Cross Compiling for Debian Based Linux (original) (raw)

To build for a target architecture different than the host (e.g. using x64 to build for ARM), you'll need to do the following, in addition to the setup under How to Contribute:

One-Time Setup

  1. Install build toolchain and chroot/rootfs prerequisites:
    sudo apt-get install qemu qemu-user-static debootstrap gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf g++-arm-linux-gnueabihf
  2. Create a chroot/rootfs for the target architecture:
    sudo qemu-debootstrap --arch=armhf --variant=minbase xenial rootfs
  3. Install libx11-dev on the chroot/rootfs:
    sudo chroot rootfs apt-get install -y libx11-dev

Build

Because cross-compiling isn't officially supported by the Visual Studio Code team, some workarounds are required to make the app build correctly:

  1. Point to the target toolchain on the build host:
    export CC=$(which arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc)
    export CXX="$(which arm-linux-gnueabihf-g++) -L$(pwd)/rootfs/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/"
    note the -L linker argument pointing to the absolute path of libx11 on the chroot/rootfs
  2. Tell npm you want to cross-compile native modules for ARM:
    export npm_config_arch=arm
  3. Build VS Code and create a .deb file (for easier installation on the target device) as usual:
    npm i
    npm run gulp vscode-linux-arm-min
    npm run gulp vscode-linux-arm-build-deb