 20:15

cmake: add the DaemonPlatform CMake framework

eae22c1

cmake: add MinGW CMake toolchains for cross-compilation

7420763

cmake: add CMake scripts to build sel_ldr and nacl_helper_bootstrap

d43006a

illwieckz marked this pull request as draft April 7, 2025 18:42

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Make it possible to build the Windows executables with MinGW #7

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Make it work on 16k page size Arm kernel #8

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Building the NativeClient loader as part of the engine build? DaemonEngine/Daemon#1879

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cmake: discard extra sections linking nacl_helper_bootstrap

d807a6e

See d281e6a

Write a CMakeLists.txt to build the NaCl loader #2

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