Crosscompiling for ARM926EJ-s device with hardware float operations support

Question

I need to cross compile c++ code for an embedded device with the specs shown below with hardware float operations support. Cross compiling from Ubuntu 20.04 without hardware float support is easy, i can just run arm-linux-gnueabi-g++ -marm -mcpu=arm926ej-s -mfloat-abi=soft -mfpu=vfp and it will work. When running with -mfloat-abi=hard I get:

/usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/9/../../../../arm-linux-gnueabi/bin/ld: error: ArmSimulateStartStop uses VFP register arguments, /usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/9/crtbegin.o does not
/usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/9/../../../../arm-linux-gnueabi/bin/ld: failed to merge target specific data of file /usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/9/crtbegin.o
/usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/9/../../../../arm-linux-gnueabi/bin/ld: error: ArmSimulateStartStop uses VFP register arguments, /usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/9/crtend.o does not
/usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/9/../../../../arm-linux-gnueabi/bin/ld: failed to merge target specific data of file /usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/9/crtend.o
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [Makefile:12: CrossCompile] Error 1

I know this processor supports hardware float support, it says in the arm documentation. I downloaded buildroot and crosstool but I don't know how to configure them right for my device hardware. How can I cross compile with VFP support?

Device specs:

~ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
Processor       : ARM926EJ-S rev 5 (v5l) 
BogoMIPS        : 197.83 
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult edsp java 
CPU implementer : 0x41 
CPU architecture: 5TEJ 
CPU variant     : 0x0 
CPU part        : 0x926 
CPU revision    : 5

~ $ cat /proc/version 
Linux version 2.6.36 (owzafs@PCOWZAFS) (gcc version 4.4.1 (Sourcery G++ Lite 2010q1-202) ) #464 PREEMPT Thu Apr 19 13:50:56 CEST 2018 

Edit: According to GCC doc: Using -mfloat-abi=hard with VFP coprocessors is not supported. Use -mfloat-abi=softfp with the appropriate -mfpu option to allow the compiler to generate code that makes use of the hardware floating-point capabilities for these CPUs.

I used mfloat-abi=softfp and the code compiles, however, when running the binary on the device, I get Illegal instruction (and nothing else).

Answer 1

Looks like the objects crtbegin.o and crtend.o do not match with the main line build.

I feel that the best method is to recompile crtbegin.s and crtend.s needs to be recompiled with the same setting -mfloat-abi=hard, create the seperate crtbegin.o and crtend.o and retry.