How to install a toolchain and QtSDK for the Eee Note EA-800:

(Variations on terms for google: ea800 eeenote tool chain)

By mp035 (Mark Pointing), written 18 March 2011

Updated  18 September 2011

How to install a toolchain and Qt SDK for the Eee Note EA-800

First of all, thanks to pbarrett from the Tablet PC Review Forum for setting up this site, and the effort in sharing the workings of the Eee Note, Trey Weaver who provided the howto for the beagle board, which answered most of my questions, and wahaha432 for the crosstool-ng .config file I based my config on.

I used this page to set up crosstool-ng. The Tablet PC Review Forum thread is here, and Trey Weaver’s is here.

If you want to build from source for your operating system, you should check out this page (http://freenote.peterbarrette.com/pages/build_eeenote_toolchain_from_source.html).

This howto was written and tested using an IA32 install of xubuntu.

Because compiling the toolchain and SDK is a pain, and requires patching and compiling a kernel for the EA800, I have provided deb archives of the resulting binary toolchain and SDK, suitable for use on i386 and AMD64 Ubnutu linux systems. They can be downloaded here: 32bit or 64bit , or use the wget lines in the list of instructions below.

If you are using M$ Windows, I would strongly suggest setting aside 40GB of your hard disk and installing Ubuntu, or if you don’t need the bells and whistles, my favorite distro, xubuntu.  The install CD will take care of all of your partitioning for you.  If you are using an Intel M@c, I would suggest getting your hands on VMware fusion, and installing xubuntu on a VM.  Intel M@c hardware, and OSX is much better suited to virtualisation, which is why I recommend VMware over a native install.  

To install the toolchain and SDK on 32 bit linux systems, open a terminal, and enter the lines below.  NOTE: if you are not using a debian meta-distribution (ie. NOT debian, ubuntu, mint or similar) you will need to use an rpm package command to get Qt creator. But if you’re already using an rpm based distro, you’ll already know how to get Qt Creator :)  If you have questions, or problems, I am registered as mp035 at http://forum.tabletpcreview.com so PM me, or try markpointing@optusnet.com.au.  I rarely check my optusnet email so don’t get cranky if it takes me a few days to reply.

Install commands:

cd

sudo apt-get install qtcreator

wget freenote.peterbarrette.com/downloads/devkit/eeenote-toolchain-i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i eeenote-toolchain-i386.deb


OR for 64 bit systems:

cd

sudo apt-get install qtcreator

wget freenote.peterbarrette.com/downloads/devkit/eeenote-toolchain-amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i eeenote-toolchain-amd64.deb


Once you have installed Qt Creator, you will need to tell it where the toolchain is. 

Tools->Options->Qt4->Qt Versions 

As you can see from the screenshot , the libraries are recognized by Qt Creator as a Desktop build, so the project build folder will have the same name as your x86 build if you choose to test your build on x86.  Just alter the build folder names during setup.

Click Apply, then OK, and you’re done!

If you want to test your toolchain, download this project which should compile, and run (with the appropriate libraries) on your eeenote ea-800.