cross compile Python to Linux-ARM

[Nick Craig-Wood]

jefm <jef.mangelschots at gmail.com> wrote:
>  We are looking to use Python on an embedded Linux ARM system.
>  What I gather from googling the subject is that it is not that
>  straight forward (a fair amount of patching & hacking).
>  Nobody out there that has done it claims it is easy, which makes me
>  worried.
> 
>  I haven't seen a description on porting Python 2.6 or 3.0 yet. Is it
>  much different than for the earlier versions (the latest I have seem
>  is Python 2.5).
> 
>  Does it matter whether Python is cross compiled to Linux 2.4 or Linux
>  2.6 ?
> 
>  Can anyone point to a howto they know works well ?

I gave up trying to cross compile and just used the python from debian
ARM which works very well.

>  What are the chances of an 'officially' supported ARM-Linux Python
>  distribution ?

Depending on your definition of "officially" and "supported" :-

  http://packages.debian.org/lenny/arm/python2.5/download

>  (or is it safer to wait for industrial spec Intel Atom boards to avoid
>  the cross compilation altogether ?

We often compile stuff on our 200 MHz TS-7200 boards.  We NFS mount
the build environment, type make then go out for lunch ;-)

For builds of our application (which embeds python) we normally use
the headers and libraries from the debian ARM packages and cross
compile on something a big beefier.

>  How is the performance and stability of a working Python on an
>  embedded ARM-Linux system ?

Works very well.

>  Does cross compiling Python automatically include the standard
>  Python library, or is that yet another adventure ?

If you use the debian compiled version then you get the lot.

-- 
Nick Craig-Wood <nick at craig-wood.com> -- http://www.craig-wood.com/nick