2.1. Obtaining the OpenRISC 1000 Tool Chain

The OpenCores website provides three mechanisms for obtaining the tool chain.

The simplest method is to use a virtual Ubuntu image running under VMware. Details of this can be found at www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/or1k/vmware_image.
To install the tools native on a Linux platform, OpenCores provides a script, which will download, patch, build and install all the tools. Details of this can be found at www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/or1k/gnu_toolchain_port.
Finally there are a set of basic instructions for building the individual tools. These are somewhat out of date and consigned to a legacy web page (see www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/or1k/gnu_toolchain_port_old). These can be slightly out-of-date, and are usefully supplemented by Rich D'Addio's Meansoffreedom (MOF) website.

This application note recognizes that a virtual image or a pre-packaged script may not provide the detailed control over tools, or access to the latest versions required by some users. It brings together the legacy instructions from the OpenCores website with the extensions from MOF and updates them for 2008.

The precise details vary depending on the environment used. The examples given below were all verified on a workstation using GCC 4.3.0 under Fedora 9 Linux. The procedure should be very similar under other Linux versions.