Building a cross compiler on Windows 10

Compiling Rockbox on Windows 10 is a lot easier using the new linux subsystem than using a VM or cygwin.

Setup Ubuntu environment in Windows 10

Install Windows Subsystem for Unix

Enable developer mode and then check the Windows Subsystem for Unix option. More instructions:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-install-bash-shell-command-line-windows-10

Install Ubuntu from the Windows Store

Open the Windows store, search for Ubuntu, and then install it or a similar linux distribution. Choose a username and password when prompted

Install build dependencies

From the Ubuntu console, type:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install git build-essential texinfo bison libtool autoconf flex zip libtool-bin libgmp3-dev

Checkout the rockbox source

git clone git://git.rockbox.org/rockbox

This will create a local checkout of rockbox on your Windows hard drive. We'll access it later to get binaries.

Build the cross compiler

After the above command, navigate to the rockbox folder you just checked out (cd rockbox). Then type:

cd rockbox

sudo tools/rockboxdev.sh

Type the password you selected and then choose which compilers you want (probably ARM). MIPS does not currently build under Windows.

This will run for 10-30 minutes depending on how fast your computer is. Disabling Windows defender will speed up compiling if you are impatient.

Compile Rockbox

Find Rockbox folder

At this point you have the dev tools setup and you can compile rockbox like on any other platform. However, once built, your binaries will appear in a subfolder of:

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages

In this folder will be a CanonicalGroupLimited folder containing your local Ubuntu file system. By default rockbox will have been checked out to rootfs\home\USERNAME\rockbox\ where USERNAME is the name you selected above. Note that while Windows can read these folders, editing files in Windows software may corrupt them, so do not write to the Ubuntu file system from Windows.

More information is available here:

https://www.howtogeek.com/261383/how-to-access-your-ubuntu-bash-files-in-windows-and-your-windows-system-drive-in-bash/

-- MichaelGiacomelli - 08 Jul 2018

Build Simulator

To build the simulator as stand-alone Windows application, you have to install MinGW (windows cross compiler), and compile the SDL library from source. (Note: Installing the SDL 1.2 developement library from your distro should work, but will not allow statical linking, i.e. you always need the SDL.dll file aside your simulator.exe.)

Step-by-step instructions:

• install the windows cross compiler: sudo apt-get install mingw-w64
• download the SDL 1.2 source code from here: https://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php
• extract sourcecode to your "Download"-Folder (or wherever you want)
• back in Ubuntu, go to your download folder, e.g. cd /mnt/c/Users/totoro/Downloads/SDL-1.2.15/
• prepare the SDL compile: ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32
• when ready, compile: make
• introduce it to your system: sudo make install
• help rockbox finding sdl-config: sudo ln -s /usr/local/cross-tools/i386-mingw32/bin/sdl-config /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-sdl-config

Now you can compile the simulator:

• enter your build directory and run somewhere/rockbox/configure
• select platform, enter "A" (advanced), "S" (simulator) and "W" (Win32 cross-compile)
• make it!